@phinehas: Heh, I only saw your second comment after I posted mine.

Restricting content by region is a little bit stupid to me. Isn't the whole point of a business to make money? If that's the case, wouldn't a company want to make it as easy as possible for people to give them that money? And if you don't allow people to buy the games they want, won't that get in the way of, y'know, getting paid and stuff.

Unless, of course, there is a reason that I am unaware of that justifies region encoding in a business sense. But then I don't have a business degree.

Fishballs

If this is confirmed, I may very well end up canceling my SSBB preorder and buying a used copy a week later. I don't feel like giving money to Nintendo right now... and I may not feel like it again until NOE get their act together. Until then, delays + no more Freeloader = used games FTW.

Antiterra - No Country For Old Snake

Now that was a low blow.

mcderek3000

This is why I don't download firmware updates and such until someone can tell me what they do.

GregoriusH

@mownkay: Yes, that'd be lovely. I've already heard from four people affected, but more won't hurt.

Luke Plunkett

Oh, and can anybody confirm that the 3.3 update has indeed killed freeloader?

mownkay

@phinehas: I think it's just for importing, which should never be punished. It doesn't hurt the developer, because they sell a copy either way.

Captain Impulse

@phinehas:

See, that's where you're wrong. While the HQ and main-people of Nintendo probably don't care, people at the country-specific branches do.

When EU gamers can get games 20ish(?) dollars less from the US, it hurts sales and profits in that region. It makes sense to stop that.

Terance!

If you're disconnecting your Wii from the internet, you might as well chip it and play fake games too. Here in Pakistan, a game is 100 rupees each, roughly $1.50, so you can imagine how many games I've got.

Hell yes.

mownkay

@phinehas:

If it's anything like SOME freeloaders, it may be able to play burned games.

But, I wouldn't know. If I import I do it the way all hardcore-importers should: BUY THE DAMN SYSTEM.

Seriously, all you people whining about using unauthorised things, then those same things getting stopped make me sick.

What did you think would happen? NOAu/E/etc would just smile and go "Haha, go pay less for our games ^^"?

Terance!

@Fishballs: I tried clarifying myself in my second comment - if Nintendo is trying to prevent piracy of its games, then it has to do what it has to do. But, again, I'm not sure if that's possible with the freeloader.

If it's just imported games, Nintendo definitely has better things to worry about, I agree.

phinehas

@Chrinkster: Yeah, that's the Twilight Hack.

@Hexxagon: You talking about Game Updates? Lucky I won't be buying any more Wii games :3

Ryumeka

@phinehas: There is a difference between a company protecting itself and a company trying to dictate how their customers use the products that they bought.

And besides, how is Nintendo protecting itself by pulling a dick move like this?

Fishballs

@phinehas: by "the game" I mean piracy.

Which, now that I think about it... is possible to pirate games with the freeloader? Or is it just for importing puposes?

phinehas

Fail. I imported my Smash Bros., are Nintendo just going to try and extract another £35 from me?

Dragonzigg

Disconnecting it from the internet won't work for long, you know that, riight?

Hexxagon

Don't see why people get all messed up about when a company tries to protect itself.

You play the game, you risk getting burned.

phinehas

I got the message this morning. It said that it would delete any save data that was unofficial or something like that.

Chrinkster

Goddamn. It's hard to love nintendo when they keep shitting on my face all the time.

Ehetyz

I don't use the freeloader, but I would be pissed if I did. Nintendo are sticking it to their biggest fans.

silkylove

Sooo basically Nintendo waited 5 months to release Smash Bros. in Europe and this is some sort of punishment?

Nintendo, I will not be updating my Wii. Why not just have a region free console like the 360 (Asian games anyway), PS3, PSP or DS.

Region coding is a dinosaur in this industry, whats the point of it these days other than control?

King of Fun UK

Seriously, Europe gamer should just get a US Wii. The console & games are cheaper even after the shipping cost added. US currency is in toilet now.

Mojomagic

The real shame here is that thousands of avid Nintendo fans will bitch and whine about this, but they will all fold and buy a new copy of whatever foreign game they may have.

But if this is true, I'm selling my Wii. Brawl wasn't even that great.

Ryumeka

NOOO! I DON'T WANT TO RE-BUY SSBB!!! >:(
Dammit Nintendo why can't you release PAL games on time.
Lucky too, I nearly updated this morning...

Y2Jason

I have several NTSC Wii games. I'm un-internetsing my Wii forever now.

Grinman

@hydroxyde:
no I figured that this gen since Microsoft can get their games out globally (give or take a few days) I figured Nintendo would be doing it to so didn't want to pay $100 on shipping and mess around with PSU converters.

We had to wait almost 9 months for elebits!! I then realised my mistake, I'm this very minute searching for the best mod chip to buy.

jigglypoofs

Ouch. Bad form, Nintendo. Region coding is bullshit in the first place, but this really stings for some.

Captain Impulse

@Scazza: If they were hardcore importers, wouldn't they have also imported a console from the correct region?
Seems like these Freeloaders are casual importers ;)

hydroxyde

@Scazza: Speaking as a hardcore importer I'm not worried... because I chipped my Wii! ;) I knew firmware updates would close any software loopholes so hardware hacks are the only way to go.

I'm so glad that modchips are legal in the UK again, despite the mis-information campaign about them only being a piracy device their uses for importing and homebrew are invaluable.

photoboy

If my Freeloader stops working I am gonna sell my Wii! This is the last straw!

damatman

Freeloader must go into the future to find a bypass then return to present save humanity.

sladee

Alot of hardcore importers are going to be mighty upset...

Scazza

WOW! Thank god I didnt download, I would have been left with a useless copy of smashbrothers which I bought and paid for (imported from US as UK had to wait like 4 months), jesus Nintendo WTF are you doing!!!.

