Many sources are reporting that the new gift feature that allows Wii owners to send Virtual Console games to their buddies is, unsurprisingly, region-locked. That we expected; after all, VC games release on different schedules around the world. But what is surprising is that the function seems to be country-locked as well. Posters at NeoGAF are reporting being unable to send Virtual Console games between Canada and the United States, though no one has yet -- to our knowledge -- tested sending VC games between two European nations that both use the euro as currency. We don't know yet what the lock is based upon; it could be currency or just blanket national lines. We'll keep you updated as we learn more, but for now, reconcile yourselves to only sending gifts to people who live under the same flag.
Many sources are reporting that the new gift feature that allows Wii owners to send Virtual Console games to their buddies is, unsurprisingly, region-locked. That we expected; after all, VC games release on different schedules around the world. But what is surprising is that the function seems to be country-locked as well. Posters at NeoGAF are reporting being unable to send Virtual Console games between Canada and the United States, though no one has yet -- to our knowledge -- tested sending VC games between two European nations that both use the euro as currency. We don't know yet what the lock is based upon; it could be currency or just blanket national lines. We'll keep you updated as we learn more, but for now, reconcile yourselves to only sending gifts to people who live under the same flag.
Reader Comments (11)
Posted: Dec 11th 2007 1:57PM Nushio said
Its true. I set up my country to USA, and tried to send the photo channel 1.1 as a "gift" to a friend of mine, whose Country is set to Mexico. It wouldn't let me send him the gift...
Its easily bypasseable. Just set your country to whatever country he's in, and voila! Its a royal pain in the ass though. Nintendo must have a great legal reason to implement said lock, otherwise, they wouldn't refuse the gifting process, which equals to free cash for them.
Reply
Its easily bypasseable. Just set your country to whatever country he's in, and voila! Its a royal pain in the ass though. Nintendo must have a great legal reason to implement said lock, otherwise, they wouldn't refuse the gifting process, which equals to free cash for them.
Posted: Dec 11th 2007 2:48PM (Unverified) said
"Posters at NeoGAF are reporting being unable to send Virtual Console games between Canada and the United States, though no one has yet -- to our knowledge -- tested sending VC games between two European nations that both use the euro as currency."
You seem to be under the impression that Canadian and US VC use different currencies, when actually the Canadian VC uses American dollars too. At least, my Wii does.
Reply
You seem to be under the impression that Canadian and US VC use different currencies, when actually the Canadian VC uses American dollars too. At least, my Wii does.
Posted: Dec 11th 2007 2:18PM (Unverified) said
Yup...us Canadian's have to pay in US dollars as well as pay our locals taxes...Yikes!!! But that changing country idea..would that allow us to get access to European vc'S OR is it based on the WII's region code?
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Posted: Dec 11th 2007 2:32PM Nushio said
Its based on the Wii Region Code.
This does allow Latin-American Wiis to access the US Shop Channel though (its not available in most Latin-American countries)
As for me? I set the country to Mexico when purchasing credits, and to USA when purchasing games, that way its linked to My Nintendo account.
Reply
This does allow Latin-American Wiis to access the US Shop Channel though (its not available in most Latin-American countries)
As for me? I set the country to Mexico when purchasing credits, and to USA when purchasing games, that way its linked to My Nintendo account.
Posted: Dec 11th 2007 3:03PM (Unverified) said
So much for that service then! The only people I'd even consider sending games to are in the US!
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Posted: Dec 11th 2007 4:06PM (Unverified) said
Good old Nintendo. Taking their desire to make a Wii "community" and totally raping it yet again.
They are the most clueless company on the planet when it comes to online.
Why not allow people to send games to others anywhere? If the game isn't in that country yet, just tell them for christ sake.
Reply
They are the most clueless company on the planet when it comes to online.
Why not allow people to send games to others anywhere? If the game isn't in that country yet, just tell them for christ sake.
Posted: Dec 11th 2007 4:17PM Nushio said
As I said. Nintendo must have a *strong* legal reason not to allow gifting games to other countries.
Same reason why Microsoft's XBMarketplace in Mexico doesn't sell certain gamerpics, or even the oh-so-desired horse armor. It wouldn't cost them a penny to allow that to be sold, yet they block the content.
Blame your lawyers, and your laws. Not Nintendo. Not Microsoft (in this case, at least, on everything else, do blame Microsoft and avoid them like the plague :) )
Reply
Same reason why Microsoft's XBMarketplace in Mexico doesn't sell certain gamerpics, or even the oh-so-desired horse armor. It wouldn't cost them a penny to allow that to be sold, yet they block the content.
Blame your lawyers, and your laws. Not Nintendo. Not Microsoft (in this case, at least, on everything else, do blame Microsoft and avoid them like the plague :) )
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