Confirmed: Wii U is Region Locked

[Gahars]

I hope someone finds a weakness in the console, because it would be a shame to have to buy another region console to play Japanese games >___

 

[Hop2089]

It's much more than that. It's about buying foreign games with weak currency (price control), copyright protection, compatibility issues (contrary to popular belief, most of the world still owns TV sets incompatible with another region's signal.), and of course censorship.

I'm not saying I agree with region locking which I don't, but it's naive to simplify it like that.

But all that just sounds like one big excuse to control how the people should think and do as well as having the opportunity to over charge people and treat its fanbase badly.

Actually TwinRetro has a point about compatibility issues while it's not a huge problem in NA and Europe there are still people in these places that don't have a TV that is compatible with another region's signal and you have to figure in the rest of Asia too which is a slightly larger problem than in the West. Reverse importing can be a problem with some games mostly in Japan but EU and AU as well due to censorship and expensive pricing.

 

[ferofax]

Short version- there is no real technological need for region locking these days which means companies can be called on it.

So overall there is no need and the only reason for region locking exist is just companies want to be able to over charge you for the same product.

I'm gonna hazard a guess that, yes, it is mainly money related with Nintendo. But not exactly just for gouging. Without region-locking, there's no reason for Nintendo of Europe. Why? Because anything NoA and NoJ decide to release, EU can just import it anyway. So why have an NoE? I think this is more of a clear delineation of distribution regions between the three Nintendos. NoE won't have to worry about not getting any sales because EU keeps buying US and JP games, which limits the EU market to being... well, a minor market that leeches off US/JP products. It won't let them become their own market. I'm guessing this agreement was reached because of Nintendo of Europe. Kind of like an independence sort of thing. NoA and NoJ want to see NoE succeed on its own and decide for its own how to go about doing that.

Well, that's my economist take on region-locking for Nintendo.

As for the issue of region-locking itself, it's a big "BOOOOOO" for me as well, but hey, we'll all move and decide to get the WiiU at some point or another anyways. Some of you will just take longer to persuade, and will require huge amounts of awesome announcements before giving in.

 

[the_randomizer]

The problem with Japan is:

- NTSC J (not that much of a problem anymore I guess)
- Language
- Voltage/frequency

Some regions do NOT sell their own region power cables (like Singapore -.- ), so getting a JP import will require either some searching or a step down transformer.

Japanese appliances are 100 volts. Even some Japanese appliances can get fried in an American socket which is 120 volts.

Bought a Super Famicom from a second-hand shop in Japan with an AC adapter, plugged it in a 120Hz outlet and never had it get ruined by the higher voltage.


And just to set the record straight, none of Nintendo's consoles were ever region free (without modification), only their handhelds up to the 3DS were region free. This is not something new.

 

[the_randomizer]

*Removed*

 

[chris888222]

The problem with Japan is:

- NTSC J (not that much of a problem anymore I guess)
- Language
- Voltage/frequency

Some regions do NOT sell their own region power cables (like Singapore -.- ), so getting a JP import will require either some searching or a step down transformer.

Japanese appliances are 100 volts. Even some Japanese appliances can get fried in an American socket which is 120 volts.

Bought a Super Famicom from a second-hand shop in Japan with an AC adapter, plugged it in a 120Hz outlet and never had it get ruined by the higher voltage.


And just to set the record straight, none of Nintendo's consoles were ever region free (without modification), only their handhelds up to the 3DS were region free. This is not something new.

I said some devices, not all. I'd prefer to be safe than sorry.

 

[the_randomizer]

If anything, region-locking only encourages people to develop hacks for said consoles. Just look at the Wii, it's region lock was software based and hackers allowed users to bypass it. I know I did, and I'm not ashamed of hacking my Wii to enabled backups, games from any region (force NTSC), emulators, etc. I wish people would stop assuming that the Wii U will be hacked as soon as it's released; it won't, plain and simple, it will take months if not years for it get hacked.

 

[FAST6191]

I am not sure you can simplify it that much ferofax- ways of doing business in Europe vs the rest of the world as far as tax, IP law and licensing things for sale go are different enough that when coupled with language differences (US and UK English is different enough most of the time, Canadian French and French from France is different enough, same for Spanish and not that anybody does anything for it Portuguese as well) it plays in as well to say nothing of finding a Europe dialect translator crew in North America is a bit more troublesome than in Europe. All that would make a fairly strong case for having a base of European operations. Likewise NoE seems to be acting as something of a non Japanese testing bed these days (although Korea seems to be rising up very quickly there- poke around the Korean language DS releases).

Europe as second fiddle to the rest of the world... I will have to look at numbers but it might be the case that in many ways Japan is in third place as far as the traditional regions go (I am lumping Australia in with Europe), certainly Microsoft seem to have done OK without doing much for/in Japan other than more or less just being there.

