What is the easiest way to transfer stuff from the Wii to the Wii U?

The Game Room
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I have sold items online, saved every penny, and bought a refurbished Wii U so the family can play Breath of the Wild. It’s a whole big surprise for my kids to find out about on Father’s Day. Breath of the Wild is the gift they don’t know about and are going to give to me. Their faces when they say, “But we don’t have the system to play it on!” is going to be great. I have the Wii U tucked away in our bedroom.

Anyway, I loaded up the Wii U, tested it. I installed Breath of the Wild, which runs just fine.

I think I made an account or something with Nintendo when I set it up.

I want to copy the kids and my Mii’s and any Wii saved game data over to the Wii U.

What is the easiest method for this?

Note: I only played Zelda for 5 minutes, but I have to say that the system actually seems quite nice. I’m obviously way behind the times. I mainly play PC for my gaming. Steam is my friend.

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How to Transfer Content from a Wii to a Wii U

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Thanks, it worked quite well. I wasn’t sure I had the SD card that would work, but I did and the process was pretty easy.

I…guess it is fine that my Wii got wiped of its data for this. Why was that necessary? I don’t really care, but is there a reason?

4

Hmmm. I’m not sure about that. Let me consult one of my experts.

ETA: Blue Elk says he doesn’t recall his Wii losing any data when he got his Wii U up and running. Sorry man; can’t help with this one.

5

It was in their warning. Warning: Transferred data is permanently deleted from the Wii console. Once you have transferred data to the Wii U console, it cannot be transferred back to a Wii console.

That is what it says online and in the game. Kind of blows, but that is how they did it.

6

It’s because a lot of users would have purchased and downloaded games to their wiis. Not wiping it would mean you got to keep it and play it on your Wii U and also possible market your Wii as containing a bunch of games and selling it on.

How difficult it would have been for Nintendo to separate out game data and downloaded games I do not know, but they chose or were forced to not include that option.

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The thing is, they did separate them. My understanding is they do not all come along for the ride.

I got the Wii U for my Zelda needs and the Wii was a gift from my dad. I don’t mind, but this all is a good example of why I like Steam. Once I have a game there, I believe I should have it for life. Does Steam block me from reinstalling games on a new computer? Does it limit my licenses? If so, can you delist a computer and keep your games for the rest of your life?

Hard to believe, but I still use a 2012 laptop and have really only used Steam on it.

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