Topic: Question about downloading games overseas

Hi,
I'm an American currently living in Japan, and I'm thinking about getting a Wii U (especially with the new Mario Cart 8 offer). But I'm wondering about how easy it would be to get games in English. My Japanese is OK, but I'd prefer the games to be in English (I don't particularly relish the idea of doing even more Japanese studying as I'm trying to play a video game). I do have a VPN service set up (Private Internet Access), which I use with my computer, but I'm wondering whether the Wii U is set up to make use of it.

I DO NOT have a VPN router (I found it too difficult to set one up). So it would have to be something that I can set up and connect to from within the Wii U. So my question is this: Does anyone know whether you can use a VPN service to change your country on the Wii U and thereby purchase and download a game from another country? I've looked around on the internet and haven't found anything that quite answers my question, and it seems like something you'd have to already own a Wii U to be able to answer, so I thought this forum would be a good place to go

the wii U is region locked if you want to play the games in english your going to have to import a Wii U, the area your in shouldn't matter though so no vpn will be needed if your downloading games.

Unfortunately, Nintendoes what others don't and region lock the consoles so you cannot access the NA eshop from a Wii U bought in Japan no matter what.... However if you import a NA Wii U to Japan you should be able to access the NA eshop with no problems (NIntendo at least doesn't do IP checks) you would be required to pay with U.S credit card if you want to us the U.S E-shop (if you don't have access to a U.S credit card you can set your region to Canada and pay with an international card, luckily Nintendo hasn't stopped that yet)

If you are lucky you might find a US region Wii U console at retail somewhere. I'm currently living in Malaysia and luckily managed to pick up a US system here, and I can use the North American eshop with no problems.

I tend to download most games, especially the Nintendo first party titles, but also use PlayAsia.com for any physical disc copies. They are based in Hong Kong and provide copies of games that cover all region codes. Their service is reliable and they provide good delivery.

Thanks! That's really helpful. I suspected Nintendo did region locking, so I was planning on getting one from the US anyway. I just wanted to be sure it would be usable if I took it back to Japan.

A Japanese Wii U will download from Japan, a North America Wii U will download from north america. It isn't a big problem, unless: 1) you don't have a credit card. Then you'll have to import games or e-shop cards. 2) you want a game that is not sold on the e-shop. Then you'll have to import.

I lived in Tokyo until a month ago, and North American Nintendo software was generally difficult to come by. There was very little in the used game shops, and very little on Amazon.jp. Credit card, or importing from Play-Asia, etc. is the way to go.

Generally, I'd suggest not bringing your video game console onto the sea, or an ocean. And good luck fnding wifi out there, but if you manage to do it, kudos.

You should be fine so long as you have an American system, and I'd assume an american ID. Although you can't convert a Yen eShop card into dollars I believe, so you need to use a credit card or buy the eShop card online, I'd guess.

I would be curious to know if a Japanese credit card would work. My experience with the Wii was that the individual shops didn't care what region your credit card was from as long as it was a region the Wii was sold in (I read accounts online that people in the Philippeans couldn't use their cards). iTunes accounts by contrast require you have a local address/credit card, so getting my US iTunes account set-up was more challenging!

I'd expect that eShop cards aren't cross-region, however.

The U.S E-Shop does not accept credit cards which are not from the U.S. but I think all other eshops accept credit cards from any country, the best option for people like me with a ntsc nintendo console but no U.S. credit card is to use the Canadian e-shop. Hopefully Nintendo won't close that loophole