Get out your To Do lists! You have something really important to put on there for March 27, 2011. If you get a 3DS, you’re going to need to go online that day to perform a system update. Yes, you’re going to be paying $249.99 for a video game system and it won’t be at its best unless you immediately update it. Welcome to the firmware generation. At least you get something good from it.

The first 3DS update does two things…

Nintendo confirmed during its third quarter financial results briefing that the first 3DS software update will arrive in late May for all territories. It will include the Nintendo eShop, internet browser and the ability to transfer DSiWare games from a DSi to a 3DS. Nintendo also brought up features that will arrive in later system updates.

Wii owners running the Homebrew Channel on their systems are going to want to ignore Nintendo’s latest official note requesting that they update their firmware. Nintendo released Wii Menu 4.3 on June 21, 2010, and it kills the Homebrew Channel. In fact, that’s all the Wii Menu 4.3 System Update will do.

Nintendo officially confirms this itself on its Customer Service support page entry dealing with Wii Menu 4.3. The latest update systematically removes any kind of homebrew or unauthorized files. So much for the fan-patch for Fatal Frame IV! If you do go through with the install and get an “Error:004″ message, that’s the Wii’s way of letting you know you’re trying to run homebrew and it won’t let you…

This update means you no longer have to worry about running out of hard drive space if you own an Xbox 360 Arcade or the discontinued 20GB Xbox 360. You can connect any USB flash drive to the console and store demos, saved games and full game installs.

Xbox 360 fans will be pleased to know that more save options, other than Microsoft’s Memory Units and hard drives, will soon be available. Joystiq has discovered that Microsoft is working on an Xbox 360 system update that will allow users to save data to USB flash drive storage devices. The update is expected to arrive sometime in Spring 2010, which means pretty soon.

The USB drive must be between 1gb and 16gb to work with the Xbox 360, and the Xbox 360 will have to format the device and perform a compatibility check to make sure it will work with the system and saved data. You will also be able to set up the USB drive to only use part of it for Xbox 360 related data, if you’d like.

As for what kind of data will be able to be saved to the USB storage units, well, it sounds like any kind…

Today many Wii owners saw a little flashing light on their consoles alerting them that a system update was available to download. The Wii System Menu 4.2 update was created in order to wipe unauthorized files from consoles. There is a chance that the update would essentially brick the Wii because some files on modded consoles attach themselves to the files that makes the Wii operate. Nintendo’s fight against piracy has good intentions but unfortunately the update has shut down the wrong people. Nintendo’s forums have been flooded with complaints from owners of un-modded Wii’s complaining the update has killed their console.

If you haven’t updated your Wii yet, you should hold tight before downloading. However if you are one of the unlucky honest owners of a shiny white brick, Nintendo is willing to solve your problem free of charge…

There’s a new Xbox 360 system update available today, and everyone must install it. Well, not everyone, I guess. If you don’t have your Xbox 360 hooked up to the internet, it isn’t mandatory for you. But everyone else who does will either be asked to download and install once you sign into Xbox Live, or once you start up your Xbox 360 if you’re already signed in. Sadly, you’re not immediately getting anything for your momentary inconvenience.

>Major Nelson has reported, and Gamers Digest has confirmed, that this system update is purely routine maintence and system preparation. As many Xbox 360 owners know, Microsoft has promised support for Facebook, Last.FM and Twitter by the end of 2009. This system update is designed to fascilitate those updates. So don’t bother looking for anything new once the updating is done.

Initially, this latest system update caused some problems with Xbox Live…