I'm jumping on the pirate wagon from now on, F*ck you Nintendo!!! you've turned a paying customer of 20 years away....for good.

jigglypoofs

I am not very concerned since I don't own a Wii, but if I were i would be pissed off...

Akulina

@Badmofo: I've heard the Homebrew channel still works, but that's far from confirmed at this stage.

Luke Plunkett

This is total BS.

The only good I get from this is justification for staying far, FAR away from Datel's FreeLoader for this exact reason.

zgrowler2

The real problem here will be when Nintendo loads this update onto a disc game. That will make the installation and subsequent invalidation of the freeloader inevitable.
Unless of course the freeloader has a way to bypass those disc updates too.

popadophalis

@noliferuin (PSN): no you wern't you were talking about hacking.

that does not mean they dont care about importing, if they didn't, they wouldnt region lock would they?

kommanderk

Suddenly half the people in the UK will stop using their wii online - good one nintendo!

Rockzilla

Well, how they prevented shops in EU from selling imports around the time of the SNES, they obviously do not seems to care about importers.

@ Luke: I'd avoid updating for now.

Fabrice

@Badmofo:
As the Homebrew Channel still works after the 3.3 upgrade (as long as it was installed beforehand... Without Twilight Hack, I don't know how it could be installed otherwsie), I'd imagine so. Haven't tried it myself, so I can't say for sure.

BPMκ

also I'll add my fuck you Nintendo in here too. You're driving a Nintendo fan to the point of no return.

juliopalio

Guys, the current version of FreeLoader runs off of the same exploit that the Twilight Hack did. It was known that if Nintendo were to fix this exploit, not only would it kill the Twilight Hack, but FreeLoader as well (in its current form).

Hell, an earlier firmware upgrade fixed another exploit that stopped the GameCube FreeLoader from working!

By no means is Nintendo going after Datel and importers. They're going after the homebrew scene (just like Sony has been with the PSP). Because, while homebrew can have positive contributions to the system (original apps and games), it can have negative contributions as well (piracy).

Undoubtedly, Datel will work on another release of FreeLoader that will work on 3.3+ Wiis. Don't panic just yet. But if you do require playing legit import games, and don't want to mod your system to do so, just don't upgrade yet.

I laugh at all the people who say they'll sell their systems over this. Such children...

BPMκ

@kommanderk: and i was pointing out why they don't care about importing.

noliferuin (PSN)

Jeez, glad I didn't shell out for Brawl.

Nintendo seems to hate PAL markets. Every other company releases games here on time, Nintendo has no excuse for these fucking insane delays!

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

@Terance!: Except the problem is, the system is a lot more expensive to ship across the globe, also, because of the availability of the american Wii it isnt so easy to get hold of when you live in Aus/NZ (i cant comment about Europe)

juliopalio

@noliferuin (PSN): i dont think you where even paying attention i wasnt talking about why they did it, i was talking about why a company would care about importing

kommanderk

But, does the software freeloader via the homebrewchannel still work? That's mor improtant to me.

Badmofo

Freeloaders are for pusses, import the console like a real man!

marksinclair

I bet they've had this update for a while now, and were just waiting to dish it out until Smash Bros was almost released, so those couldn't wait could play it until then :P

I really don't think Nintendo cares about people who import, or devices that may allow any illegal content to be played. They make enough money and hate the people who pirate games enough to look past the feelings of those who legitimately import games.

Mit

@Fishballs: Well said.

Personally, I feel the whole scenario is BS. Let's say I want to buy a DVD only available in Japan. I buy it. Later, the company that owns the license decides to release it in the US. Should I not have imported it, simply because of region encoding? Am I hurting the company by buying it through unofficial channels? That's crap.

It's the same scenario here, except for the foreknowledge that eventually Nintendo would release the game in other regions. Maybe the local branch of Nintendo might be "hurt" because they're selling one less copy in their region, but that's all an illusion. It only "impacts" them because they're putting all their stock on local numbers instead of looking at the global benefit to Nintendo, which remains constant.

They're viewing the world in slices on a pie chart and seeing one market performing "poorer" while, without them noticing, another slice grew slightly larger. It evens out in the end. It's a self-made issue that could be avoided by a simultaneous global release: you'd take back that bump in sales for the Japan market and put it back in the local market, and everyone wins.

Also, a simultaneous worldwide release would cut down on the number of pirates who steal a game because they don't want to wait the extra months/years for the local release. You'll still have problems with pirates who steal because they just don't want to pay, but you're never going to shut those guys down completely.

Captain Impulse

@kommanderk: So what you're basically saying is that the Nintendos in different regions are all separate corporate entities?

Isn't that very VERY inefficient? They'd be spending money to make different versions of the same game, printing different manuals, and different covers, as they are now. And then after all that, they're going to spend even more money trying to make sure that people buy the right version of the game? That doesn't seem very sustainable.

I understand the need for localisation and translations for the different languages in the world. But spending the extra money, man-hours and effort to put stuff into your consoles so that it can't play games from other countries seems very counterintuitive towards making more money.

What I'm suggesting is that these huge corporations maybe rethink the way their divisions are structured. Then, 'unauthorised' products like the freeloader wouldn't have a market at all.

@phinehas: I understand what that comment you refered me to is trying to say.

Like I said in my response to kommanderk, I think that the current mode of corporate structuring is very counterintuitive to making more money for the corporation as a whole. Maybe they should stop thinking about profits in terms of the different bits and pieces of the company like Nintendo of Eu and Nintendo of US and start thinking about just Nintendo as a whole.

I realise that I might be completely naive and idealistic here. But like I said I'm no business person.

