Hardware WiiU Gamepad are region locked !

[syrusch]

It seems that WiiU gamepads are region locked !

http://mynintendonews.com/2012/12/25/wii-u-gamepads-are-region-locked/

 

[jalaneme]

wow, that is absolutely madness, WTH nintendo? so no one will be able to import from japan if a gamepad breaks.

 

[DiscostewSM]

I heard from somewhere else that using an out-of-region Gamepad will not work for updating the system firmware (since it is likely that it updates the Gamepad as well), but would work for everything else.

 

[Kamal]

Quick question guys are the pro controllers region locked want to ship from japan

 

[wolf-snake]

it make sense having the gamepad region locked since pretty much can be considered as a system itself with diferent firmware so yeah i dont understand why people bitch about the region lock in the gamepad

 

[Bladexdsl]

and peeps are surprised in this? pretty much picked it from the start that everything was gonna be locked.

 

[momocop]

Now we cant throw our gamepads at the wall anymore. They should focus on fixing loading times instead. I would also like to know if the pro controllers are region locked also.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Here's the article

http://www.destructoid.com/uh-what-wii-u-gamepads-are-also-region-locked-update--241255.phtml

It is only region-locked for updating the firmware.

 

[JamesBurt]

^ Nope. When you sync an out of region gamepad controller to the wii u it asks you to do a GamePad Update and then fails because you can't do an update with an out of region GamePad.

Verified with my USA and AUS WiiU's