Wii is not Region Free

[Dark Ride]

A Nintendo sposkesperson told GamesIndustry.biz on friday in London "We are region-locked" and said the US arm of the company had made a mistake in saying otherwise.

It was earlier reported that vice president of marketing Perrin Kaplan said, during showcase event in New York, that Nintendo would not impose regional restrictions on game software.

Nintendo also admitted yesterday that it had ruled out the idea of including DVD playback functionality, contradicting earlier announcements.

"Because the price of DVD players has dropped so much and they have become so commonplace, Nintendo saw no need to create extra hardware options that would drive up the cost for consumers," a representative for the company told GameSpot.

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[Gzero]

First high price and now not even dvd playback, sorry but I've lost all respect for Nintendo now. Seems pointless to spend that amount of money on something that is going to be an even bigger flop (give me good reasons why this wouldn't be a waste of money) than the Gamecube, lacks basic features, waste of space, takes up a connection on your tv (and its only for games???), ok there are some great Nintendo games (but they are few and I do get bored of playing such games eventually, typical Nintendo eh?

 

[Azn Tr14dZ]

IMO Wii will be a great system. I personally would never use the DVD part of it even if it had one since I use my HD-DVD player all the time. Wii, IMO, would be better than both the Xbox 360 and PS3.

 

[InfDamarvel]

As long as they have online play when super smash comes out ill be pleased with Nintendo.
Who the hell wants a Wii to play DVDs? Go buy a real dvd player lol they are like 50 bucks maybe these days XD. I have like 7 of them. $250 is still half the price of a Damn PS3 with HDMI and 60gb HD. Ill probobly pick up a Wii first and once 360 drops the price and gets some decent games that my computer doesnt already have ill pick that up to.

 

[Jimmy 2004]

I've been drawn towards the Wii recently... I buy a games console for games, not DVDs, and this is cheaper and has some of the main functions I want like WiFi and some of the most enjoyable games.

 

[JC316]

You see, the ONE thing that keeps Nintendo alive is the fact that they are STINGY with their franchises. Xbox and Playstation have the habit of putting their best stuff on PC. When was the last time you saw Mario or Zelda on PC? Halo and GTA are on PC.

 

[jocksteeluk]

no DVD support and region locked games? i have to say im am disapointed and especialy with the contradicting info about the hardware, i cant see myself ever buying another games console but the ps3 looks to be in the lead, microsoft messed up by annoucing and addon HD DVD drive

 

[ryboto]

You see, the ONE thing that keeps Nintendo alive is the fact that they are STINGY with their franchises. Xbox and Playstation have the habit of putting their best stuff on PC. When was the last time you saw Mario or Zelda on PC? Halo and GTA are on PC.

outside of microsoft titles, or bungie's one franchise, what games does microsoft or sony have control over whether or not a pc port is made?? It's in the best interest of the companies to have exclusive titles, which is what we'll probably see more of now that the hardware is so different throughout the three companies. Think about it, Halo might have been released on the pc, but look how long it took for that to happen. They're just as stingy, they milk their console release, and then make a cheap port to the pc. I only play console games with company, multiplayer games with the wii-mote are going to be friggin fun.

 

[ryboto]

no DVD support and region locked games? i have to say im am disapointed and especialy with the contradicting info about the hardware, i cant see myself ever buying another games console but the ps3 looks to be in the lead, microsoft messed up by annoucing and addon HD DVD drive

how is a $600 console that has a gimmicky controller in the lead? It's had the worst publicity of all three. They've announced, publically, that europe's release will be delayed until march...4 months. the ps3 will be the cheapest blu-ray device, but that's still going to be 100+ more than an hd-dvd player.

