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Nintendo Puts a Bedtime On Wii U Content In Europe
kc67 writes "Nintendo of Europe is blocking Wii U content in the region that is rated PEGI 18+ between the hours of 3 a.m. and 11 p.m., according to a Eurogamer report. Under these stipulations, the four-hour window of 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. is the only time users can purchase games like ZombiU or Assassin's Creed III or even view trailers for such games. The story originated from a NeoGAF forum user, which reportedly received an email from Nintendo saying the following: 'Dear customer, we would like to let you know that Nintendo has always aimed to offer gameplay experiences suited to all age groups, observing carefully all the relevant regulations regarding content access that are present in the various European countries. We have thus decided to restrict the access to content which is unsuitable to minors (PEGI) to the 11 p.m.- 3 a.m. time window.' Eurogamer has since verified the claim. It received a message stating 'You cannot view this content' and 'The times during which this content can be viewed have been restricted.' Nintendo has yet to comment on the matter."
RPGs with time passage often have stores that sell special goods at a specific ingame time... the "0200 special".
Nintendo seems to have liked that idea enough to implement it in the real world. :)
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
I just have to ask why Nintendo does anything like this. Opt-in for mature^W adolescent content, have that as an option when you first configure the device, just do something that makes this an option if you believe it's to be segregated per audience.
There's no reason to believe that all households with a WiiU have members that should not be exposed to their catalog, and there's no reason to believe that households with such members will have them unavailable during those hours.
Nintendo to Europe: Go to bed.
DATABASE WOW WOW
It would have been, but I had to wait for my four-hour window due to the sleazy nature of this post.
too bad...
...tends to handle this issue on its own. At least as far as purchases go.
As for the rest, just do what every single other recent console has done and put password-protected access restrictions in the system. Not only does it give more granular control to the customer, it also ensures that Nintendo's rules aren't enforced on people who don't want them, while also ensuring that night shift workers won't be left without a way to purchase content.
Their solution has got to be one of the worst choices out of the options that were available.
This is the sound that my Wii U makes, when i throw it out from my flat....
Shouldn't a feature like this be tied to parental controls rather than an all or nothing approach?
This is only for the eShop. After you have the game, then it doesn't matter. Sure, it's annoying, but it's only something you have to deal with when you want to buy a game. I don't think it's very outrage worthy, which is how some people are reacting, but whatever.
Here's a less FUDy article
I still think it's silly, especially it ending at 3am (or is that when kids wake up in Europe...?), but it's not like it's forcing you to only play your games in a specific 4 hour period.
This isn't DRM, this is just having really weird store hours.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
I don't see how DRM comes into play here. You can certainly instruct your web server to show/not show certain information based on current time without employing any sort of DRM.
Next you'll claim that Slashdot only allowing to discuss a story for limited time and then archiving the discussion is DRM, too.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Yes, that's the point! During the daytime you can not download games rated PEGI 18+
Kids don't purchase games themselves at any time.
When I was growing up I met plenty of heathen children that had no problem jacking cash or credit card from their parents. Of course these are the same kids who would stay up as late as they want anyway.
Your point still stands, this does not make any sense.
On the internet I have seen members of the nintendo defence force but the blame on governments, but the reality is that a Microsoft or Sony also operates in the same markets and they don't have such a moronic way of dealing with this.
Why they just do 't check the age based on the birthday, a checkbox or whatever... You know how like xbox live, psn or even steam handles it.
Nintendo and technology... It is like announcing cloud saves and tying an account to a single machine... Oh wait. Really when nintendo is in involved it really doesn't surprises me one bit.
observing carefully all the relevant regulations regarding content access that are present in the various European countries
Three words: least common denominator. They are simply abiding by the most stringent requirements in the European market.
Repeat after me: the EU is not the United States of Europe.
This is a published feature of the child accounts. Either the people reporting this just don't know that and are trying with child accounts, or it's a simple case of the feature being implemented wrong.
Sure Nintendo has a bit of a reputation for being rather nannyish but come on, a 4 hour window for 18 rated games? It sounds completely absurd.
