A look at the Wii U GamePad’s region-locking in action

I support Nintendo, but ''this'' is something I cannot stand for.

Email, Twitter, Skype... do whatever it takes to bring this to their attention.

[Baka-akaB]

Simply ridiculous , and whatever excuse involved will mostly result to loss of potential money gain .

[MikeMyers]

Is it possible to download the updates onto the PC? If so then it could be possible to download different region updates and just transfer it from the PC to the gamepad. If not then I'm sure somebody will find a way for a workaround.

I understand why they have regional locks but I don't think in todays times that it's no longer needed. We now live in a world where we are all connected and people are well aware that some things may not be properly translated.

Even now places like iTunes offer regional content with exclusive songs. Why?

[darthv72]

let me see if i understand this (dont go ripping my head off now). someone has a wii-u and they try to use another gamepad that is from another region? or simply another wii-u?

I know that controllers like the wiimote and 360 and ps3 all have a sync option that lets them work on other systems. I hadnt heard anything about there being a sync option for the gamepad so i 'assumed' there would not be a NEED to have to sync it with any other wii-u than the one it comes with.

THUS preventing any cross talk if you have more than one wii-u in the house. Like having two RC cars that are on the same frequency and you find one controller is controlling both when you dont want it to.

same can be said about tv remotes if you have the same tv in the house or more specifically...the same room (but who would). So in any case, what this means is that FOR RIGHT NOW there is no way to sync another gamepad to the wii-u regardless of region.

That can all change with an update and will likely change if and when there are games/features requiring a 2nd pad.

So in my case, if i had the black one AND white one i would just have to use them on their respected consoles. No taking one to a friends house or trading them out between rooms in the house.

Yeah....I can deal with that.

[rainslacker]

You do have to sync the tablet controller and pro controller to the system before they can be used, even with a new system and controller out of the same box.

[Redempteur]

To think there was people in n4g yesterday that didn't believe in the first reports ..

As i said before i'm not surprised ..nintendo pretty stupid when it comes to hardware.

We're however reaching incredible levels of stupidity..
It's not a hardware problem in the first step of the video you can see that everything works and communication between the gamepad and the console works ... it's another stupid lock to prevent imports.

[browngamer41]

I guess I'm not understanding..why would you use a foreign Gamepad with your system again? The controllers are tied to the system anyway, so what's the big deal?

[Redempteur]

he got 2 consoles ( because there is already a region lock for games )

Now for whatever reason ( because he wants it , because the first gamepad battery is low , and so on ) he wants to play on one console with the other gamepad .. he can't because there is ANOTHER region lock for hardware !

Man what is it so hard to understand ?

[browngamer41]

O.k. so a guy comes up with the most b.s. and complicated scenario to use the gamepad and bashes it..got ya. Like I said I don't understand and you getting angry about shows me nothing..gfy

[Gohadouken]

That kind of reaction makes me wonder what's gamers actual breaking point and pain threshold .

Someone tell you they just wanted to use another pad they own and your reaction is bewilderment and "whatever why not just use the pad tied to the console and deal with it" ?

At some point every tiny locks and forbidden stuff chipping away at your tiny already freedom is going to add up and make a big total sum ... you know ... but whatever ...

"He is obviously making up some complicated scenario not just trying to use stuff he bought freely " -_-

Who knows ? Maybe in his made up fairy tale , if and when at some point his forein tab breaks , you'll be there to help him import and wait for a new one .

The crux of the matter is that you guys dont care because you wouldnt import anyway , why not just say that then ?

[PopRocks359]

@Gohadouken

Mine is typically when something breaks over and over or renders my games unplayable. I've gone through multiple 360s and by the time my third one (a black slim no less) started giving me technical issues, I just said "f*ck it."

I personally don't see why anyone would go to the trouble of importing a Wii U myself since there are no games exclusive to Japan right now. In fact there are no games that support two gamepads right now either, so complaining about this as of right now doesn't make much sense to me.

It's not like I don't acknowledge that region locking is a fairly annoying limitation. But when people complain about it, I feel like there should be a good reason for it. For example: I can't play 'so-and-so' games (ex: Pandora's Tower, Hatsune Miku, early VC game releases, etc.) This doesn't really seem to apply to Wii U now IMO.

[Redempteur]

he doesn't want to use 2 gamepad at once , he wants to use one gamepad for his Console , not 2 , just once at a time ..there is no reason to prevent gamepad usage , like there is no reason to do so with regular controllers.

As for your statement , why import , people import because they have to , or they can or both if you know you're gonna import and teh console is region locked, of course you're gonna get that region console too .. e're not here to discuss whenever "import" of console or accessories is relevant that's another debate entirely .

here the fact is there : there is a lock in place , when it shouldn't be..

[Gohadouken]

"when people complain about it, I feel like there should be a good reason for it. For example: I can't play 'so-and-so' games (ex: Pandora's Tower, Hatsune Miku, early VC game releases, etc.) This doesn't really seem to apply to Wii U now IMO. "

Let's be serious , only NOW . There have always been good games to import when a lock is involved .

The lock is there right now , i don't see why i should have to wait to complain about it .

Besides at 135 dollars any new game right now on my local market , you can be certain i'd be importing even current games from the us or elsewhere for the sake of my wallet .

They wanna believe that i'd be motivated enough to go through the pain , purchase said game at local prices , instead of just waiting for a hack and saying screw it , well they are dead wrong .

[MasterCornholio]

At first I thought it was a region lock for games but dang its for the gamepad. I honestly don't understand why Nintendo would put a region lock on the controller. As far as I know no other controller on the market has a region lock.

@browngamer

And why do you agree with Nintendo decision to do this when no other manufacturer on the market does this? I guess that according to you Nintendo is a special exception to this which is something that I don't understand because anyone who does this deserves to be criticized.

