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Negotiator · Feb 1, 2015

Wii U games cost half the price compared to Eurozone eShop. i.e. Metroid Prime Trilogy costs around 5.

Wii U supports up to 12 NNID accounts, so apparently many people exploit that loophole to buy cheap games and play them on their main account. You just need a PAL console and set the console's region to Russia.

I know people have been doing this for ages on PSN/XBL, but Sony/MS are too lenient to ban people for that.

Do you think that Nintendo might ban those Russian alt accounts?

TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared · Feb 1, 2015

Metroid's cheap enough. I don't care enough about saving 5 euro to do that.

Negotiator · Feb 1, 2015

TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared said:
Metroid's cheap enough. I don't care enough about saving 5 euro to do that.

And what if a game costs 60? You can save 30.

Gen X · Feb 1, 2015

And Nintendo reps see this in 3, 2, 1.....

James Scott · Feb 1, 2015

Isn't that like tax evasion?

Wario64 · Feb 1, 2015

Good job in letting Nintendo know

antisoulless · Feb 1, 2015

It seems like something you would do if you dont have a good income. Which I think is ethically fine. You are still buying the game. You arent stealing it.
So ....its not a bad thing.

Dunkley · Feb 1, 2015

Pretty sure that Nintendo will do something against this and it will end up pissing off a lot of people.

Don't think they'll ban those alts though, but they'll probably restrict region access rendering the account and the associated games inaccessible, just how it would be as if they were banned. So I guess in the long shot it won't matter.

test_account · Feb 1, 2015

James Scott said:
Isn't that like tax evasion?

No, it isnt illegal to buy things from other countries. It might be in Nintendos terms of service however, but it shouldnt be illegal.

Kriken · Feb 1, 2015

"Well we WERE going to lift region locking on our next console..." -Nintendo

Soul Beat · Feb 1, 2015

The proper authorities have been notified. Thank you.

BeatResetsTheWorld · Feb 1, 2015

INB4 we get another thread bitching about Nintendo banning a person's account and them losing access to their games for willingly exploiting and probably abusing (this is key) a loophole

Hero Prinny · Feb 1, 2015

Why did you have to make it hot tho? This is why we can't have nice things. Sorry he ruined it for you guys euro gaf

Sakujou · Feb 1, 2015

test_account said:
No, it isnt illegal to buy things from other countries. It might be in Nintendos terms of service however, but it shouldnt be illegal.

if this is not illegal, why the fuck does ms ban people for doing that in xbox live?

iam not buying digital products, if they exist as a physical product, so i dont care about this.

Stilton Disco · Feb 1, 2015

Given that this is Nintendo we're talking about, I almost guarantee they'll do something to stop this, if word gets back to them.

Madao · Feb 1, 2015

couldn't they just raise prices in the Russian eshop?

like how they raise Canada's eshop prices to compensate for the weakening canadian dollar.

Cipherr · Feb 1, 2015

Sounds like fantastic groundwork to lay for your future thread filled with anger once they figure this out and strip your accounts

James Scott · Feb 1, 2015

test_account said:
No, it isnt illegal to buy things from other countries. It might be in Nintendos terms of service however, but it shouldnt be illegal.

Ah, alright. Just reminded me of a similar topic of some guy setting his NTSC Wii U to a tax less state to save money.
Also remember Valve adding region locking since people were doing the same with steam

Ikuu · Feb 1, 2015

Madao said:
couldn't they just raise prices in the Russian eshop?

like how they raise Canada's eshop prices to compensate for the weakening canadian dollar.

EA did this when people were using the Indian Store. I don't see how it solves much, Indians get higher prices and everyone else just started buying games from a different region.

epmode · Feb 1, 2015

Globalization should only help corporations, not the end-user.

Son Of D · Feb 1, 2015

I doubt they'll do anything about the accounts, but I do expect them to up the prices of Russian games.

Or they'll actually let it slide since they never did anything when the UK Nintendo store had digital 3DS and Wii U games for like £9 because of a pricing error.

