Wii U day-one patch will be required until early 2013

Downloading the Wii U's sizable day-one patch, which brings services like the eShop and Miiverse to the console, will be a requirement for all new consoles until early 2013, Reggie Fils-Aime told Gamasutra.

Fils-Aime said it the patch won't be installed on the device's firmware for a few months, and characterized its necessity saying that Nintendo wanted to deliver the "best product available" at launch.

"Nintendo developers want to make sure that the very best product is available to consumers," he said. "That creates a dynamic where our developers are working on elements until the very last point possible. That's why the system update was required on day one - and this is quite similar to what's happened with other consumer electronic products."

The patch, which took Polygon's staff about an hour and 45 minutes to download and install, has been a focal point of the new console's criticism.

Last week, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said apologized for the patch, saying he feels "very sorry for the fact that purchasers of Wii U have to experience a network update which takes such a long time, and that there are the services which were not available at the hardware's launch."

Fils-Aime also said that the company is confident that it will be able to handle the influx of new customers during the holiday season.

"Come Christmas morning, the Wii U will be available globally," he said. "We know there will be a lot of consumers utilizing their Wii U for the very first time. So we're working very hard to make sure the initial customer experience is a good one."

You can read or watch our Will U console review here.