Wii U discs have a high failure rate?

[86houdini]

Has anyone else noticed this? I have around 40 Wii U games, of those 40, 5 don't play anymore, despite having no scratches and being bought new. In comparison, I have around 80 PS2 games, none of which has had this issue. I have about 50 Wii games, none of which have had this issue. I know that Nintendo used a proprietary type of DVD for the Wii U, might be why?

The games that have failed are:
Mario Kart 8 - Got with the console bundle
Monster Hunter 3 - Bought new
Arkham Asylum - bought used
Twilight Princess - bought new
Black Ops 2 - bought new

If you're a collector like me, this is something to be concerned about. I'm selling off my collection before more fail. For example, I wanted to run some Zombies in Blops 2, havent played it in years, it constantly errors out despite being in perfect condition, seems like a disc rot issue to me.

 

[Deleted member 571007]

Yeah, Wii U discs have a pretty bad problem when it comes to that. What's even worse, is it's completely random and inconsistent. I personally switched to all-digital when I still had my Wii U, but that answer to a collector is more of an insult than a suggestion to fix.

Don't know what to tell you other than to brace for it if it happens tbh.

 

[android_advance]

Back when my Wii U was working and not having the 106-0103 errors, I got a used Mario 3D world from Gamestop and despite no scratches on the disc my Wii U would not read it. I got a replacement disc and had the same problem. My other discs at the time worked though.

 

[V10lator]

All discs fail at some point. They dislike UV (sun) light for example: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot

Now Wii U doesn't use modified DVDs but bluerays. So to get a fair comparision you should compare with some other system using bluerays, not with the PS2 (DVD).

A bit of googling shows bluerays in general have high disc rot issues (sadly all I find is in german, so won't link it).

 

[86houdini]

Yeah, Wii U discs have a pretty bad problem when it comes to that. What's even worse, is it's completely random and inconsistent. I personally switched to all-digital when I still had my Wii U, but that answer to a collector is more of an insult than a suggestion to fix.

Don't know what to tell you other than to brace for it if it happens tbh.

I ripped my games and I'm switching to digital only. It's an L for sure but I can still play everything.

All discs fail at some point. They dislike UV (sun) light for example: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot

Now Wii U doesn't use modified DVDs but bluerays. So to get a fair comparision you should compare with some other system using bluerays, not with the PS2 (DVD).

A bit of googling shows bluerays in general have high disc rot issues (sadly all I find is in german, so won't link it).

I have like 50 PS3 games and have never had a game fail. The Wii U is the only system I've had this happen. Even the few Sega CD games I own play fine.

 

[Deleted member 571007]

I ripped my games and I'm switching to digital only. It's an L for sure but I can still play everything.

If you do that then I'd also recommend getting an extrenal Drive as the Wii U's NAND also wears out rather quickly. So to avoid owning a glorified paper-weight, the best course of action is to reduce the amount of writes you're making to the NAND (I.E: Downloading / Installing to External Drive(s) instead of the NAND).

 

[KleinesSinchen]

When pressed discs fail early it is – in my experience – a bad pressing affecting the whole batch. This is why searches in this regard might bring up certain movie titles. I see optical discs as rather stable over time (of course this implies careful handling as well as optimal storage) and way better than their reputation. Multi-layer discs might be more prone to errors, but Wii U discs are single layer.
At the end all storage media will fail. Not a question if, but a question when they will. Comparing the failure I've encountered in my life for various types of data storage:

• Floppy disks → Beyond good and evil. They don't last. Period.
• HDDs → Rather mature and stable technology. If they don't fail early, they seem to last 10+ years. I've had multiple HDDs fail though
• Flash memory (SD cards, USB thumb sticks and the like) → Beyond good and evil. No matter if cheap or well known brand, I don't trust them as far as I can throw. I've lost track of the number of these which suddenly and completely failed for no reason.
• MASK ROM → Zero failures until now.
• SSD for PCs → Seem much more reliable than the removable simple flash counterparts. I've not enough experience with them yet to say something convincing.
• CD/DVD/BD (pressed)→
  • Two CDs from the same pressing failing, but only due to copy protection
  • One CD with a strange mark inside failing
  • One DVD without visible damage where I suspect overheating by the previous owner (attic storage?)
  • None of those examples became unreadable up to now. They could be backed up. Sometimes multiple reading drives are required. I own way over 1000 discs (audio CD, DVD video, BD video, PC games, PS1/2, GC, Wii, Wii U) ranging from the 1980s to brand new with zero showing irrecoverable disc rot.
• CD/DVD (burned) → Garbage grade media repeatedly failed over the last two decades, often within few months. Good quality CD-R and DVD±R are still strong after 20 years. Not yet enough time passed to estimate BD-R

BDs might be a little more vulnerable because of the higher data density. I don't really know.