Yeah I'm going with a price increase in Russia

finalflame · Feb 1, 2015

James Scott said:
Ah, alright. Just reminded me of a similar topic of some guy setting his NTSC Wii U to a tax less state to save money.
Also remember Valve adding region locking since people were doing the same with steam

It's a different story if your changing your U.S. state to avoid state sales tax. That is tax fraud (to some degree); buying games from another region is not.

With that said, what states charge sales tax on digital purchases?

Jackano · Feb 1, 2015

Didn't knew that. Didn't even knew there was a Nintendo presence in Russia.

Seeing the mess it is to have a "Nintendo account" and the mess it is for them to switch to NNID purchases security, I bet no one is winning if you have an alt russian account too.

test_account · Feb 1, 2015

Sakujou said:
if this is not illegal, why the fuck does ms ban people for doing that in xbox live?

iam not buying digital products, if they exist as a physical product, so i dont care about this.

It could be against Microsoft's terms of service. I have to admit that i'm far from any expert at law, but i havnt heard of any law that says that its illegal to buy digital goods from another country.

James Scott said:
Ah, alright. Just reminded me of a similar topic of some guy setting his NTSC Wii U to a tax less state to save money.
Also remember Valve adding region locking since people were doing the same with steam

In that case, it seems that he is actively trying to avoid taxes within the same country, and that sounds illegal. But buying a digital game from another country isnt any different than ordering something online, at least in my opinion. Then normal import laws should apply. I'm not expert at law at all, but i havnt heard of anything such import being illegal at least. It could be a violation against terms of services instead, but i dont think its illegal as in breaking the law.

Adding region lock should be legal, so Nintendo can probably do this.

LonelyGreyWolf · Feb 1, 2015

Wario64 said:
Good job in letting Nintendo know

Because the people who work at Nintendo are totally dumb, ignorant and clueless to this? They probably don't give a damn because it's not widespread.

Pikma · Feb 1, 2015

Watch them create a new region just for Russia, or just create a Country Lock because who the fuck lives in two different countries.

bobbychalkers · Feb 1, 2015

BeatResetsTheWorld said:
INB4 we get another thread bitching about Nintendo banning a person's account and them losing access to their games for willingly exploiting and probably abusing (this is key) a loophole

Pretty much....this probably won't end well in the long run for people who do this.

Syriel · Feb 1, 2015

Sakujou said:
if this is not illegal, why the fuck does ms ban people for doing that in xbox live?

iam not buying digital products, if they exist as a physical product, so i dont care about this.

Microsoft has never banned people from buying games from different regions.

Not even when it was free games.

What Microsoft DID ban for was an instance where there was not actually an Xbox Live store in said region. If you just logged in with an account of that region, you wouldn't see the Xbox store online or any games on the console.

What people were doing was:

1) Creating accounts in the null region.
2) Accessing cached results from the primary region.
3) Using those cached results to attempt a purchase which went though at $0.00 since the price was null.

There is a big difference between simply buying from a foreign store and willingly exploiting a bug in an online system that would never normally be seen in normal usage.

If you're just logging on with an account from a foreign region and trying to make a purchase, MS isn't going to ban you.

stan423321 · Feb 1, 2015

I'm pretty sure they'll end up raising Russian prices at some point, they must have not touched them since its fall in December.

MarkMclovin · Feb 1, 2015

BeatResetsTheWorld said:
INB4 we get another thread bitching about Nintendo banning a person's account and them losing access to their games for willingly exploiting and probably abusing (this is key) a loophole

But what if you move to Russia, then decide to move back home a day later?

Majine · Feb 1, 2015

James Scott · Feb 1, 2015

Yeah, i knew this sounded familiar. Valve had to deal with this exact thing in December http://venturebeat.com/2014/12/17/s...-purchases-in-wake-of-crashing-russian-ruble/
They handled it by adding in region locking, Nintendo might do the same if it becomes a problem for them

Ocaso · Feb 1, 2015

Sakujou said:
if this is not illegal, why the fuck does ms ban people for doing that in xbox live?

iam not buying digital products, if they exist as a physical product, so i dont care about this.

