Topic: Do you think Nintendo will ever region-free the Wii?

Hello there. In this thread, we will discuss if Nintendo will ever region-free the Wii's. Please discuss if you have an opinion.

Personally, I don't think it'll ever happen. Main reason is because NOA doesn't want it's customers to be confused with other langauge. Which makes me wonder, if the Wii is region-locked, why are we allow to play with people from Japan or Australia? To me, it isn't necessary, althought it would be a great feature.

Well, I wouldn't buy any thing I couldn't read anyway...

The main reason is not because Nintendo cares whether or not an American will understand a Japanese game. It's more complicated than that, including things like TV systems (PALs and NTSCs), copyright laws (which is why TvC almost didn't happen in the West) and controlling sales in different territories.

We can play against opponents from other countries because, well, these problems don't exist in the same way.

EDIT: And no, they won't region-unlock the Wii. It's going on its fourth holiday season, there's zero reason for them to do so.

considering Nintendo took a step backward from the region-free DS and decided to lock the DSi, I doubt we'll see a region-free Wii. it would certainly have been nice, though... i mean, people who want to be able to play games from other regions are going to do whatever they can to make that happen, so why not just give us the option from the get-go? I really liked that about the DS. :/

The other major reason is the market price for games is lower in some countries than others, so by region-locking the wii, it limits customers in that region from importing cheaper games from other countries. I really wish they hadn't region-locked it.

Regarding the DSi...does the region lock only apply to new games coming out or to all DS games? I'm guessing since the old DS's were region free, the games are too, so it shouldn't matter for older games. I'm not really big on importing, but it would be pretty economical to do so now that I'm in China, so I'm, in effect, importing if I buy a US version game. I can definitely get Japanese versions for cheaper at play-asia. I wish I knew Japanese, or that you had the option of switching the language to English, seeing as they generally keep the Japanese text in the US version releases as an option. Then I could get Pokemon Soul Silver!

The only DS games that are region locked are ones that use DSi-specific features.

@Token Girl: the region lock is supposed to only apply to DSi-specific games -- if it won't play on a phat or a lite, it's supposed to be region-locked. everything else is still region-free still, though (except for Chinese DS games, which will only play on the iQue DS... though that's not really a problem with the games so much as it is with the consoles themselves, and i'm sure you already knew this anyway since you're in China :3).

My Wii can be region free. hee hee.... But blame Nintendo for not bringing Fatal Frame or Disaster Day of Crisis to NA.

All games consoles should be region free. The world is a smaller place these days - it's easy to travel, many people choose to move to a different country at some point or at least spend a couple of years in one. If you buy a Wii in one country and move to another, your games become useless - it's all very well having a Wii and a 360 to play different games on but two Wiis?

It's true that old TVs had a problem playing things from different regions in the past but, for decades now, all TVs can display both 50hz and 60hz. I mean how many people in the PAL region actually use 50hz? It must be a minority - and all it'd do to them is display borders and run slightly slower.

C'mon Nintendo, sort it out. Or at least make the GameCube games region free on Wii now - it's not like it'd affect sales any more!

If those stupid parental controls weren't there...

What is so bad about buying a game from North America, and playing it on a European console, your still paying for it, sadly I can't see Nintendo going region free though, they could if they wanted to though, I'm sure a firmware update would be enough, doubt they will though.

I'm pretty sure they have their reasons for locking the Wii and DSi. Aren't the PS3, PSP and 360 region-locked as well?

PS3 is region free, well the games are, not the movies.

I believe the PS3 is region free by default, however publishers can choose to region-lock their games if they desire.

I doubt the Wii will become region-free due to online functionality issues, language and tv standards and publishing rights. I do think they should open the Gamecube playback for all regions; I cannot see any reason to restrict that when it's a dead platform.

No. It didn't come out region free so its highly doubtful they would ever change it.

No unless they weren't able to region lock it from the beginning, which didn't happen.

@V8 Ninja: I believe the Wii was once region-free.

They would have to put a way for the way to detect what region of firmware the user has, or else it will result in a semi-brick. the video mode for PAL games too. So I highly doubt it.

Afraid not its always been region locked from day one, sadly I can't see any signs they will ever change that, be great if they did though.

@ Blackdragon

Thanks for the tip. Now, if only the Japanese Pokemon games had English text...I would totally be playing Soul Silver right now! I did know that about the Chinese systems. There's not much point in buying games in China anyways since:

1) They don't really release many games in China anyways, and the ones they do release are well after they're released anywhere else.

2) Console/handheld gaming isn't really popular here yet. I don't think Nintendo wants to make it super popular due to the 3rd issue which is:

3) Rampant piracy. I know where I can get games (not too many places, but there are a couple stores in Nanjing). I don't know where I can get non-copy games. Nintendo could sell hundreds of thousands of hardware systems, but probably like 5 games in total.

That's why I order from play-asia in HK, which is reliable, or I would buy a game from amazon or ebay and have it sent to my mom's house, and she'd put it in my next care package. I just like having my real video games. Don't ask about my DVD collection though...