Are Wii Region-Free?

[Rowne]

The topic says it all, really but I feel like adding my own thoughts on this.

I don't know how many of you are as interested in the Wii as I am or how many of you hail from Europe (or the UK in my case) but if true, this is an awesome turn up for the books.

Primarily because not so long ago, mod-chips were declared to be illegal in the UK (even the innocuous region-free ilk) and that's made importation for region-locked consoles merely a distant memory.  Yay for the blistering idiot who came up with that rocket to the collective economic foot.

Due to an article I've recently read, it would be safe to assume that the boffins at Nintendo actually came upon the realization that region lockouts are incredibly foolish anyway, since those determined enough will get around them regardless and enforcing them only serves to alienate their fans.

After the success of the DS and its region-free nature, have they wisely concluded that it would be in their best interests to allow the Wii to operate similarly aswell?

If that's the case and I'll be able to buy a UK Wii and then be able to play games from both Japan and America on it without needing to modify the console then even in Europe alone, I strongly suspect that this will be a major boost for Nintendo's popularity.

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I'd also like to note the practical applications of this aswell.  There are so many games that aren't released in America even and considering how many people are studying Japanese these days or have at least a basic grasp on the language, it's a shame that gaming with that culture isn't more of a possibility outside of the PC (with games such as Trickster Online).

However, Nintendo's new approach would seem to suggest that - for example - a person with a UK Wii console could buy a Japense fighting tournament game and hop on Nintendo's Wi-Fi network system.  Then they could play with other people who'd bought this game, regardless of nation or culture.  This is a great way to tear down barriers between nations that consoles usually go out of their way to enforce.

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Source article.

(I've made edits to clean up the article, add some more thoughts and finally to include the horrible pun in the title.  You may now all pelt me with rotten fruit.)

[Saist]

Nintendo has officially indicated that like the DS, the Wii is supposed to be region free in respect to Wii games. However, it is unknown if DVD playback will be region free.

[Rowne]

They've actually confirmed it (officially and without obfuscation)?  I'm not doubting you here but do you have a source?  I wish to read their opinions on the matter.  It sounds like my suspicions might be confirmed and a company might be operating on logic and rationality for once (Brave New World and all that).

Tearing down a standard that's existed since the 8-Bit days?  I admit to having my doubts they'd actually go ahead with it.

Nintendo, I'm impressed.

[Aridas]

Tearing down a standard that's existed since the 8-Bit days?

The heck are you talking about?

[Saist]

Tearing down a standard that's existed since the 8-Bit days?

The heck are you talking about?

First Rowne, I was at E3 : http://www.gamenikki.com/g3/features/Jason.php?id=2

Second, to Aridas: The physical format of the Japanese and American carts for the Nintendo Entertainment System were different. You could not plug one cart from one country into the console from another.  I want to say that the Sega Master System / Sega Mark systems did the same thing, but I'm a little hazy on their status.

Continuing on with the SNES and Genesis, again, the phycial cart for the console was different depending on the country.

CD's kind of complicated issues, but that was solved by the system manufacturers with the BIOS of the system. Consoles like the Sega Saturn and the Playstation had different BIOS's loaded that would only recognize CD's with a particular matching country code. 

The N64, as the last of the cart consoles, again featured a physically different cart between countries, however starting with the Gamecube, Nintendo joined the BIOS/disc matching crowd.

However, as in almost all things related to video games, Nintendo was the first to break the region lock, with their handhelds. Japanese carts for the Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, and DS will boot up and run just as well  on an American system as they will on a Japanese system.

Now, if you want to ask WHY region coding was there in the first place, you can. But I don't think that is what you were asking.

[Aridas]

I'll give you that, but people DID design simple adaptors to play those games in the systems. Excluding the FDS, which never even came out here, there didn't seem to be any real problem with getting games from japan to play on the US system as long as you were paying attention to the import business.

[Darkmoon]

Or you could simply break off a couple of tabs in your SNES, and the games would load.

I hadn't heard confirmation on the Wii being region-free, but it would be a solid movie if they did.

[Saist]

I'll give you that, but people DID design simple adaptors to play those games in the systems. Excluding the FDS, which never even came out here, there didn't seem to be any real problem with getting games from japan to play on the US system as long as you were paying attention to the import business.

Aridas. I am getting the feeling that the whole impact of this is flying right over your head.  So. Against better advice, I'm going to try to spell this out for you in terms that I hope you will understand.