Fishballs

I agree with some people here: Nintendo's release system is totally unfair for Europeans. Most of the time, anyway. We got Mario Kart and Wii Fit earlier, so you can't say that EVERY game is late here. And there have been certainly some improvements in the last decade.
But I'm supporting the Freeloader 100%, even if I don't use it. I have a US Wii, and I think this is better than having a chipped one. I think region protection is an outdated way of making more money, since games cost nearly double in Europe.

Hexxagon

@kommanderk: how would they make money? open your eyes man, they do it the same way they make money on region free DS games: 99% of users buy games from highstreet retailers. this isn't about importing, this is about locking out pirates. importing is never going to significantly eat into a region's sales.

noliferuin (PSN)

I haven't even had my Wii set up since GTA4 the anticipation of MGS4. I do like the blue light though. The update should give us control over that!

I know, I know. I need to stop mentioning MGS4 in every post.

icegoat

@mownkay: I don't think anyone wants to.

Ryumeka

I'm not downloading the update myself, but not because I care about it nerfing Freeloader (Hell, I don't even use Freeloader). I just love that little pulsating blue glow. :)

Neo Deus

@Terance!: True, but Nintendo has the power to prevent that scenario from happening. A simultaneous worldwide release at an equivalent price point would be fair to all markets, and wouldn't hurt Nintendo in any market. Would it require more time before a game sees release due to localization issues? Absolutely, but I don't see why Nintendo (or any other developer) feels the need to play favorites or dangle their product in front of another market's face because it was easier to localize for the US or Japan first.

Captain Impulse

@Terance!: please can you stfu, until you live in europe or austrailia and have to wait up to 9monts longer than the US for a game then you don't know what you're talking about.

if it hurts nintendo so badly then all they have to do is RELEASE THE DAMN GAMES in the respected countries, this is about outdated management practices and control; and has lead this gamer to thepiratebay.org

jigglypoofs

@Fishballs: I don't know enough about it, but this comment made a bit of sense to me.

It sucks for anyone who uses it, it really does - but I still think if someone's going to use an unauthorized product, you're entering risky territory no matter how you look at it.

And anyone p.o.'ed about the massive delays from one region to the next could spend their time dealing with the problem where the roots are, I suppose. With all this complaining about the waiting time, I've never heard of one person taking it up with NoE directly, through a letter campaign or something like that. Only in internet comboxes.

phinehas

Ohhh Nintendo pull this just as Mr Modchips comes back. Time get me some chippy goodness.

noboard

@Fishballs: how would nintedo of europe make money if people by US games? Each company has a division in a region and that division needs money to do stuff like localization.

so buying in a diffrent region the money doesnt really go to the same place

kommanderk

@Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.: Every other company except for Bandai Namco, who take Nintendo-esque epic amounts of time to release a lot of their games in PAL too. It's very frustrating because they also are one of the only 360 publishers who pigheadedly region lock everything.

atomicstrawberry

@BPMκ: Oh I'm not arguing that the info wasn't out there, just that it's probably not really common knowledge.

Captain Impulse

Didn't Datel make a comment that if the Wii Freeloaders got bricked, that they would ship you another copy or something along those lines?

hikaizer

@BPMκ:
Gah, messed up my HTML there...

Read more about it here.

BPMκ

@Captain Impulse:
According to the WiiBrew wiki:
"It exploits the same signature verification bug as trucha signer, and an unknown method to frustrate attempts to dump the disc using standard methods."

So, this update probably fixes that signing bug. Read more about it

BPMκ

Well I figured it would happen eventually. I got a Freeloader originaly to play the uncut version of No More Heroes but since nabbed zack and wiki from the states, why wouldn't I? It was almost 60% cheaper!!!
All this will do to me is put my second plan into action... Sell the Wii and buy a US one, import forever, enjoy the price cuts and live happily ever after. There's nothing you can do about that nintendo you stupid c#$ts :D

Sycada

Well, I'm sure not updating my Wii! :) I'd like to be able to play the copy of Brawl that I bought!

Achenar

Killing the GC Freeloader early on was bad enough. Like GC imports were cutting into Nintendo's domestic sales in any region these days? Irritating.

Grave

@BPMκ: I don't really think the Freeloaders' modus operandi was all that well known, actually. Not that many people would care, as long as it worked.

Captain Impulse

@saladinzero: No More Heroes is censored for PAL. It's still worth buying foreign.

Josh*

I'm just about to sell my NTSC copy of Brawl.

Club Nintendo points FTW. The one thing NoE has done right.

Josh*

There will be a updated Freeloader people. Settle down for chirst sake. Like it's been noted, Nintendo is doing this mostly to deal with piracy.

Foxstar Sixtail

I had a sneaking suspicion something like this would come out. Hence why I didn't buy one of those Freeloaders, and waited for No More Heroes and SSMB to be released eventually.

saladinzero

Well I am grabbing a Wii around Christmas, so lucky for me most of those bugs will not affect me. I was always waiting for the release schedule to be a bit meatier, I can catch up on the 5 or 7 great games they trickled onto the console and enjoy it for what it really is.

simmo

interesting typo in the title there (feeloader [sic]) lol.

changes the whole meaning of the product :p

FancyShmancy

@Captain Impulse:
Common or not, it was a known inevitability. And I'm sure Datel was well aware of this, and are probably working on another workaround to get the FreeLoader to work (since they have a snowball's chance of getting their software signed by Nintendo).

