Wii hope you enjoy this

[Darkforce]

Anyways, this console will be on my, "to get" list when I (hopefully) go to Hong Kong next year. I really, really hope the region free aspect is true or maybe someone is willing to hack it to do that.

Nintendo have stated that all first party games will be region free. Region locks are available however for any third party developers who wish to use them.

The 360 works on the same basis - developers can choose to put region locks on. Some do and some don't =\. Developers would probably have more of a reason to implement a region lock on the 360 as game prices vary a lot more between regions and some developers probably won't want people saving $20 buying the asian version. So in short yes I can imagine region locks on third party Wii games, but it shouldn't be as bad as with the 360. I hope xD.

I've put a preorder in for the Japanese version with play-asia and as soon as the US version is up for pre-order I'll switch to that. I figure any region locked third party games I want I can import from the US, or datel will probably come up with a new Freeloader or something like they always do. =D

 

[legendofphil]

I believe that when Nintendo don't region protect then most other dev's won't either.
But if 3rd party's do then I can only hope that region exclusive titles like Bleach Wii will be region free.

 

[Costello]

I believe that when Nintendo don't region protect then most other dev's won't either.
But if 3rd party's do then I can only hope that region exclusive titles like Bleach Wii will be region free.

I agree with you. Nintendo said they wouldn't charge for online Wifi games on the DS, but that 3rd party editors would be allowed to.
And so far, all online WiFi DS games are free!

 

[ConraDargo]

ok guy just order one Nintendo Wii Console + Wii Sports with The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess, 2ed Nintendo Remote Control for £244.97

Well then, spill the beans - what store did you pick?!

 

[shaunj66]

I just got an interesting newsletter type e-mail update from GamePlay.co.uk.

Here's a snippet...

The date and price

Set to launch in the UK and Europe on December the 8th this year, the Wii has been provisionally priced at £179.99 by Nintendo. Please note that this hasn't been confirmed as our retail price yet, and that we'll confirm our own price for the system when pre-orders open shortly.

Interesting that they'd even mention this in their e-mail isn't it? Perhaps we can look forward to a cheaper or possibly even more expensive price at retail?

 

[jhoff80]

Hmm, has anyone watched the IGN Trauma Center videos? It appears that they are showing the game on a non-stretched widescreen display, which if it is the case, is great, because formerly Atlus said it would only have a 4x3 mode.

Edit: Oh, and apparently now the Wii won't be region-free, as said in an article from IGN.

"Wii games will not be region-free according to Nintendo UK's General Manager David Yarnton. Speaking exclusively with IGN at Nintendo's European Wii press event in London, Yarnton confirmed that Wii games and online content will be region-encoded, meaning European gamers won't be able to play titles from the US and Japan and vice-versa."

 

[legendofphil]

Gamesindustry.biz are reporting that it is region protected and that "the US arm of the company made a mistake".

EDIT: Beat to it, oh well. But its still a kick in the balls. Still time for it to be taken out.

 

[THeLL]

Yeah

I'm glad the Wii games don't become as expensive as the Xbox 360 and PS3 ones will...

 

[legendofphil]

The prices of the virtual console for europe are in and slightly more expensive than thought

Prices are tiered with NES games available for 500 "Wii Points" at £3.50/€5, SNES games will cost 800 points (£5.60/€8) and N64 will set you back 1000 points, or £7/€10. The pricing for titles on other formats - SEGA Mega Drive, TurboGrafx and MSX - has yet to be confirmed. You'll be able to pick up point cards at retail outlets, with 2000 points weighing in at £14/€20.

 

[Darkforce]

Gah! Stupid NOE, I really hope the machine isn't region locked *sigh*. I encourage everyone to email them about this, because it's only today this news has surfaced and uptill yesterday Nintendo has been proclaiming the Wii as region free.
There are bound to be some import worthy titles on the Wii... (I was looking forward to any rhythm games myself) it'd be a shame to miss out on them. The only reason some games such as Ouendan are even coming out in the West are because the titles were popular with importers.

*3 weeks* Ugh! I don't know if I can cope with the thought of waiting 3 weeks longer than everyone to play Zelda TP. Even if the mahcines are region encoded I'm very tempted to get one just to get Zelda early... >_>;

Oh and remember the whole rumour about the Wii launching in the UK for £149.99 on the 24th of November? Well apparently that was the *definate* price and date planned, right up until when Sony delayed the PS3. NOE took advantage of the new situation and decided to raise the price a bit as there's no longer as much competition. Sounds pretty plausible to me.

Well I'm off to send NOE an angry email.

p.s Virtual Console prices kinda suck, why would I want to purchased some DRM'ed piece of data for £7 when I can buy the physical game second hand for £1-2? Also sounds like with the region locks for online content, I won't be able to buy a VC points card from the US to save myself a bit of money. I imagine the DRM/copy protection stuff on the games being hacked fairly quickly though, so I'm not fussed.

 

[jhoff80]

I imagine the DRM/copy protection stuff on the games being hacked fairly quickly though, so I'm not fussed.

What I'm worried about is that it is sounding like VC games will be tied to your account online, so it might not be as simple as you (or I, for that matter) were hoping

 

[legendofphil]

Virtual Console prices kinda suck, why would I want to purchased some DRM'ed piece of data for £7 when I can buy the physical game second hand for £1-2? Also sounds like with the region locks for online content, I won't be able to buy a VC points card from the US to save myself a bit of money.

It will depend on the game but some are more expensive than that, for example both N64 Zelda games are more than £10 pre-owned. Plus it saves buying the console, I never owned a NES but wouldn't mind playing some of the games.

The region locking on the online content does bother me, I just hope its console based rather than IP based. The xbox market place does something similar, there are some items that I know are on it but I can't get here. Their points card are extremely strick, you can only use the points card from the country you are in, apart from the 2100 which is europe wide.

 

[Cutman]

About Region Locking.

http://www.cubed3.com/news/5953/1/Wii_is_N...n_Free_(Update)

To quote it

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.

 

[legendofphil]

I followed that through to the original source and it was something that was posted on the wired blog yesterday, I think we will have to wait till Monday to find out for sure.

 

[FAST6191]

Phew, 354 posts read.
Some interesting opinions and stuff flying around. Prices as far as release prices go are good and at some point in the last few months I resigned myself to the fact Europe/Australia, scratch that anywhere that is not the US (I will include Canada here) or Japan will always get the short end of the stick when it comes to electronics and computer games.

I guess I will not be breaking my "wait a year before purchase" policy though.

If anyone wants a copy of the promo video (the game montage) in a real video format http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=13082&type=wmv granted it is one of the worst compression jobs I have ever seen.

 

[pika3000]

http://wii.ign.com/articles/732/732982p1.html
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=19686

 

[amazoncd]

Region locked? We need a mod chip!

 

[dice]

I dont see the point in replying because it's highly unlikely that someone will even read it lol

europe getting ripped off once again :/

 

[Ace Gunman]

Well, my Wii is pre-ordered. Can't wait.

EDIT: It seems I must retract my previous statement. I sent my mom to pre-order the Wii, and apparently my local EB Games isn't accepting pre-orders until they know how many they'll be recieving, even though they're aware of the release date. She did however pre-order Twilight Princess for Wii. I don't like the sounds of this scenario at all. There's now a chance I could end up with a copy of the game, but no console to play it on.

 

[squall3031]

399.95 bucks for AUSTRALIAN release???
Hell no...!! 350 bucks, i buy !!