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Famitsu: Wii U region-lock confirmed

Choc

Banned
One difference between Nintendo nad MS region locking is i believe Nintendo make it mandatory as part of certification and MS do not.
 
Yes it is but I believe companies operating in the EU (Like Nintendo) are not allowed to operate systems that restrict people importing goods right?

and you can import games if you have an import machine so they're not doing that... region locking still exists on Blu Rays and DVDs too btw.

I'm not against region locked retail, as I can at least understand the protectionist mindset - looking after regional retailers and distributors, allowing the companies involved to protect themselves against adverse market conditions etc. However, I can see this policy extending to digital games when retail is all but dead... and that doesn't make sense to me. I should be able to pay the currency converted value for any game from any region when its available digitally imo. Even then, I can kind of get the argument that money for localisation has to come from somewhere, but the amount of people who actually import foreign language stuff has got to be a tiny niche at best... it wouldn't hurt to be more laissez faire. In fact it may help.

People hold up Sony as the example of best practice, but I think its better left to the developer / publisher - as Microsoft allows.
 
E0QMs.gif
 

Eusis

Member
Did Nintendo ever tell why they went back to region locking after DS? Was it cause of homebrew or something.
They never locked for handhelds before then, but they were talking about the new eShop, some online functionality, and how including parental controls (I think some places require that by law now) meant they'd need to region lock. Which really wasn't necessary, but that's the Nintendo way of doing things.
 

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
I just hope there is no IP lock on the eShop. I am curious to see if there is any region coding on the controllers as well.
 

Eusis

Member
I just hope there is no IP lock on the eShop. I am curious to see if there is any region coding on the controllers as well.
They never, ever locked controllers by region, and I doubt they'd start that. It's too much effort over losing profits, MAYBE, on a relatively small handful of controllers. And most likely if someone needs a new controller ASAP for multiplayer they're going to just go to the local store for it, not try to order one from another country.
can't believe people can even react to this as news. come on people really life is not that boring
KuGsj.gif
So says the one with the Xenoblade avatar!
 

trinest

Member
Now the question is does the America/PAL/Japan regions remain?

Plus I don't see why everyone was hoping it to be unlocked. They region locked a handheld for gods sake.
 
Is there any reason for them to region lock the console? Why can't they do it like Sony?

It gives them better control over publishing games. For some reason uneducated publishers also view this as an important feature.

Nintendo is good at maximizing profit, Their studies probably show that this will get them the most revenue.

Studies like that do not exist unless Nintendo gets information on exactly what you play on your console. Since a large number of consoles esp. Wii are not connected to the Internet it is impossible to make any reasonable estimate on the size of cross-border game importation. I would estimate cross-border importation to be <1% of total sales.

The decision to region-lock is made by uninformed management, simple as that.
 

luokyl

Member
3DS is locked to PAL, so you can buy from the UK.

I still want it confirmed that the Wii U is the same. I'm waiting for an Australian NZ region. Somebody is going to do it, just a question of time.

This will plunge Australia back into the stone age.
 

IrishNinja

Member
At least they have the option of an eShop only release this time.

true - let's see if they put that to use this time though!

Which makes it even more stupid. How much damage can a minority really do? And isn't this exactly the minority you would rather not piss off?
I hate this. >:I

i'm usually assuming this is the same problem we get with overpriced anime - regional pricing is high in some places and wants to discourage importing or the like? i'll be honest, i don't really know why the situation is this way, other than:

Vita's retail games are region free, as were PSP's, and PS3's. Sony's stupid PSN account stuff is because they view handhelds as 1 per person, thus only 1 account needed. They view consoles as family devices, hence more than 1 account. PS4 won't be region locked.

i hope you're right, ive loved being able to play Kenzan!, Siren etc - but havent we seen articles recently about publishers not happy with people accessing demos/content earlier than they wanted via PS3? i too fully expect multiple user accounts on the PS4 but im not sure ill see multiple region accounts, i'm hopeful but im still kinda assuming this goes the way of gamesharing - theyre gonna want to bend over backwards convincing publishers to work with their ecosystem.
 
Is there any reason for them to region lock the console? Why can't they do it like Sony?

Two reasons. Firstly:

wiiuijudt.png


$112 US...

Secondly releasing in certain regions takes time. For example European releases might take some time to translate to all the different languages. Without region locking, people in the UK who speak English can import from the US. This means when the game finally comes out sales are much lower and the UK publisher suffers.

Or so goes the theory. Mostly I expect the price is the real issue. I can sit on my computer and pre-order a game from the UK or US. Sure it takes a few days extra to arrive, but I'm pretty much getting half price.
 
Expected but shittastic nonetheless. I haven't bought a 3DS yet because of this.

Did Nintendo ever tell why they went back to region locking after DS? Was it cause of homebrew or something.
At one point, they said it was to prevent piracy (lol) and at another point, they mentionned certification issues, which sounded more likely.
 

Erethian

Member
I'm not against region locked retail, as I can at least understand the protectionist mindset - looking after regional retailers and distributors, allowing the companies involved to protect themselves against adverse market conditions etc. However, I can see this policy extending to digital games when retail is all but dead... and that doesn't make sense to me.

That won't stop it from happening, though. Doesn't, even.

The region pricing situation with Steam has gotten worse over time, not better, just as an example.
 

kitsuneyo

Member
I would've liked to play some games in Japanese to help with my studies, but it looks like that's out (not that I expected region-free). It would be nice if Nintendo included Japanese language options in EU releases, but that probably won't happen either.

All this does is encourage people to hack the WiiU!

Edit - Also, Xbox 360 has easily the best region system - they leave it up to the publisher. Some games are locked, others aren't. If WiiU had followed this lead, Nintendo could've locked the games they publish and allowed games that will never be released outside Japan to be region free if they want. Everyone would win that way.
 

Oersted

Member
Region free discs, I don't need sd cards or external hdds when everything is internal. Region free should be a standard feature by now.

"when everything is internal" is for many not enough. with more and more upcoming download-games and ps probably finally going completly hd
seven years after they promised it
a internal hdd will be just useless and expensive.

and region free is already dying on home-consoles. region locked blurays and psn account are smiling at you.
 
"when everything is internal" is for many not enough. with more and more upcoming download-games and ps probably finally going completly hd
seven years after they promised it
a internal hdd will be just useless and expensive.

and region free is already dying on home-consoles. region locked blurays and psn account are smiling at you.

Going completly hd? Someone from SCEA confirmed you can swap hdds like previous models.

Region free is not dying, every PS3 game outside P4A is region free, Bluray movies have always been region locked so how does that make region free dying? Sony just released a new region free handheld and I imagine PS4 will be region free aswel. I can go and create a US or Japanese PSN account and download their stuff so don't understand why you brought it up.
 

also

Banned
I expected this but it still sucks. I seriously considered buying a Vita instead of a 3DS due to the region locking but in the end I caved. Same will probably happen with the Wii U, but hopefully hackers will crack it wide open and disable it, just like with the Wii.
 
who is this guy with the Xenoblade avatar?

I don't care about the region lock I was not going to play Xenoblade in Japanese if I had a choice

UK english voices >>>>>>>> JP voices

Heropon and Sidekicks, would not have been as much fun - NOE just needs to take the lead again
 

Cyborg

Member
If Sony did this whole GAF would be over them.......!
Dont plan to buy a Wii so I dont care about it....!
 
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