By Frank Ling, GN Senior Writer
When Nintendo proclaimed that the Wii would be for everyone, they were speaking literally. The Wii will be for everyone, because it will be region free. Game publishers and game console manufacturers have usually taken the position that games should only be playable within the specific regions or locales where the game machines are sold. Games from the UK, for instance, cannot be played on U.S. machines, and vice versa. This sequestering of gamers from one another is changing with Nintendo announcing that the Wii will have no such boundaries.
Vice president of Nintendo Perrin Kaplan replied in a short and direct “Yes,” to the Wii being region free. In other short answers, she said that downloadable games from the Virtual Console store (old school downloadable games) would be “tied to an account,” rather than being downloaded as individual files.
