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Nintendo News | No Region Free Wii, GC (or Virtual Console?)

16.09.2006

New Update - In Cubed3's exclusive interview with General Manager of Nintendo UK, David Yarnton, it was confirmed that the Wii will indeed be region-coded due to the issues with ratings boards for different locations.

For this very same reasoning, GameCube titles played via the Wii will also stick with the usual region lockouts, meaning gamers should not discard their Freeloaders or Action Replays just yet (unless Nintendo finds a way to lock them out of the Wii).

Finally, the Virtual Console was discussed, and as all the details have yet to be finalised, there is no confirmation about whether games released via the system in Japan will be available in other markets. But from the sound of things it did not appear promising. So those eager for the likes of Seiken Densetsu 3, Sin & Punishment, Mother et al, could well be disappointed.

Stick with Cubed3 for the full live interview on Monday!

Original Update - Yesterday, Nintendo of America's Perrin Kaplan confirmed that the Wii would be region free, with first party titles Wii playable on any Wii, from any country - much like the DS (see original story below).

Today, some contradictory information comes from Nintendo UK where, according to Games Industry.biz, the console is region-locked and that the US section of the company had made a mistake.

A true mistake? A feature that wasn't supposed to be announced? Nintendo UK trying to save sales? We shall see once the Wii hits stores worldwide later this year.

For a company that makes great games, Nintendo should hire a few PR people with a bit more brains.

Original Story

James Temperton -

Quick News: Sent in by a Cubed3 reader with the hilarious title Wiigion Fwii, it would seem that the Nintendo Wii will be (in case you hadn't guessed) region free. According to Wired who spoke to NOA's Perrin Kaplan, she confirmed that it would be region free just like the DS, without any restrictions. Publishers will be able to activate a region lock but apparently Nintendo will not be doing that for first party titles.

We'll bring you any relevant updates just as soon as we hear something...

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MattEvansC3 15.09.2006#51

This is going to be fun, do you think I could -
Get a US Wii, buy three controllers from Japan and then set it up on a british WiFi connection and get on to the British WiiConnect24?

I'll have fun trying out Smilie

Matthew Evans [ Writer :: Moderator :: King of Impartiality :: Lord of the 15min Thread ] As the wind blows the sand to cover the camel's tracks so does time move to cover the Lord's.
Rejoice for the Lord will taketh his quarter and give much back to his followers.

The Croft 15.09.2006#52

region free would hurt Wii sales of big games in europe like Mario Kart and SSBB

Mike Gee of iZINE said, "...The Verve, as he [Richard Ashcroft] promised, had become the greatest band in the world. Most of the critics agreed with him. Most paid due homage. The Verve were no longer the question mark or the clich�. They were the statement and the definition."

Agul 16.09.2006#53

Good grief, you guys, the price is fine. Nintendo is incorporating some cutting edge technology into both Wii and it's controllers so it's mandatory they turn some profit from it solely from the fact that they are strictly an entertainment company and do not have other divisions to full back on (not to mention they don't have they kind of deep pockets to take major financial hits like Sony and especially Microsoft). Very few people seem to understand how powerful Wii really is. It's much more powerful than what is being assumed by the average gamer. What seems to be completely absent in the brains of every gamer who's complaining about Wii's pricing, relative to another territory, is that Wii also has to be priced accordingly to said territory's economical structure and state.

As far as the bundle goes, I'm quite happy with that as well.

Mr.Ashcroft is right about region free games hurting sales. Nintendo has stated this as a problem in the past. They do, however, need to make sure they're communicating with their different branches better, lol.

Chance favors the prepared mind.

Squidboy 16.09.2006#54

I reckon many of the third parties wil follow suit with this one, a shame for those hoping to import machines, perhaps there will be a Freeloader type device, but that is likely to be a couple of months after release.
Maybe datel will be working on one soon.

3DS Code 2578-3122-0744

Raff 16.09.2006#55

Region free doesn't hurt sales, that's a retarded thing to say. It hurts profits because people who import from cheaper regions like the US and Japan won't be getting fucked over so much by Nintendo.

It's called draconian market seperation, Nintendo invented it.

*cough*many 360 games are region free*cough*

It's going to be shit and you jolly well know it.

patjuan32 16.09.2006#56

Why are you guys blaming Perrin Kaplan? This could be the fault of NOE not having the news. Gamespot contacted NOA and a rep confirmed Kaplan's story.