It is a violation of their terms of service. Those are their rules, not laws.

Madao · Feb 1, 2015

also, from the descriptions in this thread, it looks like the Russian eshop is better than what we get in most Latin American countries.

NoA just can't resist not being at the top of shittiness.

deltatheta · Feb 1, 2015

Ocaso said:
It is a violation of their terms of service. Those are their rules, not laws.

Yeah, you agreed at some point that you'd play by their rules when you set up your account. If you break the rules, they delete your account. The law doesn't enter in to it.

zsidane · Feb 1, 2015

Honestly, I won't mess with my NNID since I remember some shity lines on the TOS regarding changing countries and Nintendo reserving the right to lock your account and shit like that.

But do you need a russian credit card for that or the usual MasterCard/Visa are enough??

Negotiator · Feb 1, 2015

zsidane said:
Honestly, I won't mess with my NNID since I remember some shity lines on the TOS regarding changing countries and Nintendo reserving the right to lock your account and shit like that.

But do you need a russian credit card for that or the usual MasterCard/Visa are enough??

No, you don't need a Russian credit card.

LiveFromKyoto · Feb 1, 2015

Majine said:

Because all these games have 50+% profit margins that they can slash, yep.

chiimisu · Feb 1, 2015

I'm sure they'll fuck us up in Russia again somehow. Thanks for letting them know.

CertifiedFP · Feb 2, 2015

Majine said:

Welp, after witnessing this use of the image from someone who doesn't understand how finances and profits work, I can't ever use this again to mock genuinely greedy practices.

Nintendo doesn't have the luxury of Steam's massive userbase to make dosh off of massive pricecuts.

ZeroX03 · Feb 2, 2015

How much does a full price title (Mario Kart, Hyrule Warriors) go for? Are they English?

samn · Feb 2, 2015

CertifiedFP said:
Welp, after witnessing this use of the image from someone who doesn't understand how finances and profits work, I can't ever use this again to mock genuinely greedy practices.

Nintendo doesn't have the luxury of Steam's massive userbase to make dosh off of massive pricecuts.

What difference does the size of the userbase make? What matters is the percentage by which you can increase your sales compared to the percentage of $ lost per sale.

Leafhopper · Feb 2, 2015

Kriken said:
"Well we WERE going to lift region locking on our next console..." -Nintendo

Ffff

Majine said:

Delete it and try again.

Negotiator · Feb 2, 2015

ZeroX03 said:
How much does a full price title (Mario Kart, Hyrule Warriors) go for? Are they English?

2400 rubles, IIRC.

Yes, they're English. It's only the eShop that's in Russian (Google Translate on your smartphone comes in handy).

Elija2 · Feb 2, 2015

Nintendo have banned people for dumber reasons before.

LiveFromKyoto · Feb 2, 2015

samn said:
What difference does the size of the userbase make? What matters is the percentage by which you can increase your sales compared to the percentage of $ lost per sale.

It's almost as if that percentage were wholly dependent on the userbase or something.

stan423321 · Feb 2, 2015

tapantaola said:
No, you don't need a Russian credit card.

This sounds like the easiest way for them to deal with it if they deliberately cut prices in Russia (knowing Nintendo, unlike Steam's methods this is not deliberate). Fixing the card region. Unless this is somehow impossible in Russia.

samn · Feb 2, 2015

LiveFromKyoto said:
It's almost as if that percentage were wholly dependent on the userbase or something.

It's dependent on the type of people populating the userbase, not the absolute size of the userbase.

No need to be snarky about it.

ZeroX03 · Feb 2, 2015

tapantaola said:
2400 rubles, IIRC.

Yes, they're English. It's only the eShop that's in Russian (Google Translate on your smartphone comes in handy).

Hooooly shit that's a good deal. That's less than half price of the New Zealand store, incredible.

I've bought stuff from the UK store before with no issue too. I've been on the fence about Hyrule Warriors but well now.

lupinko · Feb 2, 2015

James Scott said:
Isn't that like tax evasion?

Canadians do this all the time with Nintendo. We are all Albertans.

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