BPMκ

I only bought one JP game with my freeloader but I had a couple JP Gamecube games. I'd hate to have it be useless. :(

Is there an update for US consoles? I've been so busy I haven't really touched my Wii save for playing Okami once a week. :(

battra92

@kommanderk: yeah but what if I don't want localization at all, why should I give them money to do that if I want to play in the original language anyways, that would be paradox.

and it's not like people are importing so much because the games are a little bit cheaper overseas, it's because they just don't get released here in time.
I would buy a lot of games here, but even in europe the prices differ a lot from country to country, and some games are localized and do not include the original language, that's a simple no-go for me, and the cause I buy most of my games in the UK.

infi

I fully understand Nintendo wanting to protect itself against piracy, that's totally acceptable.
What ISN'T acceptable, is taking a hugely anticipated title, releasing it for NTSC users, then making PAL users wait months for games (up to over a year sometimes - see Final Fantasy 12). If the wait was like a month I could understand, but really there's no excuse a game like this should take so long to localize.

People like myself who love Nintendo and their games and want to play it buy a legal copy from overseas and are now being burned because we can't play it.

If only there was a faster localization process everyone would be happy, and Satoru Iwata would still have a huge fat wallet!

Y2Jason

@Sycada: Actually, they could technically do something about that, at least if you use the internet connection. I live in the UK and my US Wii currently thinks it's in Brazil. But it could easily check its own IP address and determine that in fact, it's not, and refuse to run/connect to the internet.

I don't think they will actually do this - more a theoretical possibility. And I'd still definitely recommend that everyone gets a US Wii: no fuss, it just works. (I also purchased a replacement PSU that works on EU voltage so as to avoid having to use a voltage converter, seemed like a single transformer would probably be more efficient.)

To be honest I don't think it's really appropriate to complain that vociferously about Nintendo making Freeloader/homebrew not work. I mean yes, it's shit, but it's also entirely expected shit. Sony play the same game with PSP. The thing that's appropriate to complain about, which sadly was decided long ago and is set in stone for this generation, is the region coding.

If you really object to this, write an actual on-paper letter to Nintendo (of Europe, or possibly Japan?) complaining about region coding and explaining the lengths you've had to go to just because you love their games. Making sure releases are closer to simultaneous would be helpful and is something they should do as well, but there is never going to be a substitute for region-free gaming as we have with the DS - there will always be some games that don't come out in all territories.

It's not even really about price - sure things are dirt cheap in the US but if Wii were region-free I'd be playing a UK Wii and would have at least some UK games, vs currently none. If DS is anything to go by I'd have a couple of Japanese games too, which I otherwise wouldn't buy at all...

quen

They will find a way around it.. but the Wii doesn't want to become then next DreamaPiratecast.. Back in the day thats why my friend got a CD Burner and a subscription to Block Buster.

xpnet

@Foxstar Sixtail: How can you know Nintendo haven't done this to deliberately prevent Freeloader working? They broke numerous versions of Freeloader on the Gamecube causing people to have to go out and buy another version and there was virtually no piracy on the Cube (and GC Freeloader wasn't using a security hole that could be used for piracy).

Assuming Freeloader is using the same security hole that Nintendo just closed, it could be a long while before another flaw is found that can allow for a new version of Freeloader. If on the other hand Freeloader isn't using that particular security hole, then Nintendo definitely targeted Freeloader when they wrote their update, in which case you can expect to have to buy multiple copies of Freeloader as Nintendo break each new version. Either way, Nintendo are being arseholes about this.

photoboy

I'll just keep my Wii offline thank-you-very-much.

I disabled WiiConnect24 a little while ago because the pulsing blue light was annoying, and I figured there'd be some ugly update sneaked onto me that would disable my SSBB import.

I should probably be in some quandary about updating or writing my freeloader off as a loss, but then I looked at the release schedule for the rest of the year and I can't find any title that even vaguely interests me. Unless Nintendo have some great Wiiware titles on the way (plus their external storage for geeks / otakus), there is a very good chance I won't update until sometime in 2009.

martapp

@Achenar: I will have no choice, because on the 27th wil bring Smash Bros brawl to ou PAL nations, and to play it, it will have to be updated, Achenar. It's a no win scenario... for now... :\

Shiryu

That's okay, I stopped using my Wii once I realised I wasted my money on importing Brawl (I did play Mario Kart for a bit, but I'm trying to make a point here so ssshhhh). I should have bought a US Wii from the start, what a waste of money.

Libo

I'm in the UK and imported a US console way before the Freeloader was even heard of. I bought a US region Freeloader in March so I could buy the UK version of Mario Kart and play it on my US region Wii.

I'm going to install the update and try playing the UK Mario Kart Wii on my US Wii system now, wish me luck.

bolt7

@TRT-X: Way to ignore legitimate importer's complaints there.

Captain Impulse

I knew this was coming.
My wii's been disconnected from the internet and any new games for ages now, just in case it stops playing smash bros. And I guess it'll have to stay that way for a while. I was planning on getting the Pal copy anyway, so I'm not too bothered (does anyone know if my save data is transferable?)

This is a perfectly reasonable action on Nintendos part. But what makes it an insult and an annoyance is that they quite happily hold back so many releases in europe, then do stuff like this just to rub it in our faces...

Scammeleon

Oh no! Nintendo is performing updates that fix glitches and prevent priacy!?

Those BASTARDS!

TRT-X

Freeloader isn't even a tener nowadays. Buying a US game+freeloader costs less than the EU game, so it's not like they are doing the mad profits they did when freeloader was 30 quids.

Fabrice

@photoboy:How do we know Freeloader's makers aren't getting mad profits from all of this? It's not like Nintendo breaking Freeloader directly harms them, more so if 15k or more people have to go out and buy a brand new copy.

It's been noted time and time again that Freeloader was using the same hack as the TP one and if Nintendo patched it, it would disable freeloader. That's the same hack people are using for other pirating.

