Slashdot Log In
Wii Now Confirmed to Not be Region-Free
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Sat Sep 16, 2006 09:24 AM
from the party's-over dept.
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."
Related Stories
[+]
Wii to be Region Free 151 comments
Chris Kohler is making it a point to single out the fact that, like its cousin the DS, the Wii is to be Region-free. They also discuss how Virtual Console titles will associated with a console owner, and some details on the Opera browser. From the article: "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."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
WTF? (Score:3, Interesting)
Title: Wii Now Confirmed to Not be Region-Free
Next line: Nintendo have now stated that the Wii will not be region free.
Bit lower: They put it rather bluntly, stating: 'We are region-locked,' and that Nintendo America made a mistake by claiming otherwise.
Whos right?
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Branch War (Score:3)
Yeah, it's a Region war... the Allied NTSC against the Axis of PAL. But seriously, it sounds like it's just like that, and I'm guessing that there will be two reginons, maybe three (Australia). Nintendo and Nintendo of America have been growing pretty close, it seems, but the foundering EU Nintendo sales have made European branch a bit defensive, and worried that they're being ignored and crapped upon by the other branches. When you hear statements like this, especially one branch out-right publicly shaming
Re: (Score:2)
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Nintendos response (Score:4, Funny)
I'm so sorry (Score:5, Funny)
Because it's region-locked, you see...
Oh, never mind.
hm (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't believe etiher one. . . (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Fanbois with their eyes closed (Score:3)
Oh come on. Now, I know fanbois generally have the habit of accepting any good rumors and denying any bad news, but you're just being silly. It's not like this was a rumor from the "Interweb", but something that's been confirmed several times (see the links in the original story). Here's in all likelihood what happened:
1) VP of Marketing at US conference announces that Wii is not region locked for some reason (probably some a mistake/
No problem, just don't buy it. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Direct quote from Perrin Kaplan? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Direct quote from Perrin Kaplan? (Score:5, Interesting)
Robert Summa of Destructoid [destructoid.com] asked Perrin Kaplan, "Is everything region free." Kaplan replied, "Yes. Yeah. Which is a good thing. I've actually had several people ask that of me today."
Here's the video. [destructoid.com] The quote is near the end. The quote is about 18 minutes in.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No, because the people who have a propensity to respond to such announcements likely do not accurately represent the whole set of people who are interested in buying the product. A) they are much more tech savvy and care about all these day-to-d
Bad news for the UK (Score:5, Insightful)
I suspect the reason is the same one as used by every other company - "you're British, if we shaft you on price you won't do anything about it. It's just cos we can charge more that we do."
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
And, I could be wrong, but there are stricter rule sin the UK about importing some of the chemicals used in technology (leaded solder etc.?).
Oh, and our TVs are PAL over here; that means different hardware.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
So, for example a UK price of £179 converts to a $US price of 336 or a VAT free price of 285. So there's still a bit of a mark up against as US price of $250, but it's around 15% rather than some of the inflated differences mentioned elsewhere.
Forget it then (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Forget it then (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
/me being pissed (Score:3, Insightful)
This time it seems the rule not the exception. They had everything right, the momentum was there after E3, everyone loved the console, which ought to be not the latest in technology bug cheaper than the rest and with a new controller enabling good gaming ideas.
And now... Scam pricing to ripp off different regions: Hint at Nintendo, even 250 USD is not 250 Euros, even with the VAT calculated out the thing still is more expensive than the US version.
Enforced bundles so they can hike prices in certain areas: Hint at nintendo, an enforced Wii sports bundle does not help sales, it would have been better to sell the console for 200 and let the people decide which game to buy, in the end you will lose money on that decision.
Hidden costs: Hint at Nintendo: charging another 60 dollars for another controller set pushes you way over the XBOX360 pricewise.
Dropped features: No dvd, while not being really important anymore, they could at least have offered dvd as buyable option instead of leaving it out entirely.
Region Codes: While this was heavily promoted, region codes suck, europeans hate them, some americans as well, go for it Nintendo. You just give certain people a legal justification for selling modchips.
I have yet to see a single company pissing so many people off in such a short period of time, the discussions in the forums, basically have all the same tone (wtf did you think nintndo i do not want the f*** wee sports just for price hiking) like Nintendo has last week, they had everything in place. Ship the console for 200 Euros no bundle, plain, no discussion lots of sales. They have the DS momentum on their side. Now if Microsoft just drops their prices 50 europs over here, Nintendo lies flat and dead in its starting position and ends up with a Cube like fiasko.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The sports thing isn't a bundle. It doesn't raise their per-item cost any to include a game they've sunk the development costs into. They're just returning (for better or worse) to the old days when standard operating procedure was to throw in something for the player to do with the console. They said they were going to launch "under 250," which almost always means 249.99. Now they're at a 250 launch point, and they threw in a 50
I wouldn't trust Nintendo UK. (Score:4, Informative)
They're region loocked: http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/732/732982p1.html [ign.com]
They're not region locked: http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/732/732748p1.html [ign.com]
Madness.
What really happened... (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know about the Wii... (Score:5, Funny)
But I hear that its followup, the WWii, is going to take American markets completely by suprise and, for a while at least, completely dominate the Pacific Rim.