Link:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=24981977&sid=6157671

You guys showed a lot of class by attacking the lady and calling her out of her name. That was disgraceful and disrespectful.

ohm 16.09.2006#57

Fuckin hell! They are such fucking liars, they keep going back on their word. Ya mistake my fucking arse. OMG

SoulBro 16.09.2006#58

Man nintendo are taking the piss, saying one thing and then another, im new here by the way, could any brother show me where i can get some decent Nintendo related news?:cooldude:

Spydarlee 16.09.2006#59

Front page my man. Smilie

Cubed3 Staff [ Retro Editor :: Previews Editor ]

shiptoncraig 16.09.2006#60

Fuckin hell! They are such fucking liars, they keep going back on their word. Ya mistake my fucking arse. OMG

It's that Perrin Kaplan, there's been a few times she has wrongly suggested little "facts". In IGN's Nintendo Minute she would announce things which weren't strictly true.

360 Gamertag: shiptoncraig
PSN: shiptoncraig
Steam: Guess what?

Megadanxzero 16.09.2006#61

I wouldn't import a console even if it was region free. What if there was a third party game I wanted that wasn't region free? Then I'd be pretty fucked. But there have been loads of Japan-only games in the past that I've wanted to play... I was hoping I'd be able to import... Mo-fos >_>

Still a proud member of the 'omfg amazing water in games' society

Fenton 16.09.2006#62

Maybe you can download some new "firmware" from Wii conenct24 that allows region free hardware?

Very odd that NOE say one thing and NOA say another.

Spydarlee 16.09.2006#63

Aww man, I want Japanese retro titles Smilie

Looking forward to this interview, though!

Cubed3 Staff [ Retro Editor :: Previews Editor ]

jesusraz 16.09.2006#64

You have to remember that this is the second time Perrin Kaplan has made a mistake recently. She also stated that Monolith Soft was a Nintendo Second Party, which is tosh since it's partly funded by Namco. Disaster: Day of Crisis might be co-developed by Nintendo, but Monolith isn't tied to the company.

And Karn, I'll be truly gutted if Europeans can't download games from other regions. Why can't it be region free, though? The Game Boy and DS are, and so is the PS3 (reportedly)...

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

Spydarlee 16.09.2006#65

And Karn, I'll be truly gutted if Europeans can't download games from other regions. Why can't it be region free, though? The Game Boy and DS are, and so is the PS3 (reportedly)...

I had a feeling it was you who updated the article as it mentioned 'Secret of Mana'. Smilie

Is it just me or is their new 'rating excuse' a bit, well, pants?

Especialy when translated to online, as they can just update the ratings for each region depending on where the download request comes from!

Cubed3 Staff [ Retro Editor :: Previews Editor ]

jesusraz 16.09.2006#66

The ratings thing is a very shaky excuse indeed, especially (like I said) it doesn't bother them with GBA and DS games! Smilie Annoying indeed...

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

JoshSL 16.09.2006#67

Ooh! Whilst we're on the subject of importing Japanese games & such, even if it is a little off topic, I wonder if anyone could confirm this:

Naruto?

Will Naruto be coming to UK on THE DYING CONSOLE!? Smilie

If so, it's a must have Smilie

Twitter | C3 Writer/Moderator | Backloggery

Laurelin 16.09.2006#68

that new update sounds very poor. That's rediculous! Why don't they accept the big money we retrogamers would throw into Nintys chubby throat?

I find your lack of faith disturbing!

Raff 16.09.2006#69

As long as they translate all the other country's VC games, I'm not too bothered about that being region free. Sin & Punishment was on an english language survey thing afterall.

It's going to be shit and you jolly well know it.

shiptoncraig 16.09.2006#70

As long as they translate all the other country's VC games

Yeah, was going to say that. If we can't have Japanese retro titles, can't they translate them and release them as UK retro titles?

360 Gamertag: shiptoncraig
PSN: shiptoncraig
Steam: Guess what?

MattEvansC3 16.09.2006#71

GR, Microsoft has the only region free console. Sony have said a lot more fibs than Nintendo in the lead up to the next gen, they have also been at the forefront of most anti-import court cases.

tiamat1990 17.09.2006#72

More bad news...I'm having really big mood swings by just reading these articles Smilie

Grammar Police Returns 17.09.2006#73

Don't worry about David Yarnton guys, he doesn't know what he's talking about half the time. Just take a look at this:

Are you going to achieve that with another iteration of the DS hardware?
We've got the hardware there now and I think one of the things we've seen in Japan where the growth has come is the release of the content. I mean, Nintendogs was the first one that came and gave us a spike - okay, seasonality as well, but we still haven't actually caught up on Nintendogs and there's still demand out there we haven't supplied. Next one is Brain Training and we've seen the same thing in Japan and as I mentioned with Brain Training it was 13 weeks after launch that it hit its first big spike and then continued to get higher - and those people are new users as well, so very much the content is the thing now.
That's true obviously, but Nintendo does have a history of redesigning handheld hardware and there has been all this discussion about whether you guys are going to do a DS redesign this year.
If I turned around and said to my staff that we're doing something new they'd probably throttle me, because what with this last 12 months of product that we've done and also what we've got in the first quarter...
Can you categorically rule out then that you'll have a DS redesign announcement at E3?
That's been rumoured, I don't know for how long, but we haven't got any plans at the moment. Nothing I know of.

