Nintendo Puts a Bedtime On Wii U Content In Europe 190
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."
Reminds me of an RPG trope... (Score:5, Funny)
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. :)
Re:Reminds me of an RPG trope... (Score:5, Funny)
Making this illustration a bit more PC (Score:2)
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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.
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WHY? (Score:2)
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.
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I can think of two explainations. It's possible they have a genuine 'for the children!' moral crusader in management, who believes it is the duty of the company to do all it can to keep children from playing games with violent or sexual content. Alternatively, this might be just a stunt intended to boost the company image as the most 'family friendly' console and thus boost sales with the substantial demographic of over-worried parents.
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To make it more likely that you're tired or drunk and thus easier prey when visiting their store? Or it could be image reason - "it's not our fault you let your children stay up at night". Or maybe someone there wants the online shop to fail for reasons of office politics.
No matter what the reason, what this tells me is that WiiU should be avoided until things stabilize.
Re:WHY? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, I was somewhat tempted to buy a WiiU, I don't know why, impulse purchase thing I guess, but this has really closed the doors for me on the idea.
I only really like adult games, with a few exceptions like Mario, Zelda and Pikmin, childish games that plagued the Wii never really did it for me, I like something with a nice gritty story line or just generally a bit more adult in nature.
But seeing as I get up for work at 6:30am each morning, and so tend to go to bed about 10:30pm nowadays (gone are the late night gamer days - growing up sucks!) and don't tend to deviate much from that on weekends it basically means I'd either have to stay up and be tired when driving to work, or forego exactly the type of content that I would play.
So it's lost them at least one sale here, and I suspect many more.
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Yeah, because the half hour difference between 10:30pm and 11pm would just ruin you.
Of course, you could always try getting up earlier in the morning, and catch the store before it closes.
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He wouldn't go to bed at 11pm. He would go to bed 12am or 1am, or later. And that might ruin him, yes. Depending on how much sleep his particular organism needs and how intense his workplace environment is.
And in any case, if adult content was purchased then adult content can be consumed whenever the purchaser wants it to. Or the purchaser can decide on another platform that will allow them consumption at their leisure and will not impose its standards on them.
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And that might ruin him, yes. Depending on how much sleep his particular organism needs and how intense his workplace environment is.
What, he works *7 days a week* ??
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Certainly the latter seems like the best idea - if you don't like the platform, don't buy it.
From Xest's original post that was the great-grandparent to yours above:-
So it's lost them at least one sale here, and I suspect many more.
Hmm... sounds like that's *exactly* what he said he was doing anyway.
Really, your comment sounds like yet another rehash of the old chestnut that because someone isn't being forced to buy something they have no right to criticise it. Wrong. [slashdot.org]
If you're in bed by dinnertime because you're up at 6:30am, you may have some sleeping problems, though.
Maybe he will, maybe he won't. But you're obviously using it as an excuse to deflect criticism of a rather stupid idea Nintendo had, and turn the attack against Xest instead.
Personally, I'm quit
Rolls eyes... (Score:2)
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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Certainly the latter seems like the best idea - if you don't like the platform, don't buy it.
That's exactly what the OP said he was doing (which you previously objected to), you dumbass!
Re: WHY? (Score:2)
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Yeah, it would actually. I'm really tired if I get my 8 hours, so 10:30pm to 6:30am is the absolute minimum for me if I want to be awake enough for the next day (which is kind of important when you're a) driving, and b) working on complex maths and programming problems for a living).
Being tired for a console just isn't worth it, especially when the competitors don't have such absurd artificial restrictions.
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Yeah, because the half hour difference between 10:30pm and 11pm would just ruin you.
Of course, you could always try getting up earlier in the morning, and catch the store before it closes.
It's still stupid, and based on the bizarre idea that kids won't have access to their console during that period. How bout asking parents to lock down their credit cards a little more tightly?
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Of course, you could always try getting up earlier in the morning, and catch the store before it closes.
