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Wii Now Confirmed to Not be Region-Free

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the party's-over dept.

legoburner writes "Contrary to an earlier Slashdot story, Nintendo have now stated that the Wii will not be region free. The original claim came from Nintendo America, but Nintendo UK have gone on record denying the claims. They put it rather bluntly, stating: 'We are region-locked,' and that Nintendo America made a mistake by claiming otherwise."

5 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. Direct quote from Perrin Kaplan? by clu76 · · Score: 5, Informative
    I think it would be helpful if there was a direct quote from Perrin Kaplan. The best I could find is this:
    "Like the Nintendo DS, the Wii will be able to play games from other regions, such as Japan, without any restriction. Kaplan implied there might be a region lock that publishers would be able to flip on, but it doesn't sound like the first-party titles from Nintendo will be restricted." - Joel Johnson, Wired
    Could it be possible that this whole region free rumor was started by a mistake. Even Joel Johnson's quote implies, "there might be a region lock that publishers would be able to flip on." And even then, Johnson isn't completely firm about the Nintendo's own region stance when he says, "but it doesn't sound like the first-party titles from Nintendo will be restricted." Doesn't sound like?
    --
    the cosmos in 20 words or less: thumbuki.com
  2. Re:BOOOOOOOOOH! by Shadow99_1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well the reason for region coding in the first place is simple: price fixing between regions. I know for instance a person with triple citizenship (china, australia, and the US) and she can often get things cheaper in australia even with the cost of shipping than she can in the US itself... The companies want to maximize profit by region though, so they lock devices and media to regions to control the ability for people to buy cheaper versions by importing.

    In a very real sense they don't care about your special needs...

    --
    we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
  3. Re:BOOOOOOOOOH! by Fred+Or+Alive · · Score: 3, Informative

    And does Europe really get all that many games that we don't get in the US? About the only place you might have a real argument is European gamers getting impatient and wanting to import US titles.

    The problem isn't just impatientcy, Europe doesn't always get the games the US does at all. (Especially geeky Japanese stuff). Think stuff like Xenosaga Ep. 1, WarioWare Twisted[1], Shining Tears, Katamari Damacy and I'm sure there are more. Plus the delays can sometimes be stupid, although usually not on the level of the 2 year delay of Animal Crossing.

    Plus I'm especially impatient, as I'm in the UK and I speak English, so all this locaisation stuff doesn't matter to me at all.

    [1] Although in that case, I can import it of course.

    --
    10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
    20 GOTO 10
  4. I wouldn't trust Nintendo UK. by Andrew+Kismet · · Score: 3, Informative

    They're always last to hear the news. I trust Perrin Kaplan over David Yarnton.
    They're region loocked: http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/732/732982p1.html
    They're not region locked: http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/732/732748p1.html
    Madness.

  5. Re:BOOOOOOOOOH! by indiechild · · Score: 4, Informative

    You're joking right? What kind of goods can you get in Australia that are cheaper than the US? I'm in Australia and I often buy stuff like electronics and games/computer gear from overseas because it's so much cheaper than here. We have to pay literally 30-100% more than what other countries pay.