Foxstar Sixtail

eh, i dont play my wii online so i just wont update anything. problemo solved.

pandafresh

@Nico8332: Gotcha - some of the earlier posts led me to believe that piraters were using the freeloader, but since I don't have one I didn't know for sure.

phinehas

@bolt7:

I'm in the UK and got my US Wii from Play Asia around Jan.2007. I paid about £50 on tax. Apparently the thing to do is order from the Canadian web site VideoGamesPlus I think it's called.
For the last 2 weeks I've been turning it over should I get a Freeloader or not. Now I know.
By the way if the Twilight Hack doesn't work, another option I was thinking about, I guess that means IOS37 is being used for the Menu/Channels now.

Red_Breast

Holy crap, our local GameTraders has been selling copies of brawl with a "free" freeloader disc to everyone as if it was something legit and normal. I knew better and also happen to be one of the only ppl on the planet not so interested in brawl. It seemed VERY popular with the "mum & kids" crowd. I was only in the store for 5-10 minutes and saw three families queued up to buy it.

If this was a nation wide strategy by Game Traders I'd say Nintendo just pissed off A LOT of parents. I wonder what Game Traders will say to the mums and dads? Go complain to Nintendo, who cares so little about you that Nintendo Aust doesn't even have an email/online contact??

gilorian

Am I the only one who has been able to use the double-insert method on the Freeloader to play games that want to update? It selectively updates the system so that teh game works, and stops the updated from patching the TS bug that it's coded upon.

Anyone?

Ohverture

@phinehas: Freeloader bypassed the region lock, mate, the copy-protection still works. The box clearly states that the Freeloader will not play "backup" CD's (Which I guess is what pirates call pirated games nowadays) or other unauthorized games.

No one uses freeloader to pirate, it only works with legitimate importers. Chipping on the other hand..

NoE timed this brick with the EU release of SSBB, that way, they get to sell the game to a lot of customers twice.

Nico8332

Will not install! Until the install becomes mandatory :-(

I guess the easiest solution is to get a second Wii from the US. I want to keep playing the bloody version of NMH!

L_K_M

@Scammeleon:
I'm afraid the save data will not transfer.

Screw Nintendo. I haven't had my Wii connected in months. I practically bought it for SSBB! They really know how to piss off their fans.

Wuffles

Game pirates are a cancer to this industry. I don't feel sorry for anyone who lost their ability to play pirated games.

For those who import games, this really stinks - Nintendo needs to get on the ball with localization, we can all agree on that. But something like this wouldn't have even happened if piracy wasn't a problem.

phinehas

I bought a US Wii at around the time of April 2007, I really wanted Super Paper Mario so... I imported a whole new console. Shipping tax alone was £50, it ended up costing around £270 in total on arrival from Play Asia.

But yes, after the update whenever you insert the Freeloader disk is presents you with a black screen saying there was an error and to restart the console, like it does when it has problems reading a disk.

bolt7

Darn you Nintendo! I thought the Australians ruled that Region Protection is BS. Why not focus on firmware updates that block only pirated discs and probably spoiler games? It appears it can't do both, since the DS is rampant with both.

Angryrider

@bolt7: I'm sure buying a US Wii is all fine and dandy for the UK'ers and others who don't live behind the almighty custsoms barrier from hell (also known as Norway). It's hard enough to slip a jewel case through, they would be all over a Wii.
After they've added a customs fee, toll on the product, toll on shipping and the new enviromental tax, that Wii is going to be close to a grand USD.

All the while you can get EU Wii's for as little as 500-600 USD in stores.

I don't mind getting my SSBB bricked all that much, the US pricetag is as good as giving it away, I figured I had to buy the EU one eventually.
I'm just glad they held off on bricking it till near the EU SSBB release date, so I wont have my game interupted :)

Nico8332

Update download straight away, I put in the Freeloader disk and... IT DID NOT WORK!

CONFIRMED guys, this update DISABLES the Freeloader!

bolt7

Curses, so now I cant download vc titles and wiiware titles? (since i don't plan on downloading the update)

Cactuar

TWILIGHT HACK WORKS! There's a post on [www.wiibrew.org] the main source of the hack saying:

"17 June 08: Bushing has already announced a workaround after just 6-8 hours of work! Big thanks to all involved! (Note that the workaround is not yet available publicly)"

All is not lost! Doomsday averted! Apocalypse Tomorrow not now!

NunianVonFuch

@coan_net: Not sure what you mean by that. There's nothing illegal about subverting region encoding.

NunianVonFuch

And this is why I own a imported US Wii. We all knew this was going to happen.

StormdragonBlue

I own a Wii.

And since I do nothing Illegal with my Wii, I'm not worried about this update at all.

coan_net

Ok so if there's no way around this for us EU folk, then there's always good aul modchips. You don't even have to use them for pirated games, just the region-free ability =D

NunianVonFuch

Well this is annoying...I got a freeloader purely so I could play uncensored No More Heroes.

Lemming

Guess that ruins my chances of playing No More Heroes without the ugly and crippling censorship in the PAL version. At least I hadn't already ordered it. D:

Kyuu

So this blocks out imported games that you would have to buy legitimately, but still allows straight up burned copies with modchips? Amazing work, Nintendo.

LowerHouseMember

@KafkaTamura: Where does this attitude come from? Freeloader only lets you BUY games with MONEY from other regions.

Twilight Princess hack at its worst lets you play VC games on the Wii, but since they look and play 100x better on a laptop (and at higher resolutions) which you need to load the software anyway, its not really much of an issue. At its best it lets you encode software to run in its own little environment. e.g. tetris, minesweeper or ports of old, now defunct pc games such as Quake, Pong, Chess etc. It even adds simple programs that should be possible anyway, like an Mp3 player and there was one before that allowed you to use the Wii as a multi-region DVD player but I think that was blocked when the SD-Loader was blocked (not sure).

NunianVonFuch

@KafkaTamura:Because Nintendo isn't selfishly targeting paying customers, it's targeting a hack from which was used to run Freeloader and also runs other piracy apps.