He shouldn't have to. If the grocery store only sold beer from 11:00 PM to 3:00 AM I'd never drink; this is the same thing. It's really, really stupid, almost as stupid as trying to defend the stupid practice.
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I'd be tempted to ask whether you even live in the EU but my confidence in peoples reading comprehension abilities is plummeting.
Re:WHY? (Score:4, Informative)
I just have to ask why Nintendo does anything like this.
Nintendo isn't the only one. Ubisoft's UPlay and EA's Origin don't allow you to buy age 18 content outside of 23:00-6:00 either, even age 16 is locked between 22:00-6:00.
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That longer time makes more sense, if you're going to sleep before 10 then the odds are you can make the purchase just before 6am...
Still stupid nannying though.
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I don't think the law is at fault in this case. The law forbids it to sell age 18 games to minors, but it does not force a time limit on sales, so as long as you verified your age in some manner, that should be enough. I think Origin actually allows you to verify your age via your person id and thus work around the time limit.
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And perhaps you should read the second paragraph of what you replied to, which speaks against the reasoning presented in the summary.
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Banned in Britain (Score:2)
Nintendo to Europe: Go to bed.
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Europe to Nintendo: Go fuck yourself, I'm not in the mood to let you take me to bed.
(Not quite) FIRST POST!!! (Score:1)
It would have been, but I had to wait for my four-hour window due to the sleazy nature of this post.
So if you are 18+ and work a night shift, (Score:5, Insightful)
too bad...
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Why? I'd rather work 6pm to 4am than 6am to 4pm.
It may surprise you, but there are people who enjoy living during the night.
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Why? I'd rather work 6pm to 4am than 6am to 4pm.
It may surprise you, but there are people who enjoy living during the night.
The point was that if you work in night shift, you cannot access the content within the timeframe.
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Funny, I am European and I am doing night shift 7 days a week.
And, even if I had a free day, breaking the sleep schedule just to play along with Nintendo is not worth the sacrifice.
3DS was horrible for their bizarre region lock that rendered the console practically useless for hardcore European gamers. Wii U looks even worse. Screw nintendo, they lost a long time customer.
A lack of credit card... (Score:4, Insightful)
...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.
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Lack of creditcard is no good. It's quite common for adults to be using Maestro or Electron cards in Europe.
But to be honest, preventing people to buy a product is just stupid. It's not going to prevent young ones from playing the games - if the parents aren't smart enough to restrict gameplay, restricting buying time doesn't help.
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And honestly, if someone under 18 is capable enough and has enough money to get a credit card, their own game console, and Internet access that doesn't depend on their parents, I say they are mature enough to download a "mature" video game.
Wiiiiiii (Score:3)
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Is it attached to a small piglet that used to do commercials for Geico?
Parental Controls (Score:5, Insightful)
Shouldn't a feature like this be tied to parental controls rather than an all or nothing approach?
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Yes, absolutely! Parental controls already exist on other consoles like Xbox 360 to handle exactly this sort of thing. And any minor who can bypass those controls can easily STAY UP UNTIL 11PM, making this just a bunch of completely useless pandering towards the "family values" crowd...
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As Apple and everyone who has dealt with the V-Chip knows, nobody uses parental controls, even when it says so right on the box or users are forced to enable them. Parent simply hands device off to their kids and lets them pl
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I have no idea where you were going with this, it was so all over the map... but are you saying because the technology was provided and clearly explained that parents are not responsible for their kids and the government and corporations should have to limit access to content to *EVERYONE* in that case?
Because, honestly, that's bullshit, and censorship. I am all for selective programmatic restriction of adult content to children but blanket blocking to EVERYONE just because of lazy parents. Whatever. Nan
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While there's nothing that can be done to stop a kid from doing something like this, there *are* ways to be absolutely certain that the device was used during the evening after you went to bed, or that it was tampered with in some way.
I realize that when a parent feels they have to resort to such measures, then in part, there's a battle involved that's already occurred and there's little hope of salvaging, but it can still be better than nothing at all.