What next, imported 3DSs not working with the Wii U?

Motorola RAZR i

[cleft5]

Yeah... Nintendo always region lock their products. It sucks but that is how it is. If you don't like it then you probably shouldn't buy the console. Be an informed consumer and know what you are or aren't buying.

[Baka-akaB]

True , but after so many consoles Nintendo should know by now that such decisions dont go their way .

It simply usually create a motive and "justification" for those screwed by the lock to outright just boycott or wait for a hack or mod . In a twisted way "of sticking it to the man"

And once those people are led to the path of modded consoles , it becomes very tempting and easy to give in into full on game piracy , instead of just using it for the region unlock .

We've seen this over over and over .

[cleft5]

I am going to have to disagree with you because piracy is really rampant on the psp and that isn't region locked liked the ds or 3ds. I don't like the region locked system at all, but it is what it is.

Despite modding, the ds and 3ds continues to sell very well. If anything, modding a console benefits Nintendo because it gives people the ultimate pull to go out and buy their consoles. Piracy hurts software sells, not hardware sells.

[Redempteur]

@cleft5
why are you mixing region free and piracy ?

that's 2 different things ..
Does the wii being region locked prevent extensive usage of wii homebrew channels by plenty of users ? NO

Region lock doesn't prevent or fight piracy , that's false . The wii and the 360 were pirated to hell , too .. mixing those 2 thing only show that you don't understand what's at stake here .

[Baka-akaB]

"I am going to have to disagree with you because piracy is really rampant on the psp and that isn't region locked liked the ds or 3ds."

I never claimed there wasnt piracy on region free consoles . Region unlocking have been a big motivation in a few attempts to mod or hack a console .

And it is still a gateway then . Again when given the choice , people that only cracked their console to unlock it , can be more easily tempted to just use isos after a while .

Either way i dunno how you can deny that , magic swapping didnt start as a mean of loading backup discs , but to bypass regions

[Nevers0ft]

I think this has been reported on other sites and even visible in that video - it's not a region lock, the Wii U is refusing to apply a firmware update to the pad because it's from another region. This could simply be Nintendo avoiding bricking by installing mixed/incompatible fimwares, especially as TVii is embedded in the gamepad not run from the console, the regions and firmwares matter.

[n4f]

-A smart user appears.
-What will you do?

N4F uses bubble+

[StarCSR]

Yeah, I'm also not getting the "hate" because of this. And I certainly don't see Nintendo losing money because of this... How many people would use an imported gamepad with a non-imported WiiU? That's only a realistic scenario for people who have a normal AND an imported WiiU... And that's like how many WiiU users? 0.000005%?.

[HalfNerdHalfAmazing]

Another reason for these trolls to hate on Nintendo

[josephayal]

One of the biggest reasons to buy a Wii U

[mamotte]

That's a deal breaker for the 99,9% of WiiU possible buyers, all of those were actually going to buy a WiiU in their respective country, and were going to import another console from other region, so they can forget about the other controller and use just one to manage two consoles. Sad, sad, really.

Speaking of actually real scenarios, do you know what really break balls? The PSN. I'm from Colombia, and I cant even create my PSN account saying I'm from here: When I try to acces the PSN Store, it says "This service is not avaliable in your country". So I create my PSN account saying I'm from the USA, and guess what? I can access the PSN Store, but I cant buy anything because my credit card is from Colombia. It seems that for Sony our money is illegal, or primitive, maybe I can sue sony over it. Racism or something like that.

But no one talks about it, cant wait to create an article pointing that.

First world problems.

[lilbroRx]

This could only ever effect someone who traveled to a foreign country with just their gamepad, and who in their right mind would just bring his controller and not his console with it when their is no situation where they could use it anyway? There are no games that use two Wii U Gamepad yet, and anybody who had one in a foreign country would have a gamepad.

The only people who care about this news are the ones who were already against the Wii U and had no plains of ever buying one anyway.

This it is nothing more than another excuse to bash Nintendo. They talk about Nintendo customers(which they are not) and their wants when they have no idea what Nintendo customers want and don't want.

Show me a person who actually likes Nintendo that is bothered by this news? They'll all be to busy playing games. I've never imported a controller or console. I doubt 99% of them have either, much less will.

Though let me go before I get hammered with bubbles down for providing a reasonable argument that is "not" bashing Nintendo.

[Gohadouken]

I dunno why you guys wanna care about wich percentile are affected or not . Just say you dont care if you aint affected and be done with it already . It's obvious it's a sore subject for a select few .

And again , it's one more restriction being added on top of tiny other ones (for Nintendo or other consoles) ... at some point everyone will get chocked by those tiny piece of gravel shoved down our throats ...

[lilbroRx]

You mean on top of the fact that almost all consoles in existence have been region locked? Its making a big deal about nothing.

To date there is only "one" major console to ever be released without region locking. Nobody complained about the region locking on the 360. No one complained about it on the PS2. Now they think that since Sony allows games from any region to be played on the PS3 that everyone is suppose to do it without understanding why region locking exists in the first place.

This isn't like Sony removing other OS which was actually shortchanging people. You know that Nintendo's console is region locked just as Microsoft is as they always have been. Why complain about it now? If its that big of a deal to you then just don't get one. Its clear that is not the issue, however, given these responses.

Nobody who actually games on Nintendo's consoles primarily is making a big deal about this. Its nothing new. Only the people who don't buy Nintendo products are in here complaining about it which is completely asinine. They care nothing about region locking. They just want to bash.

Complaining about region locking is like complaining about copy protection on DVDs.

[wiiulee]

haters are coming out of every hole to type up silly articles..who would waste time to talk about region locking in action.....i dont have one problem with a system being region locked and that didnt just start with the wiiu.....