So, as with the case of the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo have confirmed that their forthcoming Wii U home console will be region-locked; only allowing you to play games from the same region that you bought your hardware in.
Translated from Japanese gaming rag Famitsu – “What can be played on the Wii U is restricted by a region-lock feature; software not sold in the same region cannot be played.” are the words of disappointment uttered from the pie-hole of a Nintendo Exec who clearly thinks we don’t deserve to have nice things.
Anyway, at least over here in the UK, we’ll always have the great value for money that the RRP suggests right?
The Nintendo Wii U arrives in North America on November 18th and in Europe on November 30th of this year.
This upsets me.
I’m moving from Canada to New Zealand in February, and was hoping to grab the Wii U for $350 CAD here before moving. Being region locked, any games I buy in NZ wouldn’t work on it. Thus, I would need to buy the console in NZ for $570 NZD, which comes to $460 CAD. Uggggh.
Total shit news. I guess we will only be able to remember as the glorious days of Nintendo not region locking their shit. Beautiful days of Ouendan, Jump Superstars, and Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland.
Hopefully the Wii U will be as easy to mod as the Wii. It’s nice having a hard drive with all the Wii games I want on it. Fatal Frame IV (JP translated to english), Pandora’s Tower and Disaster: Day of Crisis (EU), and also getting to play Pikmin 2, Xenoblade, and The Last Story long before they came to the US.
@Joe Cammisa, Holy shit, you got Fatal Frame IV?
…
…how do you mod a Wii?
@Zak, Really easy to do, actually. Just google on how to soft mod your Wii. I did it with some files I downloaded and put on an SD card and I used the game Tales of Symphonia for the Wii to load a special save file to let me boot the programs to soft mod it.
Then grab a USB hard drive and load up some ISOs on there. I’ve helped a few friends out already (even one or two by mail), but only for games we already own and for games we imported, obviously. :D
@Joe Cammisa, The Fatal Frame series is one of my favorite game series, and I was disappointed that 4 never made it to Western shores. As such, I may have to look into this. Thanks for the tip!