 

[jocksteeluk]

"but that's still going to be 100+ more than an hd-dvd player" so then a HD DVD player + either of the other 2 consoles will cost atleast $150 more than a ps3 with blu-ray playback

 

[ryboto]

"but that's still going to be 100+ more than an hd-dvd player" so then a HD DVD player + either of the other 2 consoles will cost atleast $150 more than a ps3 with blu-ray playback

true, however, I myself am not worried about high-def dvd players. I don't have a high definition set, and probably wont for another 2-3 years. no sense in it for me. All of the people I know who are interested in the ps3 still use standard definition sets. If i start arguing dvd formats, this thread will get off topic. I personally wouldn't trust a console to dvd playback, in any event, isn't the 360 getting an hd-dvd upgrade?

 

[Mad-Matt]

Ill buy a ps3 if only because it has the games I like to play and no other reason. it looks expensive at first, but after a months playing, and another months work, youll never notice. and theres plenty of time to save up as well if you really want it The blueray player is likely to be naff anyway as even with the latest ps2, they dont like you to have a quality player and still use the crappy green screen effect on rgb.

The wii appears to be nintendo's very late answer to ps2 and Xbox with it just being an uprated gamecube and ive never really had an interest in cartoony games anyway. I like to see plenty of blood when im killing In a moment of madness i even baught a second hand gamecube just to play twin snakes lol but it wasnt as fun as when i first played back on ps1 lol.

 

[ryboto]

The wii appears to be nintendo's very late answer to ps2 and Xbox with it just being an uprated gamecube and ive never really had an interest in cartoony games anyway. I like to see plenty of blood when im killing In a moment of madness i even baught a second hand gamecube just to play twin snakes lol but it wasnt as fun as when i first played back on ps1 lol.

late answer to the ps2 and xbox?? don't make me go off topic!

 

[Jimmy 2004]

Nintendo have gone for fun rather than performance. In my opinion, all the consoles are likely to be overtaken by PCs again within a year or so (although the PS3 may have brilliant processing power, the graphics chip isn't really any more advanced than what PCs have already). Therefore, fun is more important to me and the Wii is cheapest and looks like its got some enjoyable new features. The PS3 doesn't look bad, but it just doesn't seem worth the price to me considering by the time the games take full advantage of it's power PCs will be back in the lead... so the Wii (also looks nicest I think) is what I'm going for.

 

[Mad-Matt]

A pc is fine if you play games alone, but a console is a must have when ya want to play multiplayer games together on the big screen especially for the party games. I cant remember the last time a pc game offered two player options. I was gonna say original doom, but quickly realised that even it needed multimachines :|

 

[jocksteeluk]

Id agree the WII console does look the best but i fear the lack of value added extras (namely dvd playback) may hurt the consoles appeal although the added back catalougue of retro games does act as a big plus i doubt this will be a big enough draw to make this console successfull but i do hope nintendo prove me wrong

 

[ryboto]

Id agree the WII console does look the best but i fear the lack of value added extras (namely dvd playback) may hurt the consoles appeal although the added back catalougue of retro games does act as a big plus i doubt this will be a big enough draw to make this console successfull but i do hope nintendo prove me wrong

I'm betting they will....It's 2006, and I'm guessing most of those who actually take interest in games already have the hardware to play a dvd. Even those who might be new to gaming, and drawn in by the simplicity of the wii controlling scheme probably already have a way to playback dvd's. Most families do. In fact, I don't know a single person(and most everyone I know is a student) who doesn't have a dvd player. The thing you have to remember, is that Nintendo is most likely going to be making a profit right away. I don't see the hardware as costing them much more than a gamecube, and those sell for under $100. I think the $250 price was decided on as a nice medium between profit and an attractive alternative to the other consoles. any higher and they'd be pressing their luck. I'm sure we'll see a price drop soon after launch, possible end of Q1 07, or maybe even Q2? Or, maybe everyone will hold firm until the next holiday.

 

[Jimmy 2004]

I'm guessing students might like to have a console that plays DVDs, but as DVD players can be bought for under £20 that shouldn't be too much of an issue.