The problem of region control is that it made it impossible to simply pick up games, or movies, from one country and play them in another outside of geographic boundries. For example, you could not pick up ShenMue II for the Dreamcast from the UK and play it on an American system. You couldn't take Metriod Prime from the US Gamecube and play it on the Japanese Gamecube.

Some companies did make devices that were capable of circumventing the region lock in. However, these devices were not sanctioned or licensed by the console designers. That meant that if something went wrong, and every one who has actually used an early Action Replay is going "yeah, there was a lot to go wrong"

Many of the original devices for each system that circumvented region lock in required physical modification to the unit. In the case of the cart based systems you could physically modify the carts. With the Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, Panasonic Q, X-box, and most other CD-Based consoles you had to break the case open and solder a secondary chip in. This meant that you... oh yeah. HAD TO BREAK THE CASE OPEN.

While we, at this point, take it for granted that we can get an import device now for most consoles that does not require modifying the system, the path to this point is not as simple as paying attention to the import market. The fact that you dismiss this entirely out of hand either tells me that you are too young to care, or I need to be logging this information and informing your ISP they need to be checking your traffic for AUP violations.

As is Darkmoon, Nintendo was not the first to make a step in the region-free move for the "new" generation of consoles. Rather, believe it or not, Sony was the first to make the move in respect to consoles. The Playstation Portable is a region free device. Again, linking to Gamesindustry, you can find that here: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=3239

Later, Michael Ephraim, had this to say about the Playstation3: "If you look at the fact that it will support high-definition TV, which will be a global standard, there's a good likelihood that it will be global region, as for example we've done with the PSP."

That was said last year around 10/11/2005 : http://www.gamesindustry.biz/news.php?aid=12880

Note that was well before Nintendo started releasing hard details on what the Wii would be capable of.  Now, we still have several months to go before the Wii actually launches, and I, personally, am basing Nintendo's behavior off of what Sony announces or does. It is my opinion that if Sony does indeed say that the intial PS3 systems will be region free, we'll see a flood of region free Nintendo Wii systems. If Sony continues to be a mental basket case suitable for the pyscho ward, we may see Nintendo fall in line with the Xbox 360 and Playstation3 and have some form of Region control on-board. I doubt that. I don't think Nintendo is going to do that with WiiConnect24, and I think Nintendo wants that number one spot back badly enough they'll do it.

But if the Wii does wind up with some form of Region Control, it wouldn't be the first time I've been told one thing behind closed doors and a completely different event occur once the product launches

[Darkmoon]

Additionally, with the Vitural Console making a plethora of games available (some would assume from multiple market regions), it seems to serve little purpose to have the game you buy on discs be region-coded.

Seems antithetical to Nintendo's concept of any game, any system, anywhere.

[Saist]

Additionally, with the Vitural Console making a plethora of games available (some would assume from multiple market regions), it seems to serve little purpose to have the game you buy on discs be region-coded.

Seems antithetical to Nintendo's concept of any game, any system, anywhere.

well, one of the things I've brought up in the PSP dissection (page 3), is that Nintendo caught onto the Impulse buy of the handheld system. While the games really aren't that cheap from a budget standpoint, $30 is a lot of money to a college student or a poor broke tech support guy starting his own business (again), I'm much more likely to look at a DS game and go ... hmm... that looks like it could be fun.

Sony hasn't, to quote Kaz Hirai ( http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=18038 )

"Generally speaking, over the past twelve years or so, there has been a consumer expectation that disc based games are maybe US$ 59 on the high end to US$ 39 on the low end," Hirai stated.

"So, what I can say now is, I think it would be a bit of a stretch to think that we could suddenly turn around and say 'PS3 games now US$ 99.99'.

"as affordable as possible,"

"If it becomes a bit higher than US$ 59, don't ding me, but, again, I don't expect it to be US$ 100,"

I stand behind the idea that Sony fully intends Playstation3 games to be priced at the $74.99 mark.  What Sony doesn't understand, or at least what I think they do not understand, is that the games today generally are not worth the price of admission.

Nintendo, however, much like Valve Software, understand that a lower price of entry for the console and the games can net a higher userbase.  Valve already has at least one major micro-launch under their belt with Half-Life 2: Episode 1, and some would consider SiN: Episodes to be a proof of this concept as well. The fact is, I'm much more likely to want to buy a game at $30 or under than I am at $60 or $75.  Nintendo understands the whole idea of an impulse buy, and I, for one, think that going region free across all platforms will assist with the ability to buy on impulse.

okay, at this point I'm starting to get a little off track so I'm going to stop there.