 

[Just Another Gamer]

Actually TwinRetro has a point about compatibility issues while it's not a huge problem in NA and Europe there are still people in these places that don't have a TV that is compatible with another region's signal and you have to figure in the rest of Asia too which is a slightly larger problem than in the West. Reverse importing can be a problem with some games mostly in Japan but EU and AU as well due to censorship and expensive pricing.

I don't see how censorship is a right reason to have region locking, if anything it is encouraging people to think in a certain way and never change to see something different or try something that isn't accepted in the social norm but is perfectly legal.

I'm gonna hazard a guess that, yes, it is mainly money related with Nintendo. But not exactly just for gouging. Without region-locking, there's no reason for Nintendo of Europe. Why? Because anything NoA and NoJ decide to release, EU can just import it anyway. So why have an NoE? I think this is more of a clear delineation of distribution regions between the three Nintendos. NoE won't have to worry about not getting any sales because EU keeps buying US and JP games, which limits the EU market to being... well, a minor market that leeches off US/JP products. It won't let them become their own market. I'm guessing this agreement was reached because of Nintendo of Europe. Kind of like an independence sort of thing. NoA and NoJ want to see NoE succeed on its own and decide for its own how to go about doing that.

Well, that's my economist take on region-locking for Nintendo.

As for the issue of region-locking itself, it's a big "BOOOOOO" for me as well, but hey, we'll all move and decide to get the WiiU at some point or another anyways. Some of you will just take longer to persuade, and will require huge amounts of awesome announcements before giving in.

But the problem is not every single game released on the 3DS or the WiiU will be sold in a certain country so people in that country will miss out on what could be a great game because it might not sell well or it not socially accepted and while the former seems like a good logical reason the latter is not and is just as stupid as censorship is.

 

[ShadowSoldier]

Kind of funny I've never had a big problem with Region Locking. It never really affected me at all.

The only time it would is say if a Mario or Zelda game doesn't get released here, then I'd be pissed.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

Actually TwinRetro has a point about compatibility issues while it's not a huge problem in NA and Europe there are still people in these places that don't have a TV that is compatible with another region's signal and you have to figure in the rest of Asia too which is a slightly larger problem than in the West. Reverse importing can be a problem with some games mostly in Japan but EU and AU as well due to censorship and expensive pricing.

I don't see how censorship is a right reason to have region locking, if anything it is encouraging people to think in a certain way and never change to see something different or try something that isn't accepted in the social norm but is perfectly legal.

Let me just put up an example. Let's say some generic ecchi game is released for the Wii-U in Japan and A gory over-the-top Nazi blasting shooter is released for the US. I'm sure it would be frowned upon if US could import that ecchi game (Sex is a taboo subject in Video games, here.) And it would also be frowned upon if the shooter would be imported to Germany. (A standing ban on gory games and nazi imagery.) That combined with different game rating standards for different countries and regions, controlling what is sold where can be a real mess, and could lead up to even harsher censorship laws if enough people imported one certain game to make it noticeable to lawmakers.

 

[Carnivean]

Kind of funny I've never had a big problem with Region Locking. It never really affected me at all.

The only time it would is say if a Mario or Zelda game doesn't get released here, then I'd be pissed.

That's because it is not your country that gets fucked over with release windows. Look at the Rune Factory release dates in European regions for an example of the ridiculous windows we have to put up with here.

 

[Just Another Gamer]

Actually TwinRetro has a point about compatibility issues while it's not a huge problem in NA and Europe there are still people in these places that don't have a TV that is compatible with another region's signal and you have to figure in the rest of Asia too which is a slightly larger problem than in the West. Reverse importing can be a problem with some games mostly in Japan but EU and AU as well due to censorship and expensive pricing.

I don't see how censorship is a right reason to have region locking, if anything it is encouraging people to think in a certain way and never change to see something different or try something that isn't accepted in the social norm but is perfectly legal.

Let me just put up an example. Let's say some generic ecchi game is released for the Wii-U in Japan and A gory over-the-top Nazi blasting shooter is released for the US. I'm sure it would be frowned upon if US could import that ecchi game (Sex is a taboo subject in Video games, here.) And it would also be frowned upon if the shooter would be imported to Germany. (A standing ban on gory games and nazi imagery.) That combined with different game rating standards for different countries and regions, controlling what is sold where can be a real mess, and could lead up to even harsher censorship laws if enough people imported one certain game to make it noticeable to lawmakers.

Isn't the irony in that is Japan is more conservative compared to US but US doesn't want an ecchi games to be released anywhere in the western world.

But the nazi thing is hated worldwide since no one says whats the nazi's did was a good thing but a little bit of sexual stuff in a video game is somehow just as bad just screams bullshit to me. I mean whats the big deal since every country has a rating system plus it seems a little stupid to compare sex in video games to the nazis.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

Actually TwinRetro has a point about compatibility issues while it's not a huge problem in NA and Europe there are still people in these places that don't have a TV that is compatible with another region's signal and you have to figure in the rest of Asia too which is a slightly larger problem than in the West. Reverse importing can be a problem with some games mostly in Japan but EU and AU as well due to censorship and expensive pricing.