Link

He stated the above about two (I repeat, two) days before DS Lite was announced (IIRC). Now, this does not sound like someone who was hiding a secret, he seriously was not in the know. Yarnton's comments about Wii not being region free due to ratings issues is one heck of a stupid excuse. Why do we have multi-region DVD players? Are all the retailers rushing out to sell import DVDs? No, because it is in their better interests to sell region 2 DVDs. I highly doubt that we would see import games in places like Game and Gamestation, where the majority of games here are bought from, no doubt. Therefore there would be no need for Nintendo UK to monitor and deal with ratings on import games. Just like the film board here in the UK doesn't have to bother about classifications from abroad. Take a look at this video interview with Perrin. Clearly I can't claim she's definitely correct, but she states that Wii is definitely region free and that she has had a lot of people ask her about it. It seems to me she knows what she's talking about, but even though I have given her the benefit of the doubt, some of you have pointed out that she has made mistakes in the past. I don't know, maybe it'll turn out to be region free in Japan and NA and Europe will be screwed over. I hope not.

Smilie

Edit this post:

Don't worry about David Yarnton guys, he doesn't know what he's talking about half the time.  Just take a look at this:

[quote][b]Are you going to achieve that with another iteration of the DS hardware?[/b]

We've got the hardware there now and I think one of the things we've seen in Japan where the growth has come is the release of the content. I mean, Nintendogs was the first one that came and gave us a spike - okay, seasonality as well, but we still haven't actually caught up on Nintendogs and there's still demand out there we haven't supplied. Next one is Brain Training and we've seen the same thing in Japan and as I mentioned with Brain Training it was 13 weeks after launch that it hit its first big spike and then continued to get higher - and those people are new users as well, so very much the content is the thing now.

[b]That's true obviously, but Nintendo does have a history of redesigning handheld hardware and there has been all this discussion about whether you guys are going to do a DS redesign this year.[/b]

If I turned around and said to my staff that we're doing something new they'd probably throttle me, because what with this last 12 months of product that we've done and also what we've got in the first quarter...

[b]Can you categorically rule out then that you'll have a DS redesign announcement at E3?[/b]

That's been rumoured, I don't know for how long, but we haven't got any plans at the moment. Nothing I know of.[/quote]
[url=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=14269]Link[/url]

He stated the above about two (I repeat, two) days before DS Lite was announced (IIRC).  Now, this does not sound like someone who was hiding a secret, he seriously was not in the know.  Yarnton's comments about Wii not being region free due to ratings issues is one heck of a stupid excuse.  Why do we have multi-region DVD players?  Are all the retailers rushing out to sell import DVDs?  No, because it is in their better interests to sell region 2 DVDs.  I highly doubt that we would see import games in places like Game and Gamestation, where the majority of games here are bought from, no doubt.  Therefore there would be no need for Nintendo UK to monitor and deal with ratings on import games.  Just like the film board here in the UK doesn't have to bother about classifications from abroad.  Take a look at [url=http://www.aussie-nintendo.com/?v=news&p=5062]this[/url] video interview with Perrin.  Clearly I can't claim she's definitely correct, but she states that Wii is definitely region free and that she has had a lot of people ask her about it.  It seems to me she knows what she's talking about, but even though I have given her the benefit of the doubt, some of you have pointed out that she has made mistakes in the past.  I don't know, maybe it'll turn out to be region free in Japan and NA and Europe will be screwed over.  I hope not.

:roller:

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jesusraz 17.09.2006#74

Yeah it is a pain, but that's why I wanted to clarify the issue with David Smilie At least settle the matter once and for all.

I know GamesIndustry asked about Wii region-locking, but didn't ask about GC games or the VC Smilie

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

Grammar Police Returns 18.09.2006#75

Well, it looks like this matter isn't settled, heh!

Perrin Kaplan says region free, David Yarton says she is incorrect, and now we have Gamespot doing some hunting of it's own. In their latest Rumor Control section (posted on the 14th) they have given evidence which leads them to believe the Wii is region free. The article hasn't been updated with any news stating the contrary.
The official story: Getting answers from Nintendo proved difficult during one of the company's busiest days of the year. However, after a lengthy exchange of cryptic e-mails, a rep finally confirmed that Kaplan's words regarding regionless first-party titles and potentially regionless third-party titles were indeed correct:

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