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Yep. On by default, but able to be deactivated by a PIN seems a more sane method for those users who don't have kids and don't need nannying.
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Parental controls are a good thing if they're optional.
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This isn't about playing a game between those hours (which would be insane). It's about buying a game during those hours. If you give a kid access to buying games and let them play them they can just as soon do it at 11pm.
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Yeah, and they stopped, because it's a stupid idea.
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Yes, but back then I could record the movie and watch it whenever I pleased.
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You're right. My dad keeps escaping from the old persons' home I left him at. They clearly need longer-range tasers to keep him under control.
FUD title is FUD (Score:1)
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 [joystiq.com]
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.
Doesn't make sense (Score:2)
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 ninte
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Three Words (Score:2, Informative)
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.
Child account ... (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Hoax? (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
Re:Hoax? (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
This is only for BUYING that 18+ content, you then can play it at any time of the day you want.
Which does not really make sense either, because surely the big problem is not kids buying 18+ games - kids PLAYING those games is bad. And if Daddy stays up late to buy his 18+ triple-X-rated games, those games will be on the console the next day when his kids want to play, so what is the point of this shopping restriction...
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Ah, but the store's open 24-7. This is more analogous to a Wal-Mart not being able to sell beer and wine in a municipality before and after a certain time because of local liquor laws...save that there's no laws involved with what Nintendo's doing there. So, you're not even close to analogous there.
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WiiU=Kiddy Console (Score:2)
Television rules (Score:5, Interesting)
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...
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Did you actually read the message you're replying to?
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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.
Set time zone.... (Score:2)
Need I say more?
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Homework Check Content Blocking System Feature (Score:2)
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 . . . ?
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Sorry to break it to you, but a corporation is not responsible for your kids safety or whether they do their chores. If you cannot be assed to raise your kids, use a fuckin' condom.
Sign of the end of civilization (Score:2)
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It's actually simple to change, just have parents act like parents.
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Except that parents offload their responsabilities
Well that is the crux of it. They actually can't offload their responsibilities, no more than the Government can give birth to their children. But how to have parents act like parents? There is the real problem. If there was a solution I'm sure we would have heard about it by now.
subject (Score:2)
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.
Nintendo needed another reason not to buy the WiiU (Score:2)
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, o
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Really? it's the liberals in America pushing the "think of the children" laws?
Limiting hours: kids aren't up at night! (Score:2)
.
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
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Parental restrictions? You mean... you mean I have to do something to protect my kids from violent games. No way! Society has to take that burden off me, and I don't give a shit how much I inconvenience anyone by that because I am a parent! Am I not punished enough already?
I'm going to guess (Score:2)
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...)?
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PEGI is similar to most other systems in place, it's mandatory to inform your customers, but it doesn't mean you cannot sell your items to whoever you please. And it doesn't mean that you cannot buy an "18" game for your 10 year old. Most of all, it doesn't mean you cannot go into a store as an adult at noon and buy whatever game you please.
In short, I cannot see any kind of pressure on Nintendo to actually do what they did. My guess is that they want to polish their "family friendly" image and pander to th
Soon in the news (Score:5, Funny)
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"
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Darwin at work.
This will separate the losers who "have to" stay up late to party, get stoned, play video games or whatever from the students who have learned time management, good studying skills and have set some priorities in their lives. The losers will fall asleep during class and eventually fail. They will go on to jobs involving the flipping of burgers (or whatever it is you Europeans eat) while the genetically superior specimens will go on to college and higher paying careers.
Unfortunately, this ap
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So that's why geeks are usually so high on the payment ladder? Since we were outcasts from the start, we didn't bother trying to be part of the crowd and didn't subject to peer pressure...
Time for a new product name ? (Score:3)
The Nintendo "Curfew U"!
Logical step (Score:3)
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.
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This isn't DRM, this is just having really weird store hours.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. :)
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Nice to know such intelligent people have stayed behind on slashdot.
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