I'm guessing this is either complete bullshit, or there's some parental control enabled by default buried in the options somewhere.
That's not me stating that but nintendo europe by restricting the adult content for every user beyond 11pm (when presumably kiddy are in bed) to 3am. Meaning in their mind only kids use those console 3am to 11pm. (what happened to have a parental lock?). Thanks Nintendo I now know as an european I don't need to check your offering , because mostly by 11pm either I am going out, or I am asleep at home. And just a wild stab in the dark, but it will be the same for most adult having a job.
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That's not DRM, that's Parental Controls. Which is the whole fucking POINT. This is a non-issue, a decent implementation of parental controls deals with all of this already, absolutely no reason to restrict things for everyone.
In France, there are rules preventing 18+ games from being sown on TV before 22:30. Even channels broadcasting on cable, satellite and dsl networks must respect those rules. That poses a problem to channels like Nolife TV, specialized in video games, because a lot of games get a PEGI 18 rating - if the player is able to kill a human-looking enemy, and this is done in a somewhat realist context, it's PEGI 18. As a result, they must cram discussion of a lot of games in a small time slot.
The rule was originally designed for movies, by the way, but the French movie rating is much more relaxed than the games rating. For example, the last James Bond movie did not get any restriction at all, it would be PEGI 18 if it were a game. But the movie rating boards in Europe use different standards.
At then end; it looks like Nintendo took the most restrictive of those rules, and applied them to everyone, as if the WiiU was a TV channel. This will hurt them in more liberal markets. It does not help that Nintendo of Europe is headquartered in Germany, which has the most extreme restrictions on video games, and still requires a separate, different, ugly, enormous, unremovable logo on game packaging and game disks. And this is after the PEGI rating board mainly standardized on rules very close to the German ones...
Need I say more?
Bravo, Nintendo! For your next act, I would like to see a method and process for checking if kids have done their homework, before letting them play games. And a connection to the school system database, that lets kids with better grades play games longer. And an active webcam, that only lets kids who cleaned up their rooms play games. Messy room == No games, for you!
Can a Nintendo drive the kids to soccer games, while the parents are off playing golf . . . ?
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Ok, maybe not a sign of the end of civilization, but certainly society is not doing well when a game company has to act like a parent. Shouldn't this stuff be the job of the parents, not the game company?
He's actually talking about regional/geographical restrictions, which is another thing entirely.
But don't let that stop you bragging about how free you are, you dumb fat lardass.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I was considering getting myself a Wii U as it looks quite interesting with games finally on par with PS3 and XBox 360. I also wanted to play some of the excellent games that nintendo makes, but wouldn't be able to get them for PS3. However, if this is really the case, then my consideration for the platform are done and I'm not getting one. I think it may be similar with many other people. Nintendo could finally win back some of the Real gamers, but not when they gonna treat them like some freaks or sick people that can get their fix only when no one is looking. Well done Nintendo for shooting yourself in the foot. So long and thanks for nothing.
My Windows is NOT slow, it's special!
Oops, I'm at work between 11pm and 3am. On the other hand, I'm not in Europe and I don't play on Nintendo consoles, so it balances out nicely.
between the hours of 3 a.m. and 11 p.m
So, most of the daytime?
Yes, most of the daytime the purchases are blocked. The summary also mentions the inverse (11 pm to 3 am) being the time when purchases are allowed. Thus, no editorial mistake regarding the times in the summary.
I'm an American, so this doesn't affect me outside of the fact that the liberals in our country will think it's a great idea in another three to five years. But, really, it's like Nintendo is trying to chase customers away. There are already parental controls, so by making it needlessly difficult to purchase games that are geared towards adults, Nintendo is just sending the (admittedly true) message that they have no interest whatsoever in adult gamers. Unless you're under 14, really like virtual bowling, or are the kind of adult who describes things as "kawaii", there is nothing for you on the WiiU.