I'm guessing this is NoE (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe I should respect their wish and not buy a Wii, then.
My Mind is Changing... (Score:3, Interesting)
Nintendo, you just lost a sale of console and all incidental game purchases I would have made. Congratulations!
Why permit this obstacle to a free market? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd imagine the US or at least the EU should have slammed protectionism attempts like these long ago. DVD movies should have provided ample opportunity for making an example out of this free market prevention tactic. Since I still see region coded movie DVDs being sold, I simply have to conclude that the EU has failed miserably in their vigilance to promote free flow of goods. Since the free flow of goods is one of the cornerstones for existance of the EU, this is pretty serious from a European standpoint. It turns the stated goal into a mockery, where one could add subjective exceptions to the statement like "Free flow of goods some goods" or "Free flow of goods unless you pay to get an exception".
In my mind, there can be no logical reason other than bribery for why region coding / locking is still permitted in countries at least trying to pay lip service to the notion of a free market. No wonder a lot of people in Europe view the EU as a big scam, there to serve not it's citizen foremost, but some other stake holder.
Legality? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Left hand, right hand (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:BOOOOOOOOOH! (Score:5, Insightful)
Or if I end up moving to another country for work for a while... should I have to have relatives purchase the games for me and ship them over whenever I need a new one? C'mon.
Parent
Re:BOOOOOOOOOH! (Score:5, Informative)
In a very real sense they don't care about your special needs...
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Sure its only a loss of $400 or $500 to them over time, but it goes to show that in a very real way I don't particularily care about their special needs.
Re:BOOOOOOOOOH! (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:BOOOOOOOOOH! (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Parent
Re:BOOOOOOOOOH! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
They know because they learned the hard way through DVDs. He travels a lot and she teaches foreign languages.
My mother knows. Her stupid Powerbooks (and I am sure other notebooks) lock a specific region to her DVD drive after only 5 or 6 changes. It may sound like a lot, but if you are an International traveler, you end up saying "WTF! I have a DVD drive, why can't it read all DVDs?"
I doubt it will m
Not in the U.S. (Score:5, Insightful)
The only people who have region-free players are people who've hacked them (some models had override codes you could put in) or who bought them overseas.
Most people go down to Wal-Mart, plunk down their $30, and buy whatever's on the end of the aisle, on sale. They barely stop to look at the name of the brand, much less anything so esoteric as region coding.
This will have a greater affect on people in Europe than in the U.S.; people here just don't care enough about imported content (with the exception of people who are into stuff from Japan) to notice region coding. Most Americans don't travel (and thus wouldn't come into possession of a foreign-region disc), don't speak any other languages (and so most foreign content is useless to them), and have enough domestic content available that they're not dying to get their hands on stuff from abroad.
The very small percentage of people who care about having a region-free DVD player or game console will pay the price premium necessary to acquire one on the grey market. With DVD players this usually means getting one originally destined for Europe or Asia, and with game consoles this means installing a mod chip. I don't think the Nintendo Rev--excuse me, Wii--will be any different in this regard. The very small number of gamers who want to play Japanese import games will get a mod chip.
The biggest effect that the region coding will have in the United States is that it creates a semi-legitimate excuse for mod chips to exist. If there wasn't region coding, and thus the excuse of wanting to be able to override the console's programming and play foreign games, then mod chips would be viewed more as a purely piracy-oriented tool; as it is, it's pretty easy to market them (with a hefty wink-wink-nudge-nude, know what I mean).
As someone who's never bought an un-modded console, I'd like to take a moment to thank Nintendo for this development. The modchip manufacturers and blank-DVD producers of the world salute you.
Parent
Re: (Score:3)
No way. Most people don't even know or care about regional encoding. If consumers only bought region free DVD players then all of them would be region free. I buy a DVD player for picture quality, not lack of region encoding.
Would you buy a region locked DVD player? Would you even be able to find a shop that sells them?
Yes and Yes. Most of the DVD players sold in stores ARE region encoded.
quote from timefordvd.com - "Ther
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It wouldn't have to work like that,
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Except that they cost almost twice as much, oh and they are also not compatible with all the games on the console, so you have to get additional classic controllers to play all the games the console has to offer.
Xbox 360 wireless controllers are 50, and there is a good bit more tech in the Wii controller. That makes them 20% more expensive. Where are you getting the 2x figure from?
I agree that the classic controller thing is weird / silly, but ho
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Hopefully, most of the games that lend themselves to four players won't require the use of the nunchuck extension, only the Wiimote itself. Really, though, you shouldn't need four Wiimotes yourself: through implimentation
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Nintendo is making a mistake by packaging only one controller into the bundle, when the game that is packaged into the bundle is best played with two or more players.
2. They are targeting non-gamers, and the best way to win them over is to let a person have fun while playing with at a friends house who has already bought a console. 3.I'd rather have a gamecube with two wii-motes and Wii-sports for (100+60+60+30) 250 dollars than the Wii package plus another wiimote for 310 dollars. The W
Re: (Score:3)
Really now? So what exactly is THIS supposed to have ment? [ign.com] Sony is JUST as full of hot air as Nintendo is, but in Nintendo's case, it seems like it was an honest mistake made by a single person, as opposed to a mindful shift made during design. If the Wii was never region fr