According to this article at IGN, Nintendo of America VP confirmed that all first-party games for the Wii will be region-free. This feature is traditionally reserved for Nintendo's handheld systems, while owners of their consoles had to illegally modify their hardware or use a special booting solution for import games. Third-parties have the option to make their titles region-free or not, but this is certainly excellent news for import fans.Also revealed by Kaplan was that one's Virtual Console games are tied to one's account, not allowing transfer. There is, however, a system in place to recover your account if your Wii is suddenly eaten, destroyed, or stolen by PS3 fanboys.
Stay tuned with Wii Fanboy as we deliver more news than you can shake a stick at! No, more news at which...you could shake...no, that's not right either...whatever.
[Update 1: Just kidding. (sigh)]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-14-2006 @ 2:15PM
Shecky said...
WOW. This is great! Probably the only way US folks will be able to play that cooking game in the video.
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9-14-2006 @ 2:19PM
The Hedon said...
Not sure what the big deal is. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are also region free. Cool, but not really news...and is not limited to hand helds.
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9-14-2006 @ 2:30PM
Meikle said...
Now if only they would tell us whether the GameCube function of the console would be region free aswell, as I doubt a freeloader would work.
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9-14-2006 @ 2:57PM
Smoke said...
I think the Freeloader might still work. It employs methods similar to those of multi-disk games and they will have to support those.
But in the end, I'd rather have region free on GC games too. And it's not too difficult to implement either.
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9-14-2006 @ 3:07PM
Turken said...
I for one am excited about the region free option. I like playing quirky rhythm and music games, but unfortunately the US market is such that few ever make it here.
I think I heard something about there already being a Japanese drumming game in the works for the Wii? I'm looking forward to that one!
As for keeping the VC games tied to an account, I don't think it is highly likely that people will need to be replacing their Wii consoles due to meteor strikes, but I DO think that it is highly likely that people will want to transfer their purchased games to a new unit in 12-18 months when Nintendo announces the availability of the "new and improved" Wii XL (available in colors other than white).
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9-14-2006 @ 3:10PM
Anticrawl said...
Hells yeah, finally some news to be excited about.
Anticrawl
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9-14-2006 @ 3:33PM
nodnetni said...
So we are still waiting for hardware information and what ever those two extra things on the www.wii.com page for wii channels are, we have heard about pictures and video, maybe music(unrealistic dream of iTunes support).
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9-14-2006 @ 3:39PM
Daniel Kou said...
Remember that The DS did not sell that well until there was a price drop and introduction of the DS lite!
the Wii will cater to the hardcore at first, and then when the core unit drops down to 199.99 in one year, it will appeal greatly after a lot of people have it, and the casual gamer says ok i'll buy that now.
Most casual gamers don't know what the Wii is yet. but they know what xbox 360 is just because it has been around for awhile. Same thing for the wii.
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9-14-2006 @ 4:16PM
Hunt said...
Wait, wait... I'm confuzzled. First party games are region free but third party may not??
Technically, the system ISN'T region-free. The region has to be set somewhere. How would a third-party game know if the system is in a different region if the system isn't region free.
Methinks, you've been fooled. The Wii is region locked, but Nintendo will make *their* games available to all.
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9-14-2006 @ 10:48PM
William KEnt said...
It does seem weird that it is region free, but maybe this works out because of the fact that they might need to implement this as their DS and DS lites (which are compatible with the Wii) to be region free also, so they would work together
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9-15-2006 @ 2:13AM
Bennet McLean said...
I was just about to post the same thing as Hunt. While the DS was region-free, the Wii is not, so I suggest you rename this article as it gives a false impression to those that only skim-read your article. Your readers might decide it is in their best interests to import a cheaper Japanese Wii and then realise they've wasted their cash because it wont play any EA games, etc. This is still exciting news though, so a new title like 'Nintendo titles all region-free!' will better reflect the news.
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