After a bunch of Perrin Kaplan flip-flopping and general mass hysteria, it turned out that the Wii would in fact be region-specific after all. Importing games that the world has deemed too insane for the American public is one of our greatest joys in this world, and lo, Nintendo cut us down without mercy. But in this rare tale of Nintendo playing the role of evil, a shining knight gallops toward us with an interesting coat of arms adorning yon shield ... it's Datel, Advanced Gaming Technology™! Yes!Apparently, Datel has announced plans to bring a Wii version of their popular Freeloader boot disc, allowing a gamer to essentially ignore any and all region-locks. Though the updatable nature of the Wii theoretically might allow Nintendo to block this product in the future, we'd imagine that even evil has unexpected bouts of lenience.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-15-2006 @ 2:57PM
Author X said...
Hoorah! I've been waiting for this! Bleach Wii shall be mine!
Also, I sent this in as a tip, but I guess it wasn't enough news by itself. Datel has released a Gamecube Freeloader that plays foreign Gamecube games on the Wii. 100% confirmed Wii compatable:
http://us.codejunkies.com/news_reviews.asp?c=US&cr=USD&cs=$&r=0&l=1&p=23&i=9055&s=8
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12-15-2006 @ 3:46PM
Moogle said...
Actually, Datel threatened to sue Nintendo for destroying the 3rd party region unlocking market when they heard about the region free Wii. Afraid of bad press, Nintendo relented and added regions to pacify Datel's carnivorous lawyers.
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12-16-2006 @ 1:59AM
Abscissa said...
#2: Sounds interesting. Where are your sources for that?
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12-27-2006 @ 10:33PM
Hersch said...
It looks like one of the last few Wii updates eliminated the old Freeloader for the Gamecube. I tried to get it to work the other day and was simply greeted with a disc read error.
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12-30-2006 @ 1:58PM
MatchLegacy said...
#2: Bad press? Hah! I think going region locked was far more damaging to their image than a lawsuit from (technically) a "hacking/cracking" company.
What's a dumber move? Looking good in the news, or appealing to people that actually are going to PLAY the Wii. Seriously, how many kids do you know that would care about 3rd party markets in the news? Heck, I cant even find one that reads the newspaper or cares to search for that crap online anyway.
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1-01-2007 @ 4:14PM
MrPants said...
Any of you morons realize that what #2 said was...hold on. A joke!?
Also, can't wait for the freeloader
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1-05-2007 @ 4:10PM
James said...
ye but i thought, after the freeloader is released, what if nintendo releses a new update on everyones wii sayin an update is now avalible la bla download now? and it like blocks the freeloader disk and makes it so that it dont work or sommet? could they do that??
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2-04-2007 @ 3:36PM
-RandomDude- said...
#2: No, no and no. Nintendo has other reasons for region protection.
Besides that point, there is also the fact that DATEL can upgrade their software as well! They can try upgrading via WiiConnect24, but Nintendo will most likely block thsoe updates.
But then there's the SD slot! Datel can simply put their updates on the web site, and we can upload updates via SD card. (Security would not be a problem, since the updates on the SD card would simply be accessed from the freeloader disk which would have encryption) While doing that might take some time, it would be worth it! I'd rather not spend $25 each time Nintendo updates the firmware.
I'm almost sure that that is what Datel has in mind, since it's a relativly easy way to update and make sure people don't need to purchase 500 diffrent versions. If they arn't thinking of that, they better read this post.
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2-13-2007 @ 7:15PM
pochi said...
I dont care how it happens, I just want the wii-loader NOW!
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3-06-2007 @ 2:55PM
sam said...
do u need a different memory card for the wiifreeloader? i want to know, cause thats what they did for GC, and it sucked.............-_-
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