[Aridas]

I see you mentioning all the CD systems, but you dropped cartridge consoles altogether, which were the only things I was talking about, and clearing up the issue of whether those older consoles were region free or not. I know that some console changes existed between areas, but it isn't as if they're all intentional.

[Cvstos]

That's generally correct, je.saist.  The $60 price on Xbox 360 game, for example, is a large limiting factor and there's been rumors that publishers want to drop those prices to increase sales.  PS3 accessories are also likely to be expensive.  Motion sensing and Bluetooth will significantly add to the price of PS3 controllers, for example.  I'm think that Sony is going to price themselves right into 3rd place in the console wars.

[Saist]

I see you mentioning all the CD systems, but you dropped cartridge consoles altogether, which were the only things I was talking about, and clearing up the issue of whether those older consoles were region free or not. I know that some console changes existed between areas, but it isn't as if they're all intentional.

I'm going to quote myself and bold the appropriate part Aridas

Many of the original devices for each system that circumvented region lock in required physical modification to the unit. In the case of the cart based systems you could physically modify the carts. With the Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, Panasonic Q, X-box, and most other CD-Based consoles you had to break the case open and solder a secondary chip in. This meant that you... oh yeah. HAD TO BREAK THE CASE OPEN.

[Aridas]

But I said it wasn't intentional. I mean, excluding the fact they added a chip to try and block out unlicensed and counterfeit games, the design change, as far as i've known, came about mostly because of differences in wants and needs between countries...

[Netami]

All I know is that (E)uropean roms are better than (U)nited States roms because they weren't edited as much. 

Kinda funny how it flip flopped. Modern day european releases often don't happen!

[Aridas]

Well, I think it's true that things have slowed down over the years for everyone. Even Japan.

[Saist]

That's generally correct, je.saist.  The $60 price on Xbox 360 game, for example, is a large limiting factor and there's been rumors that publishers want to drop those prices to increase sales.  PS3 accessories are also likely to be expensive.  Motion sensing and Bluetooth will significantly add to the price of PS3 controllers, for example.  I'm think that Sony is going to price themselves right into 3rd place in the console wars.

kinda double posting on top of myself here, however by the time I track this data down I'm betting another post will be up.

Alright.

Back around the 21st of June Nintendo's Iwata had a few choice words to say about the price points of the games that came out. The typical reaction from complete and blathering idiots is represented by HardOcp's Steve, a guy in serious need of a LART-ing. This is what he posted:

Nintendo President Saturo Iwata says that the video game industry should announce a price and stick to it. He believes that lowering prices of software too soon is unhealthy.

    "If the suggested retail price of any and all software is marked down in 6 months or 9 months, the customers will learn the cycle and wait for the discounting," he explained, "which will simply aggravate the decreasing sales of new software."

Games are already too expensive and the hardware is even worse. I am amazed that Iwata thinks that setting a high price and sticking to it is a good idea.
Posted by Steve 7:14 AM (CDT)

http://www.hardocp.com/archives.html?news=LDA2LDIwMDYsaG5ld3MsMTYsMTgw

Now, Steve, as usual is a few fries short of a happy meal. Gamesindustry as usual has a better write up here: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=17848 :

What Iwata was trying to impart is that sticking a high price tag on a product that you are going to reduce the price on in a few months is a bad idea. Gamers will learn the pattern and wait until the software price is discounted. Rather, go ahead and put the software out at that lower price. You may not make as much money on 0-day and 0-week sales, but more people will be able to afford the game in a shorter time span. The result is that you are more likely to continue making sales on into the "unknown" future.

Nintendo already is used to doing this if you ever stop and look at the sales charts for the US, UK, Japan, and Australia. Nintendo titles generally hold higher or the same spots in the charts for months where other consoles and/or developers only retain the spots for a few weeks. Nintendo titles have an extrodinary longer retail shelf life than name brand games on the other consoles.

Nintendo gets the overall picture.

I'm fairly certain Microsoft has a pretty good grip on it as well.  However, I am not sold on the idea that Sony is aware of the pricing position they have placed themselves in.

Given the arrogence displayed by Sony so far, I think at this point that they already have priced themselves out of the market.

[Rowne]

Actually, the Genesis and the Sega CD had BIOS protection too.  I should know, when I bought my first Japanese game for it, it told me that it wasn't designed to run on PAL/SECAM systems.  If you don't believe that, check out an emulator such as Gens.  There're options for which nationality the emulator should boot as, if you use a Japanese game and tell it to use UK standards, it'll politely inform you that the game you're trying to boot just isn't designed for the system you're trying to run it on.