At the end all that stays is my signature: Backup your data! Else you will lose it at some point.

 

[CrazySquid]

Has anyone else noticed this? I have around 40 Wii U games, of those 40, 5 don't play anymore, despite having no scratches and being bought new. In comparison, I have around 80 PS2 games, none of which has had this issue. I have about 50 Wii games, none of which have had this issue. I know that Nintendo used a proprietary type of DVD for the Wii U, might be why?

The games that have failed are:
Mario Kart 8 - Got with the console bundle
Monster Hunter 3 - Bought new
Arkham Asylum - bought used
Twilight Princess - bought new
Black Ops 2 - bought new

If you're a collector like me, this is something to be concerned about. I'm selling off my collection before more fail. For example, I wanted to run some Zombies in Blops 2, havent played it in years, it constantly errors out despite being in perfect condition, seems like a disc rot issue to me.

I don't have that much of physical games (only around 10), but I tested older games like Nintendo Land that came with my launch Wii U from 2012, and still works fine.
Tried ZombiU and works fine, I'm now playing Bayonetta which I bought in 2014, and still works fine. Same for Splatoon...
Maybe the ambient where you live affects your discs health, also how you store it, although I don't do anything particular, just keep them in their stock box store in a place where sun doesn't reach (furniture).
Also my temperatures are not the best, since it's pretty humid from where I live and temperatures varies from being to hot, or sometimes cold. So idk.

 

[Chaoticus]

I have had a couple copies of Minecraft that were mint Do this to me. Pretty damned frustrating when you don't even see hairline scratches on the disk..... Thankfully I have only those two fail.

 

[86houdini]

When pressed discs fail early it is – in my experience – a bad pressing affecting the whole batch. This is why searches in this regard might bring up certain movie titles. I see optical discs as rather stable over time (of course this implies careful handling as well as optimal storage) and way better than their reputation. Multi-layer discs might be more prone to errors, but Wii U discs are single layer.
At the end all storage media will fail. Not a question if, but a question when they will. Comparing the failure I've encountered in my life for various types of data storage:

• Floppy disks → Beyond good and evil. They don't last. Period.
• HDDs → Rather mature and stable technology. If they don't fail early, they seem to last 10+ years. I've had multiple HDDs fail though
• Flash memory (SD cards, USB thumb sticks and the like) → Beyond good and evil. No matter if cheap or well known brand, I don't trust them as far as I can throw. I've lost track of the number of these which suddenly and completely failed for no reason.
• MASK ROM → Zero failures until now.
• SSD for PCs → Seem much more reliable than the removable simple flash counterparts. I've not enough experience with them yet to say something convincing.
• CD/DVD/BD (pressed)→
  • Two CDs from the same pressing failing, but only due to copy protection
  • One CD with a strange mark inside failing
  • One DVD without visible damage where I suspect overheating by the previous owner (attic storage?)
  • None of those examples became unreadable up to now. They could be backed up. Sometimes multiple reading drives are required. I own way over 1000 discs (audio CD, DVD video, BD video, PC games, PS1/2, GC, Wii, Wii U) ranging from the 1980s to brand new with zero showing irrecoverable disc rot.
• CD/DVD (burned) → Garbage grade media repeatedly failed over the last two decades, often within few months. Good quality CD-R and DVD±R are still strong after 20 years. Not yet enough time passed to estimate BD-R

BDs might be a little more vulnerable because of the higher data density. I don't really know.

At the end all that stays is my signature: Backup your data! Else you will lose it at some point.

The only discs I have had fail have been the Wii U ones, they all just sit on the same shelf, I've got CDs my dad bought in the early 90s that play fine still. I think disc rot is not a big issue but I do find it strange so many Wii U discs failure.

 

[Marc_LFD]

That's a surprise to me considering Wii U discs are proprietary Blu-ray Discs (25GB). Not good. :-/

At least the games will always be digitally available should the discs become rotten.