And, speaking as an adult who plays a shit-ton of 18+ games (on PC, thanks very much) 11:00 PM finds me either in bed finishing a book or out at the bar with friends if I'm off the next day. It's been many moons since I didn't have to be up and productive by 8:00 AM, and if I get less than 8 hours of sleep, I'm draggin' ass the next day. Besides which, how many people are going to be lining up for the opportunity to stay up later than they'd like to so they can have the privilege of buying a game from Nintendo?
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Rightttt..... like kids could never ever be able to stay up late enough to be able to make the purchase during that window!!! No, kids never stay up late or wake up in the middle of the night or do things that their parents or society would not want them to do... /sarcasm
.
Seriously, parental restrictions would make more sense. (Though I can say that I've had to undo the parental restriction setting on the DVR for my parents at least twice in the last six months.) Teens often don't want to get out of bed til noon on a weekend, we can stay up til 3 and wake up at 6 or 7 and have a lousy but okay day the next day (well it's still the same day, but it feels likes the next day after sleeping from 3:30 to 6:30)
I'm 58 years old and I was up playing Risen 2 in my room till 3:15am this morning.
And my daughter complains about the noise. Payback's a bitch. :)
Did you actually read the message you're replying to?
I'm going to guess nobody at Nintendo said "hey, let's arbitrarily restrict content to certain regions at certain times! That's a GREAT idea!"
Perhaps customers' ire should be directed at their regional and national governments whose laws go overboard in 'protecting the childrenz' (in this case, from staying up too late...)?
-Styopa
Parental Control means that the parents control what the kids do. Not that the parents get controlled by some corporations so they let their kids do only what the corporation wants.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Teachers complaining about sleeping pupils
"Every time a new part of the latest first person shooter comes out, half of my class doesn't show up at all and the rest is barely able to stay awake", Mrs. T, a high school teacher complains. Yesterday the long awaited Zombie shooter "Brains out" came out and it looks like it turned into reality on the Whatyoumaycallit High. Teenagers shuffling across the corridors from class to class, only to drop dead at their desks to catch up on some much needed sleep.
"What' worst is that they don't just buy it, of course, after they bought it they immediately want to play it. And since they cannot buy it before 11pm, they play through the night and now... look at them! Sensible teaching is neigh impossible now, their only answer is 'Braaaaains'. I think Nintendo sure dropped the ball on that one"
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Or put another way, have you ever known of Sony, Microsoft, or Valve, respecting government laws without being forced to?
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
No, I cannot seem to imagine Sony or Apple following government guidelines, that's just absurd!
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
The Nintendo "Curfew U"!
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In this illustration, do the dwarves represent PC gaming?
Really? it's the liberals in America pushing the "think of the children" laws?
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Will the new Xbox play [..] Nintendo first party titles (almost all I want)? No, so it isn't much of a substitute is it.
Well, let's see... I was talking about "gamers who *do* want "mature" content". Given that you just said that you're almost exclusively interested in "Nintendo first party titles" (i.e. the antithesis of the former), it should be pretty blooming obvious that I wasn't talking about people like you.
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Great regulation; in addition to their minds being corrupted, the kids are going to be falling asleep during school as well.
This is quite logical if you think about it. Get kids used to government agencies telling them what they can and cant do at certain hours 'for their protection', and they will grow up expecting it.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I think the PC is the most obvious and needs no explanation: it is the Troll.
A fisherman wouldn't be my first analogy for the PC, but I guess it works. Peaceful, hard working and responsible.
Peaceful? Tell that to all the fish.
Your ad here.
OP wrote (and I quote) "there are rules preventing 18+ games from being sown on TV before 22:30"
Given that your nick translates as "crazy" I didn't expect such a serious reply, but it's possible the humor is an English nuance that doesn't translate well. I'm sorry if English is not your first language.
coding is life
One would think that if you're buying with a credit card (in your own name) that there's some age validation there.
I'd expect there's some weird regulations going on there. I doubt most companies want to prevent you from giving them money (unless they're the RIAA/MPAA in which case control > money)