My point was that this 'ideal' has been an established standard since the 8-Bit era and moreover, with each generation of consoles it became more difficult to break.  Ever since the Saturn, there have been only two ways to deal with it for some consoles and for others, only one.  With some consoles, such as Nintendo's GameCube, the lockouts were piss-poor and therefore third-party software such as Freeloader could exist to get around the lockouts.  However, with some consoles, such as the Playstation2, the only real way around the problem (that I know of) was to use some form of mod-chip.

As I also said, modchips of all kinds were made illegal for sale in the UK lately and there's been a run across all of Europe (The Register had an article on it not so long ago) to actually enforce this as a European standard.  I believe they were made illegal in France too but it's not something that Spain allowed to pass.  Lucky Spanish buggers.

What this means in the end is that unless I'm willing to openly participate in a criminal act, knowingly so, there's no way with the most recent generations of hardware that I could get around this region system.  The foundations of this system were cemented by pulling modchips from the market.  So unless third-party software or hardware that doesn't happen to involve opening a machine's cover is released, there's no chance in hell that I can acutally play import games.

Now I thought Nintendo was the first to institute this bold maneauver but apparently it was Sony and I hope beyond hope that at least Nintendo stick by their views on this one.  The reason being is that I'd finally have a console that I can actually play games on.  I actually gave up on the PlayStation2 a while back because it was depressing that games that were out between May and June in the US wouldn't be released until October or later (if ever) in the UK.  In other words, I either had to wait insufferable delays (and I'd only get the games by the time my friends had completed them) or I'd not be able to get them at all.  Firmly placing me back within the stranglehold of the will of Big Business.

Not really fun, that.

I think that for consoles to survive on an international basis, these region systems will eventually have to be eradicated.  We don't have the ease of breaking them anymore.  In the earlier and more innocent days of console gaming, these systems meant nothing.  Snap a few pins here, grab a third-party piece of hardware there and you're good to go.  That's not how it is these days.  I think that just about everyone I know in the UK (and that's a lot of people) support modchips, not for game piracy but rather as a tool to be able to play import games.  Cut off from that, they're not so sure it would be worthwhile either.

I hope I've explained this thouroughly anyway.  This is why I was excited over the Wii going region-free -- because this restores the freedoms I had back in the halcyon days of the SNES.  This means that I can actually get into console gaming and enjoy it again.  Region-free, from my personal opinion, can make the difference between actually enjoying the console culture and it just not being worth the effort, at all.

Prices: This is actually why I support folks like Valve and indie developers.  I've bought a lot of indie games over the years and some of my fondest memories are of indie games.  For example, recently I picked up Kudos by Positech, which is a really cheap game, it's a life simulation game that I've actually had more fun than with than I did with the Sims or the Sims II.

I think companies these days are concentrating too much on graphics and not enough on what makes a game great.  I find this is continually true.  I can look at earlier examples of gaming and I can point out that whilst yes, graphics might have improved between point A and point B, the actual quality of the game isn't as great, nor are any of the other technological leaps as wide.  To look at the recent Micro Machines games, they're really not as good as those back on the Amiga.  Oblivion isn't as good as Gothic or Ultima VII and so on and so on.

It seems that the better graphics get, the greater the prices become and the worse the games get and that's kind of depressing.  It's also why I like the Wii though, Nintendo have taken an opposing stance, that it's the game and the price that are important, just as je.saist pointed out.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say so I'll leave it at that.

[Aridas]

Then maybe these people need to open up their minds and legalize modchips that only affect the regional thing. They DO exist, as far as I've been told..

Though one thing that's happening with games is that there are more and more people working on them, more hardware and software to buy and make use of, but not actually more money being put into the projects (of course not, or all the game companies would end up going bankrupt if they put that much money and effort into a game and keep the same price) so they just kinda lose sight of what a good game is. Too many cooks, and all that.

[Rowne]

Unfortunately Aridas, my country has its weaknesses as well as its strengths.  Britain has culture both varied and impressive and people that're generally open minded and accepting.  Britain also has an outlaw and somewhat fascist Government, along with laws that are equally as bad as those found in the most ludicrous of countries, just in different ways.

No death sentence?  Groovy, I support that.  I can't hit a burglar wot breaks into my home around the head with a frying pan?  Frigging 'ell.  And so on.

Unfortunately, both law and Government in the UK seem to be as much about people control and corporate support as they are in America, in some cases they're worse (ID cards et al).

Big business tells Britain that all modchips (even those for region-cracking only) are bad, Britain bans all modchips.

One of these days I'm going to up and likely leave this country and head for more lefty shores and I'll be taking my culture with me.