I don't see how censorship is a right reason to have region locking, if anything it is encouraging people to think in a certain way and never change to see something different or try something that isn't accepted in the social norm but is perfectly legal.

Let me just put up an example. Let's say some generic ecchi game is released for the Wii-U in Japan and A gory over-the-top Nazi blasting shooter is released for the US. I'm sure it would be frowned upon if US could import that ecchi game (Sex is a taboo subject in Video games, here.) And it would also be frowned upon if the shooter would be imported to Germany. (A standing ban on gory games and nazi imagery.) That combined with different game rating standards for different countries and regions, controlling what is sold where can be a real mess, and could lead up to even harsher censorship laws if enough people imported one certain game to make it noticeable to lawmakers.

Isn't the irony in that is Japan is more conservative compared to US but US doesn't want an ecchi games to be released anywhere in the western world.

But the nazi thing is hated worldwide since no one says whats the nazi's did was a good thing but a little bit of sexual stuff in a video game is somehow just as bad just screams bullshit to me. I mean whats the big deal since every country has a rating system plus it seems a little stupid to compare sex in video games to the nazis.

I think you kind of missed the point I was trying to make.

 

[The Catboy]

Kind of funny I've never had a big problem with Region Locking. It never really affected me at all.

The only time it would is say if a Mario or Zelda game doesn't get released here, then I'd be pissed.

Pretty much this.
I do find it annoying when a game is only released in Japan, but even then I am not going to import it because I can't even read Japanese. It would be a lose-lose situation.
EDIT: This is just my personal feelings on the topic. I know and understand that some places either get the games later or not at all, but I was only referring to my personal feelings on this matter.
But personally region locks don't effect me too much. I am not saying I am in favor of them, because I am not in favor of region locks.

 

[Arras]

Kind of funny I've never had a big problem with Region Locking. It never really affected me at all.

The only time it would is say if a Mario or Zelda game doesn't get released here, then I'd be pissed.

Pretty much this.
I do find it annoying when a game is only released in Japan, but even then I am not going to import it because I can't even read Japanese. It would be a lose-lose situation.

Like someone said before: this is pretty much only true if you live in America. Europe usually gets games 6 to 12 months later, sometimes for no real reason. Importing would be way faster and in some cases even cheaper, but you can't.

 

[Just Another Gamer]

I think you kind of missed the point I was trying to make.

I do get your point that each country has what they deem to be socially acceptable but honestly this is gaming where we can go into an imaginary world where we can be someone else and do things we can't in real life so who really cares about trivial issues like sexual stuff in a video game I mean if it sells well wheres the problem if its like nazi stuff then I agree it should be banned but other it just seems redundant?

I play H-VNs and it doesn't change who I am and if anything Hoshizora no Memoria a H-VN has a much better story, character development, music etc than alot of the mainstream games on the market right now and the only reason I believe its not released in the west is because it can't sell well due to it being socially unacceptable but still legal.

Kind of funny I've never had a big problem with Region Locking. It never really affected me at all.

The only time it would is say if a Mario or Zelda game doesn't get released here, then I'd be pissed.

Pretty much this.
I do find it annoying when a game is only released in Japan, but even then I am not going to import it because I can't even read Japanese. It would be a lose-lose situation.

Like someone said before: this is pretty much only true if you live in America. Europe usually gets games 6 to 12 months later, sometimes for no real reason. Importing would be way faster and in some cases even cheaper, but you can't.

In some cases EU misses out entirely while US still gets it released.

 

[Arras]

In some cases EU misses out entirely while US still gets it released.

Yeah, that too. That doesn't happen often though. Although Capcom decided against releasing Miles Edgeworth Investigations 1 where I live, so I hope PLvsAA and AA5 will be released here if they are translated.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

I think you kind of missed the point I was trying to make.

I do get your point that each country has what they deem to be socially acceptable but honestly this is gaming where we can go into an imaginary world where we can be someone else and do things we can't in real life so who really cares about trivial issues like sexual stuff in a video game I mean if it sells well wheres the problem if its like nazi stuff then I agree it should be banned but other it just seems redundant?

In one part of your reply you say you understand that each country has what they deem as socially acceptable. Yet in the part I bolded you completely go back on that by saying censoring sexual content is okay, yet Nazi imagery is right to be censored. And before you said censorship altogether is a dumb idea. So forgive me if I really have no idea where your thoughts are on this topic.

 

[Eerpow]

Kind of funny I've never had a big problem with Region Locking. It never really affected me at all.

The only time it would is say if a Mario or Zelda game doesn't get released here, then I'd be pissed.

Pretty much this.
I do find it annoying when a game is only released in Japan, but even then I am not going to import it because I can't even read Japanese. It would be a lose-lose situation.

And 99% of the time it's a text heavy RPG or something, games in other genres almost always get localized.

Also I can't import anything due to the incredibly high outside of EU toll taxes we have.