Talk about a clueless commenter.

Foxstar Sixtail

this is why i got myself a japanese wii last week instead of risking an update that will make a drink coaster out of the freeloader. yeah, it's an expensive hobby, but if you have a taste for games like i do, it's justifiable for multiples of the same consoles.

zakufever

Wow.....as an American gamer I really feel sorry for all you Aussies and Brits.

Region coding doesn't make sense in this day and age and with these marketing decisions Nintendo is quickly becoming what Sony WAS.

FLYBOY611

Why do people defend Nintendo when they selfishly target paying customers?

Talk about fanboyism.

KafkaTamura

screw you Nintendo

hotgarbage

I'm sick of this bullshit you guys are posting about "just buy a console".

Its not that simple for some. My little sister is only 14, and she doesn't have that kind of money - this sort of update screws her over badly and there isn't anything I can do/say to cheer her up.

Not only that, but the warrenty becomes invalid the second it arrives in this country, not to mention import tax.

This is a fucking cruel sick joke from Nintendo. Half of their titles don't even get released in europe, which is why she bought a freeloader in the first place.

Nintendo need to clean up their act. I supported them last generation, and the generation before, but now they have gone too far - I'm glad I'm getting a PS3 for MGS4, because I can't stand this crap from them no longer. Sony have won through sheer balls it seems.

Hirmetrium

I love people getting pissed when Nintendo tightens there console region locked. You bought the console knowing it was region locked. You got lucky for a brief period of time that some company found a way to break the lock and Nintendo went ahead and closed the hole. So, you end up with the console having the same abilities as it had when you bought it and you knew it was region locked.

I know it is BS that Europe is late on stuff, but if you are really that serious about importing games from the US buy a NA Wii.

Also, I am sure that the hacks that had people playing pirated VC and WW games out of region had a lot to do with them fixing the hole that allowed the freeloader to work. If you want to be pissed at anyone be pissed at the douches who were pirating games. Did you think that Nintendo would let people play WW and VC games for free and out of region for long?

ProfWho

Thanks, Nintendo! It's good to know that you will fuck consumers who love your games so much they will pay extortionate import prices and tarriffs in order to play them sooner!

Mister Adequate

I forsee mod chip sales to climb. The D2Pro is phenomenal and if you get a wii-clip, you don't need soldering skills to install it yourself.

chiablo

@NunianVonFuch: I always enjoy people that can use "nothing illegal" and "subverting" in the same sentence.

"One man's rebel..."

Brackynews

Stop living in the UK.

Problem solved!

Tizlor

So wait, did the Twilight hack even come close to playing copied games? I think the answer is no. I've been enjoying playing Quake on my Wii, and I'm hoping for Quake 2. I will not be updating my Wii. Hell it's practically a dead console now that all the games I was looking forward to have come and gone and nothing is on the horizon for it. Nintendo, Good luck putting out a game I might want to buy so that you can force a mandatory homebrew ban on me, don't think it's gonna happen.

MrFatalistic

@Foxstar Sixtail: Removal of the Twilight Hack and the removal of the Freeloader are NOT one and the same. The Twilight Hack is a separate entity whilst the Freeloader uses the Trucha Exploit to load region free software. Using the Trucha Exploit for pirated software or anything else REQUIRES a modchip.

NunianVonFuch

@LowerHouseMember:Modchips are much harder to kill, if you understand how they work. And again, this locks out a hack and a bug, it's primary focus is not Freeloader. Try again.

Foxstar Sixtail

I don´t care if this lock freeloader or not, i just wish this updates makes my Wii read discs again, since playing SBB fucked it up (my wii is 1st gen) and now i can´t play anything on it...

Daisuash

phinehas - the twilight hack and freeloader do not promote piracy, they promote homebrew and imports respectively. Homebrew isn't just something that just allows you to run Quake on your Wii, it allows people to use their hardware in new and interesting ways, not limited by Nintendo's IRON FIST of smiting anything that isn't Mario or Zelda related.

MrFatalistic

Oh, and import game may have been "legitimately" purchased but I'm not sure if they can be legitimately used.
I'm pretty sure there are plenty of disclaimers saying things like "Not to be used outside of Japan". But I've long since stop reading those kinda things....

And although not applicable in this case, games sometimes are not released across all regions the same due to licensing issues.

NinjaPoo

As stated before even if they are one company they operate in local branches. With such a big company they kinda have to. Things like keeping an office in UK and marketing strategies are all local, and thus their forecast depends largely on local sales based on local prices.
As you say its cheaper to get a US version because the dollar is weak so that similarly effects their finaces.

Additionally, I highly doubt the localisation hasnt been finished yet. The extended delay is probably more due to their marketing roadmap rather than any techinical issue. It wouldnt have made sense to release so close to all the other games: GTA4, Mario Kart, MGS4.

Finally getting a modchip wouldnt help with importers as even with a modchip there's a whole host of incompatible games between ntsc and pal.

KK

ps. cross region saves being compatible is very hit and miss so good luck. Although someone will probably come up with an app to convert them.

NinjaPoo

@Foxstar Sixtail: What does it matter what their primary focus was? Their update still renders tens of thousands of legitimately purchased games useless, and that's just shitty. But it's fine I guess, Nintendo can just thank themselves when Wii modchip sales see a sudden worldwide spike.

LowerHouseMember

@saladinzero: Suda51: "When I started making the game, I started off by making the US version, so I created a lot of violence and blood. When I started working on the Japanese version, I created it focusing mainly on the action rather than visual gore. So when I went back to the US version I was shocked because I was more used to the Japanese version. I thought 'is this what I created?' I actually like both versions."

