September 19th, 2012

Wii U’s web browser doesn’t support Flash, but it does support HTML5

28 Comments
Wii U Web Browser

Nintendo has confirmed the Wii U’s web browser does not support Flash. It does, however, support HTML5, which is replacing most of Flash’s features in modern web browsers. There’s also support for tabbed browsing and the ability to scroll through a web page by tilting the GamePad forward and backward.

(via nintendoworldreport.com)

  • Jairo
  • Timothy

    YouTube videos on Wii U here we go!!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/tyrell.jones.9 Tyrell Jones

    That’s good. Flash does crash often, so this was a good a choice. Even though I’ve got my laptop and phone for web browsing its still good to know this.

  • http://twitter.com/MysteryCJGamer Casey Fugate

    Damn it!
    Now I can’t go on newground on Wii U!
    (it lags on Wii though…)

    • http://www.nintendoworlds.com/members/turbopikachu.22921/ TurboPikachu

      It lags because the Wii has laughable 88MB of RAM, and runs a 4-year-old version of Flash (Flash Lite 3.1, with features from Flash 8 and 9) on a 4-year-old version of Opera (9). Funny thing though despite those inferiorites, it’s still superior to the PS3′s NetFront browser, and the 360 is just now getting Internet Explorer.

      As much as I want Newgrounds, and all the video sites to work on my video game systems, I’m still fine using my netbook PC for those things…

  • Tylos

    That tilting to go through sites and stuff looks like it’ll be really annoying if there isnt a way to turn it on and off…

    • http://www.facebook.com/tyrell.jones.9 Tyrell Jones

      Knowing Ninten, they’ll input an option to turn it off

    • Hybrilynx

      you cant turn off automatic refreshing in a 3ds browser. thats annoying. so if i wanted codes or idk just something, it will have to reload whatever the page was all over again.

    • http://www.facebook.com/tyrell.jones.9 Tyrell Jones

      Ok?

    • Kyle Korbek

      Ofcourse it’s going to have an option to turn it on and off.
      What sort of a question is that?

  • Hybrilynx

    as long as it supports javascript and css3 then i would be happy to make wii u browser games. maybe not happy, but bored enough to do it at least for me. like what im doing now for my 3ds browser.

  • Carlos

    Great plan, Flash use more memory than Html5 and Javscript— So that brings a better browsing experience

  • Paper Mario

    Off Topic: Guys I Need Your Insight. I waited untill now to preorder the wii u deluxe do u think i will be able to get one at launch without preorder

    • Game Master

      Probaly not (just like with the Wii on 11-9-06) you shoud of preorderd

    • DanDroid

      Couldn’t hurt to try and yes it is a very possible to get one.

      If your going to get it at launch, look for midnight releases and make sure to be the first or twentyth person on line ( just get there early) no doubt there will be those hardcore campers who start camping days before it launches.

      There are also those nobody random game stores who buy the system just to sell it at a maked up price usually 100 to 200 bucks more. it’s called supply and demand. Only consider this if your really desperate.

      All in all, yes it is very likely if your determined. Good luck! I also didn’t preorder and didn’t realize how brutal the deadline was.

    • Tails the Foxhound

      I tried to preorder the Deluxe on Friday at Gamestop and it was gone already, however my local Gamestop said they’d upgrade me to the Deluxe when they were able to acquire more Deluxes of preorder. That’s probably your best bet for anywhere near launch day.

    • Paper Mario

      Acutually Today i lucked out at FYE (Located in US) They let me preorder a deluxe not before scaring me to death because the cashier typed in the SKU wrong im guessing and had to talk to the manager

  • http://www.facebook.com/8xBIT Thomas Reifenberg

    Why doesn’t it support flash? These days, that is like a requirement. Plus, surfing the web on your couch usually means, go straight to youtube, which runs on flash.

    • http://profiles.google.com/daniel.quasar Daniel Thompson

      Youtube has been running a HTML5 version of itself for a while now. You can switch to it and Flash is slowing losing it’s hold on online video around the Web.

    • http://www.nintendoworlds.com/members/turbopikachu.22921/ TurboPikachu

      Though, that’s still in alpha stage… I’m on the trial version on IE, FireFox, Chrome, and Opera. It’s best on Chrome, but it’s still buggy anyways on all browsers, constantly losing video/audio sync, and playback controls often lock up…
      HTML5 needs work, and I’m afraid it won’t be too great on any system…

  • Bill

    Here is a video of the browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=gzh053rMXdo

  • hero

    Both Flash and Silverlight are considered by most developers “dead technologies” that are being replaced by the new W3C HTML5 / CSS3 standards. I don’t blame Nintendo for this move.

  • Heefe

    Same reason why I never would buy an Ipad… no Flash.

    • nmlss

      Welcome to the 00s.

  • frog with scorpion on its back

    flash is blouted and slow vs html5 and uses a lot of power to run thats why its so un supported in mobile devices its a power drain

  • http://twitter.com/Omarsonic9 Omar Ahmed

    Who needs flash if we have youtube? =)
    We can also play javagames.

  • Tails the Foxhound

    As long as I have some kind of (reliable) way to view videos I’m cool. It makes browsing the web pretty pointless to me if I can’t do that.

  • jdub

    The wii could use flash. Grr