This news might come as a blow to Nintendo fans, as the company has confirmed that their upcoming next-gen console, Wii U, will be region-locked. Nintendo have confirmed the news to CVG.
Region locking will have games purchased in the US, Japan or Europe only work on the machines in those countries – meaning you can’t import games, or send them to your friends in other countries. Nintendo aren’t new to the region-locking game, though – as they’ve locked pretty much all previous consoles: 3DS, Wii, GameCube, N64, SNES and NES.
But, you would think with the recent business troubles Nintendo have had – posting their first loss in decades, as well as a downward spiral of Wii sales, and the increased competition form Microsoft and Sony, that Nintendo would want to use every trick they could to keep consumers. Will this turn customers away? It hasn’t so far with previous Nintendo consoles, but we live in a far different world today than we did when the Wii was released.