NunianVonFuch

@NinjaPoo: Those kind of disclaimers are legally void in the EU, the publisher can't limit the use of a legitimately purchased product. To the contrary, Sony was fined for calling copy-protected CD's "CD's", if they want to copy-protect their music, they have to clearly mark and warn the customer that they are not buying a CD and that it might not work in CD-players.

Even then, customers are free to break the copy protection, change the format and give copies of the songs to close friends and family. However, they are not allowed to spread the music or make it available freely.

Same deal with the freeloader. Except Nintendo is off the hook, because they clearly state that the US version of Brawl will only work on NTSC Wii's.

Basically, if you're dealing with private consumers in the EU, you can't make special terms. Licensing is only applicable to registered businesses.

Nico8332

wait does this affect those with freeloaders in the US too?

RanChan03

@Josh*: No, it's not. The gore was added in for the US release. It's not present in the EU or the Japanese release, suggesting that it's the definitive version according to Suda51, as he would hardly release a censored version in Japan.

saladinzero

Eh, they'll find a new loophole, they always do, and so the few people who've updated will have to buy ANOTHER copy of it.

Talleh

Wow, Nintendo reached a new low. Don't they understand that they are still making money when people buy imported games? Heck, they might make twice the money from those who will still buy their local version. All the region coding should just stop because it's causing all these unnecessary issues.

Ryodestined

@mownkay: Wow, your country's coin is the rupee? kick ass!

Bunn

Only way to pirate is with a hardware modchip. Freeloader only does region free but that hack itself could open up other problems for the wii~

That being said the wii is the only system with region protection this generation. I was thinking of getting a freeloader and oneechanbara but yea =(.

ninjikiran

whoa nevermind my earlier comments. the twilight hack is already running again and my friend said you just need to swap twice to get the freeloader to work. cant wait to get home from work.

lol Nintendo needs better engineers it seems cuz they just put out a worthless block.

still....FUCK YOU NINTENDO!

DontTouchMyDaughterYouFilthyGaijin

no it isnt the pirates who are getting harmed. its the people that import anime fighters like Naruto and other obscure Japanese games that will never make it outside Japan.

ya know what I have to say about that?

FUCK YOU NINTENDO!

I guess they don't want "otakus and geeks" playing their imported weaboo games.

once again....

FUCK YOU NINTENDO!

DontTouchMyDaughterYouFilthyGaijin

Why???? For the love of god? WHY?

insanejedi

@Red_Breast:Not exactly. Oddly, rather than updating the system menu to IOS37, they just updated the IOS it uses (IOS30) to contain the same Turcha / Freeloader killer of IOS37. Unsigned channels still work, however, so if you've already got the homebrew channel installed, this won't disable it.

@ProfWho: Nah, Freeloader worked for region-free disc play. It had nothing to do with playing VC and WiiWare games out-of-region. If I remember right, there's a different app for that.

@Foxstar Sixtail: Nope. They intentionally stopped Freloader / Trucha. The Twilight Hack was a different exploit altogether. That's the one that "stopped" the piracy apps. The Freeloader / Trucha fix is the one that killed Freeloader / Trucha, and only those two things. It can easily be argued the fix was more for Freeloader than for Trucha (As you'll see in the last response of this), which would mean that they were targetting paying customers (That bought games out of region because Nintendo's horrible when it comes to global releases, but that still paid money to Nintendo regardless) with that specific fix. "Talk about a clueless commenter"...

@NunianVonFuch, MrFatalistic, MrFatalistic's other comment also: No, Twilight Hack and Freeloader didn't "promote" piracy. But any way you look at it, both exploits could be used for it. "At its worst lets you play VC games"? Yes. And no. VC games work exactly the same as WiiWare titles, which aren't freely available on the internet and probably are a much bigger deal to Nintendo. As soon as WiiWare (and to a probably smaller extent... or maybe bigger, as I'm sure Nintendo makes good money off of VC at those prices) VC games were piratable, ESPECIALLY since no modding was necessary, you had to know a fix was coming.

@ninjikiran: Most of the time. The big issue with the Twilight Hack is that it could be run with any copy of Twilight Princess; legit or not. Thus people could buy (or even rent, if you wanna be real cheap) a copy of TP, run the Twilight Hack and use it to install the homebrew channel or just run the apps directly, and pirate WiiWare / VC games.

As for Freeloader / Trucha, they have their region-coding in place for a reason, whatever it may be. They very well could see out-of-region play as a big enough problem itself, but Freeloader used the same exploit as Trucha-signer. Trucha-singer can only be used with a modchip to run non-Nintendo-signed code as if it were, allowing edited games. At its best, this allowed uncensored Manhunt, custom GH3 song lists, etc. But at its worst, this could be used to burn discs that have been edited to run homebrew, allowing the installation of the same type of apps as the Twilight Hack (Which I just explained the piracy issue there), so it can easily be argued that the Freeloader fix was to stop Trucha piracy.

@sgspencer: You've seen how last paragraph I argued that it can be Trucha that got the Freeloader killed. It's not that simple, though, and you saying that it's the fault of Trucha is kinda misguided. It really isn't known one way or the other, and won't be unless Nintendo ever states why. It can be argued either way. Freeloader allowed out-of-region play. Nintendo obviously must have their reasons for region-coding or they wouldn't bother with it in the first place. Different regions have different prices, laws and regulations, etc., so who knows how much out-of-region play affects them. What we DO know is that they want region-coding. Freeloader not only bypassed that region-coding, but was being sold by a third party that was profiting off of bypassing their region-coding. It can just as likely be reasoned that Datel releasing Freeloader brought attention to the exploit as it can that Trucha (Which was out long before Freeloader, without any fixes released to it until after Freeloader came) brought the attention to it and got the hole closed.

