Hacking Wii U Region lock issue

[d0ud0u]

Hi guys, as most of you guys should be aware of, the anticipating Fatal Frame 5, Zero: Nuregarasu no Miko (NTSC-J) will be out in Japan. Of course, I would like to own a copy as soon as possible. For myself, I am preparing to buy a Wii U set to play this game however I have many concern.

I can choose to buy US set or Jap Set, though getting a Jap set will be harder for me. I would like to check if I am able to play NTSC-J Wii U game on a NTSC-U set, through softmodding. I had done some research and that there is homebrew channel for the Wii Menu in Wii U. But, if I were to insert a NTSC-J Wii U game, would I be able to play it through the homebrew channel? Or it is only meant for Wii games, not Wii U games?

How exactly should I go about it?

Or should I just give up and get a Jap Set? However, the games I could play will be restricted to NTSC-J right? Or there is already a hack to play NTSC-U games on Jap set too?

Please advise. Thanks.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

Fatal Frame is being released on Sept. 27 and Nintendo still hasn't announced a release date in the west? Scumbags! I was waiting to pre-order this game.

Wii Menu = Wii games only

Your best bet is either to wait for Wiikey U (or something like it) or order a Japanese Wii U (this is gonna be quite pricey).

 

[d0ud0u]

Of course if can I would like to get a Wii US set.. It would be even better if there is a date of release for English version of Fatal Frame 5 even if I have to wait for a few more months. However, there is no news at all for english release. Based on the Fatal Frame 4 experience, which is japan exclusive, the only way to play english version is through homebrew hack.

I don't mind getting a wiikey U too if it would allow me to bypass the japan title(NTSC-J) wii u games to be played on NTSC-U set.

Any idea if Wiikey U is out for sales already?

I want that Fatal Frame 5 BADLY!

 

[Tomy Sakazaki]

At the moment there is no public way to execute WiiU games from other regions, if you are willing to pay for a NTSC-J unit, this will be the only way to play the newest fatal frame, but it will only execute japanese games.
There aren't any actual news about WiiUKey or whatever the ODE product is called. And I higlhy doubt that if it exists it will support games from other regions on it's release time.

 

[NWPlayer123]

It is literally impossible for an ODE to be region-free on the Wii U. There is no way for region free to happen other then developing an IOSU softmod exploit.

 

[the_randomizer]

It is literally impossible for an ODE to be region-free on the Wii U. There is no way for region free to happen other then developing an IOSU softmod exploit.

Proving that region locking is unnecessary and does little to actually help sales.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

Proving that region locking is unnecessary and does little to actually help sales.

It makes the sales even worse than they are already.

 

[d0ud0u]

Is there any possibility, if i bought a NTSC-J console, I will be able to play NTSC-U games next time through some hacking/soft modding? I also heard there are some NTSC-U games works fine on NTSC-J because of their both NTSC platform.

 

[sj33]

I'm afraid there is no way you will be able to play the game on anything other than a Japanese console, and American games will still require an American console. It's to do with region coding, nothing to do with video output.

 

[Wellington2k]

You're looking at $450 for a deluxe NTSC-J Wii U...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B009K1ECXQ/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

...and $350 for basic.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B009K1EDTY/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

 

[sj33]

If it sways the issue, I bought Zero 5 today and it is excellent. I bought a WiiU as soon as it was announced as a WiiU exclusive.

 

[wiitf]

If you can wait, the Wii U's region lock WILL eventually be bypassed. There are no disc-based systems that haven't had ways around region locks. Just a matter of time.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

If you can wait, the Wii U's region lock WILL eventually be bypassed. There are no disc-based systems that haven't had ways around region locks. Just a matter of time.

The same goes for cartridge based consoles back in the day, where there's a will there's a way. Its only a matter of "when" it will happen. As crediar has previously stated, it looks like a hardware mod alone will not brings us region free gaming. Nintendo really locked the Wii U down in terms of region coding this time around. Using an ODE in conjunction with some sort of software exploit could work, but I doubt an ODE alone will do it. Another possibility is if we're able to decrypt a wii U iso, patch the region info (like on the original wii with the older chips), then resign/fakesign the iso somehow. In order for this to work we will need the private keys for the disc encryption itself which as far as I know, has yet to be obtained.

Even when the time comes that we're able to decrypt/reencrypt wii U isos, there is also a possibility that the region info is literally pressed into the disc itself and cannot simply be patched with a program. If this is this case then some sort of software based loader/exploit would be the ONLY way to pull it off. Something that functions kind of like gecko and tinyload did on the original wii (forces the disc to load while blatantly ignoring the region info on the disc) would likely do it.

Also once we have full kernel access to CafeOS we may be able to tweak the OS to allow it to be region free or w/e.

Again all of these possibilities still rely on some sort of software to pull it off.

Unless Team Wiikey or Team Cobra has some crazy idea up their sleeve that can somehow patch the region info 'on the fly' with hardware (not likely) that nobody else knows about, I don't see ODE's bringing us region free gaming alone.

 

[sj33]

And to be fair, it will be a while before the WiiU scene reaches that point. Much progress has been made, but little of the kind being discussed in this thread. It will be a while.

So if you really want Zero 5, just buy a Japanese WiiU. No western release date has been announced - Zero 4 famously was not released in the west, and the Zero 2 HD remake was bizarrely EU-only.