Wii U is region-locked
It may not be surprising, but it is still disappointing. The Wii U will indeed be region-locked, as have generations of Nintendo hardware before it, so you won't be able to play games imported from other regions on your shiny new gamebox.
It may not be surprising, but it is still disappointing. The Wii U will indeed be region-locked, as have generations of Nintendo hardware before it, so you won't be able to play games imported from other regions on your shiny new gamebox.
Nintendo confirmed the unfortunate news to CVG, after mentions of a region lock were translated from the latest issue of Japanese games mag Famitsu.
If a strange and wonderful Japanese game catches your eye, you'd better hope some publisher decides to officially release it elsewhere, or the only way you'd be able to play it is buying a Japanese Wii U. Which is daft, of course. You won't be able to bypass publishers who take yonks to localise games and release them in the west, either. So it's all a big shame.
Microsoft and Sony's consoles are far more lenient, allowing publishers to lock particular games if they fancy but not forcing it on everyone.
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replyAlice O'Connor posted a new article, Wii U is region-locked.
It may not be surprising, but it is still disappointing. The Wii U will indeed be region-locked, as have generations of Nintendo hardware before it, so you won't be able to play games imported from other regions on your shiny new gamebox.-
Bah Humbug!
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I think the main reason is so that they can sell the rights overseas and guarantee to the licensee that the game hasn't trickled into the region already. It seems silly when you're talking about a Japanese language game that hasn't even been translated, but if you've got one publisher in Europe localizing the game for Spanish speakers, you don't want the Euro publisher making money on South American sales when you're trying to sell the rights to someone in South America.
Just a guess.-
That makes sense I guess, but what about the games that never make it over and are not translated those could be sold and the dev could make more money.
I would think the dev would not care for it be more money either way and keep in mind not every one are into imports with the origi text and voice so I really don't think it effect the localized publishers really for those that want i localized still will.
Hmm weird. -
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Interesting point, but I would have to assume that the cost of importing would offset any savings they would potentially see.
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When I bought the Japanese version of Catherine, it was $17 shipping.
Persona 4 Arena was about $95 in Japan; that's less than $60 US MSRP plus $17 shipping. Even with shipping, it's probably cheaper to import from the US than to buy locally.
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It's also why most Japanese-developed titles release in Japan first, and then in US and Europe at least a month or two later.
For P4A specifically, they were targeting a US release one week after Japan, and the US version would also have Japanese audio and text available (you can even run Japanese audio with English text, or vice versa; it's pretty sweet). Since the PS3 is by far the most popular game console platform in Japan, and it's natively region-free, Index's shareholders were worried about massive importing from the US. Thankfully, though, the first week sales outdid Street Fighter 4.
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I didn't know the others were region locked. So I can't play the gold cart on my Famicom? WHY?!?!?
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