Wii U is Region Locked

Published on 09-24-12 07:47 PM

Wii U software region locking has been confirmed, as recently stated “software not sold in the same region cannot be played" by Nintendo in a Japanese game magazine. This means imported games will unfortunately not work, unless you own more than one system from different regions such as North America, Europe or Japan.

Nintendo has region-locked almost every system, spare only the DS, so it's not much of a surprise. Bypasses, although frowned upon by Nintendo and illegal have been developed for pretty much every region-locked system before, so the Wii U will probably have one eventually, though I'm not encouraging their use. It seems we'll just have to wait to get most titles released in our respective region, though some games aren’t sold out of Japan. Hopefully, this isn't much of a problem for most of you.

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15 Comments

mixedboi - 09-25-12
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FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUUU

Marcoboy - 09-25-12
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What so u can't play any games like the game pad the home brew wii make it better on the wii U.

Waver - 09-25-12
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Oh ok. But I have a question, does this apply to online play?

Solace - 09-25-12
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Originally Posted by Waver

Oh ok. But I have a question, does this apply to online play?

Any imported game.

Vara - 09-25-12
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I have no problems with that, since I never import games from other regions anyway.

Like said above, I hope that doesn't apply for online gaming :S

GaijinGuyJim - 09-25-12
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Originally Posted by Vara

I have no problems with that, since I never import games from other regions anyway.

Like said above, I hope that doesn't apply for online gaming :S

It doesn't affect online gaming. For example, you could still play against people from Japan in Tekken Tag Tournament 2. You just can't use foreign disks.

Oxxykitten - 09-25-12
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I try not to buy imported gaming consoles anyways >.<
This this reason. I'd rather way it out. :L

InsomniacMan - 09-25-12
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Someone will probably learn how to install homebrew on the Wii U. I'll just have to rely on that if I decide to import games.

Rekop - 09-25-12
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It's all good for me. ;)

8Hellsing8 - 09-25-12
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Not really a big problem

aphfan12 - 09-25-12
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man this is good for me at least

Viewtiful_Josh - 09-25-12
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Doesn't really affect me, but it's still lame.

MrMario - 09-25-12
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-shrugs- Eh, no big deal.

Retro Mario - 09-26-12
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YOU'RE KILLING ME NINTENDO, YOU ARE SERIOUSLY KILLING ME.
As a Gaijin, I enjoy playing games from America.

LordRyuujin - 09-26-12
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This isn't news to me. I live in the US and most of the games that I play come from here or eventually get placed on VC (Sin&Punishment) so it doesn't matter that its region locked and hardly seems note worthy.