“Like the Nintendo DS, the Wii will be able to play games from other regions, such as Japan, without any restriction.”In my case that meant that if I bought a Nintendo Wii here in Australia I would still be able to buy games for it if I went back to the U.S.
After that was reported around the web there a Nintendo UK spokesman contradicted that saying the Nintendo U.S. arm had made a mistake:
"We are region-locked."Well now Joystick.com claims to have finally gotten the straight answer from Nintendo:
"We've heard conflicting reports from lots of folks out there, but can tell you that Wii will be region encoded, as will first-party software."So there ya go. Those of you who read my previous post on region locking will know my stance on it. So let me just say, “Sorry Nintendo but no Wii for me.” I had planned on actually reserving one at my local EB once the Australian release date was announced but it isn’t going happen now.
I’ll repeat what I said before in my previous post. Game companies have not gained any new console video game sales from me going on 3 years now. Now they are losing out on selling me their new expensive console systems all because of region coding. The only way they will regain me as a customer, the only way they will get any money from me, is if I move back to the United States or if I am willing to start modding my systems. Well either that or they can swap me a region 4 system and copy of every region 1 game I own for that system with a promise to swap them all back plus any new one's I've bought while in Australia for region 1 versions if I go back to the United States. Somehow I'm sure they will have some detailed business model rational on why that isn't a good idea even though the current business model that I just spelled out doesn't have me doing any actual business with them.
By the way I am not a Nintendo hater, I’m a big Nintendo supporter. I’m a Zelda, Mario, Metroid fanboy! I think Shigeru Miyamoto is god! I was really looking forward to the Wii. If I wasn’t busy typing this up while waiting for a WoW Battleground to pop I’d be playing my region free Nintendo DS instead.
3 comments:
With this: http://www.smh.com.au/news/games/new-laws-target-modchip-users/2006/09/14/1157827083369.html
I wouldn't touch a console with a ten foot pole if I were you. Whoever came up with the region coding crap needs to be hung.
The topic of the legality of 'modding' has been a big topic on Auran's internal BS mailing list. Lots of discussion on why you should or should not be allowed to do what ever you want with something you’ve bought. There are good legal reasons why you might not be allowed but I really don’t wanna ramble on about it.
I’ve personally have never modded console even when everybody and their cheesy sub-plot evil twin had their PS2 modded to play import games.
I did have some extra hardware for my Super Nintendo and Genesis which were basically devices you plugged into them and then connected to your PC allowing you to load games and stuff off your PC. Generally they were used by people to pirate games but developers including Westwood used them as cheap dev systems. I think I had a pirated version of “Mean Bean Machine” for the Genesis at one point but I did wind up buying it. Besides that I never used it for anything but downloading art to the console.
Oh and Connie’s brother got me a Afterburner light kit for my Nintendo Gameboy Advance though another friend of ours installed it for me. It was a pretty high-tech endeavor involving electronic welding skill, a completely dust & static free environment, and a special super secret screwdriver. I’m not joking about the screwdriver. This was obviously before the GBA SP came out with its own built in backlight.
But speaking of hanging did you know it is illegal in Australia to hang a man with a mustache? Yeah, you have to use a rope.
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