Nintendo’s website is saying the Wii U spring system update is available now. But it isn’t! So what does this mean for our Wii U loving readers?

We’re not quite sure but it could mean that the system update will become available tonight, possibly as late as midnight. It had been rumored that it wouldn’t roll out until Thursday and maybe it will wait until 12:00am on the dot. Nintendo’s investors meeting will take place in Japan at 8PM tonight (central time) so they could release the system update after that meeting. Either

I wouldn’t understand why Nintendo would post that the update is available now on their home page if they didn’t plan to make it available shortly. Note that Nintendo’s home page wasn’t listing older system updates. This blurb about the “latest system update available now” appears to have been added in the last day or two. I remember it mentioning the early March update for a while but I believe it eventually got replaced on their home page by something else. Its possible that they’ve put this up now just to have it in place whenever the update does hit.

Keep in mind that if the update is supposedly scheduled for Thursday that it is already Thursday morning in Japan. Perhaps the rest of the world will be lucky and get it a little bit earlier due to that time difference.

The update speeds up loading times, adds the ability to boot directly to the Wii menu, among other items. This should point to the Virtual Console becoming available tomorrow or on Friday.

UPDATE: Maybe the update (along with Virtual Console games the day after) are closer than we thought. The eShop now has listings for all eight VC launch titles. These have been added today, probably to prepare for the update. Its looking more and more like the update will be coming later tonight.

SECOND UPDATE: The update is live now! Download it yourself and check out a list of everything it does and changes.