NinjaMarion

@BPMκ: COMPLETELY wrong. The Twilight Hack has nothing to do with Freeloader or the Trucha-Signer. The Twilight Hack ran off of an exploit in Twilight Princess. Trucha-Signer and Freeloader, which both used the same exploit (And it's debatable whether Trucha is what got the hole closed or if Freeloader's release is what killed them both) ran using an exploit that allowed non-Nintendo-signed discs to run as if they were properly signed.

Continuing my point while also addressing Mit's comment: The fix for Trucha-signed discs and Freeloader has been around, since March 21st, I believe. It was fixed in IOS37 (The one Mario Kart uses, and why Freeloader wouldn't work with MK and why any edited of the disc like WiiScrubbing wouldn't work), but the system menu wasn't updated to use it. In this system menu update, they patched the old IOS (IOS30) used by the system menu to include the same fix, rather than changing the IOS used by the system menu.

And the important part, for those affected by this, from the creator of the Twilight Hack (Which they've already found a workaround for): "This still leaves the issue of how to deal with IOS30; there are several different ways to deal with this - some of which have already been released by people - and we'll need to take some time to decide on the best one to use and test it thoroughly. There's no urgency here, no need to rush into something."

So it sounds like there'll workarounds to the stopping of Trucha and Freeloader before too long.

NinjaMarion

They fixed the Trucha signing bug (which broke Freeloader) because it was being used for some cheeky piracy.

They fixed the Twilight Princess bug (which broke Homebrew) because people can then run emulators and/or copy Virtual Console games, which obviously eats into their VC profits.

I don't believe they directly set out to kill the Freeloader or Homebrew, it's just the unfortunate side-effects.

@Hirmetrium:
All is not lost. You don't really need a Freeloader - there is a region-free loader bundled with the Homebrew Channel. You just need to wait until the Twilight Hack blocking workaround is released very soon, and install the Homebrew Channel.

sgspencer

@gilorian: @coan_net: @Brackynews: There is nothing illegal about the freeloader, there is nothing illegal about subverting region locking. Infact the Australian court ruled that region locking is only to do with making distribution segments to make higher profits. *See THQ games on steam not being sold in Austrlia cause the game is so much cheaper on steam than Aus/NZ retail.* They ruled that circumventing region locking is a valid legitimate action.

juliopalio

Yeah, you see, THIS is why I didn't run right out and buy Wii Loader when it came out. I hoped Nintendo would be classy enough to look the other way, but I was afraid they'd kill it with an update and they did. This is also why I'm having my dead GameCube shipped in for repairs so I can still use my old GC Free Loader to play my precious Japanese robot games. Still... It WOULD'VE been nice for Wii Loader to have kept on working... Then I could've gotten those two Gundam games for the Wii and been ready for a Wii iteration of SRW when one finally appeared. Oh, well... [sigh]

GenRedLeader

I can already picture the next Kotaku post: SSBB does poorly in Europe--Nintendo has no clue why.

Furysetzer

I feel bad for those palers who imported brawl u,u

Aoi

No. There is no point to this. Nintendo can suck my dick. Love them, but this is rediculous.

HarmanSmith

@NinjaMarion: Yeah I guess you're right. Although in my defence of Freeloader a lot of people seemed to think that Freeloader itself let you pirate games, rather than just region free.

Good post. Thorough.

NunianVonFuch

My girlfriend and I bought a Freeloader and a US copy of Trauma Centre 2 because it was never released in Australia. I guess this is the end of firmware updates for our Wii - any future benefits to be gained from a firmware update will be weighed against the loss of a game I've paid for. Bad form Nintendo.

prawnmatic

Why do games companies insist on region locking everything? It only promotes region lock circumvention which in turn can lead to piracy. I have a PAL Wii but moved from the UK to Thailand, so can't buy any games for my system. I'll now be installing the homebrew channel instead of this awful update and will have to make the decision at the games shop whether to buy the 2200B retail version or 100B copy (they sell both).

I've never pirated console games before but since I'm going to lose my update functionality, why should I care? Had region locking never been enabled (as with PS3), I'd simply have carried on buying official Asia region games.

swotr

@NunianVonFuch: Well I wouldn't say for certain that Nintendo would necessarily about Freeloader had it been just some other piece of homebrew. I'm almost certain the fact a major company making money off of something like Freeloader like Datel was is bound to draw the attention of them. I don't know whether or not they can do something to stop it, but as far as I know, they've never done anything to disable RegionFrii. Whether it's because they can't or it's because they don't care because no one's making money off it or even because its compatibility is crap compared to Freeloader's, who knows? I'm just sure the fact Datel was making money off it didn't help things any.

It'll be interesting to see what both the homebrewers and Datel come up with in response to that fix though.

NinjaMarion

@juliopalio: The breaking region locks is also perfectly legal here in New Zealand for the same reasons. I couldn't care less about copying Wii games, but importing is an entirely different matter. I'd say it's pretty much essential functionality in many parts of the world. That's even more the case here now that the local Nintendo franchise went under.

MattB

I personally see no reason at all the Wii should even be region locked in the first place. I mean, obviously the DS is doing pretty good without it. One of the reasons i even keep playing my DS on a regular basis is because i have the option to play the Japanese games that will NEVER make it to the states. I Took every way around the locks i could for older systems as well. Region locking is just a stupid thing to have nowadays.

Someone mentioned that they have different branches of Nintendo in the different reagions and that Region locking is the only way they keep thier profits. bullshit. You fail to realize that every other system this gen is region free and aren't having these problems. This is not even mentioning the fact that the DS, Nintendo's own system, is region free and isn't losing out on profits in the slightest.

RendiaX

i am as pissed of as hell. can anyone recomend like a chip of something to make this badness go away?
also if that fails i sure as hell hope my american save file works with a english game.

Benjitako