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Datel working on Wii FreeLoader

Company famous for the Action Replay series is working on a product for Nintendo's region-locked console.

Nintendo UK's Rob Lowe recently confirmed that the Wii console has been region-locked, making it impossible for consumers to play imported games on their system. He stated that the reasons for this were varied, including to protect against piracy, and because "very, very few" people play import games.

Nintendo's previous hardware release, the Nintendo DS Lite, was made region-free and many had expected the Wii to follow the same principle. The Mario factory by turns confirmed and denied a region-lock for the Wii, before finally deciding to lock it.

However, import gamers may have some hope--Datel has revealed that it is currently working on a version of its popular FreeLoader series for the Wii. FreeLoader enables games from any region to be played without the need to physically mod consoles.

Datel, previously called Datel Electronics, is best known for products, including GameShark and Action Replay, that allow gamers to use cheat codes or transfer files between PCs and consoles.

The company also confirmed that its FreeLoader GameCube product would work to make all GameCube games playable on the Wii.

112 Comments

  • m0thr4

    Posted Jun 19, 2008 1:26 am GMT

    @KiwiforBrain

    I wonder if it still works now though...

    http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3168272

  • KiwiforBrain

    Posted Apr 7, 2008 3:47 am GMT

    I just got myself a free loader plus the American version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It works just fine on my European Wii.

    http://www.next-level.nl/?content=product&pid=10324 Btw, I updated my Wii 2 days ago and it still works.

  • Mega-Matty1991

    Posted Apr 2, 2008 9:41 am GMT

    you guys in the us are so lucky, brawl came out for u at the beginning of march and the eu doesn't even have a release date yet. The last time i heard the estimated release was for may 1st and i think even thats been delayed now!

  • Keronos

    Posted Jan 6, 2008 1:42 pm GMT

    considerin there is no freeloader yet i bet they mentioned this or possible will say they are in dev. with one later just to make ppl shut up about it...and i mean that as in they would say that, i want the freeloader terribadly as well...english actin in the bleach game is friggin horrible

  • BlueFlameBat

    Posted Dec 27, 2007 5:16 pm GMT

    Too bad Nintendo could make any FreeLoader, GameShark, Action Replay, etc useless with a simple update. I'm keeping my Gamecube so I can play Nintendo Puzzle Collection.

  • narutoquest

    Posted Sep 5, 2007 2:11 pm GMT

    this article is what, 8 months old? And theres still no frikin wiiloader! I want to import already. Ive been stuck with the same crappy US games waiting for brawl to come out, hoping the wiiloader would be released before that. Apparently thats not happening. Datel has failed me.

    And just to answer tastycasey27's lat comment, many people say that even if Nintendo releases updates to mess with the wiiloader, Datel can just create their own updates to override Nintendo's. xD

  • Alejandro206

    Posted Aug 5, 2007 2:03 pm GMT

    Thats great. I've had Naruto shuppuden for the wii and bleach for the wii. Now your telling me that you guys might not have a freeloader for the wii? YOu know how i feel about that. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

  • tastycasey27

    Posted Jul 3, 2007 10:08 am GMT

    im just wondering, wot if we all buy this freeloader and it works great but nintendo release a firmwear update for rthe wii that could block the freeloader, then it wouldnt work and a waste of money, but hopefully not cos i want to import games.

  • txmethod

    Posted Jun 26, 2007 9:28 pm GMT

    stilll no news??? and why oh why is it called freeloader when it cost money?!!! What a bunch of bastards.

  • Kwing1983

    Posted May 31, 2007 2:55 pm GMT

    Want to play Bleach...come on Free loader its been so long....

  • hazuki

    Posted May 28, 2007 2:24 pm GMT

    Good gosh, datels taking their time it seems. Here it is, nearly 6 months later and still no new news. If only nintendo kept their promise and kept the system region free.

  • manozgs

    Posted Apr 6, 2007 8:29 pm GMT

    I need, any news?

  • aintgottaclue

    Posted Mar 4, 2007 5:58 pm GMT

    I dunno about it being region locked in order to produce better sales in countries.. I mean surely it would be better to leave the option open to buyers as to whether they would want to play a japanese game or not?

    Even if there is a small amount of people (I personally don't agree with this) who import... How being region free and pirate games connect is beyond me. Surely it would have cost the manufacturers a little less if they took the region-lock bit outta the machines to begin with?

    Either that or Ninty and Datel are in cahoots to nab more money off of us.

  • puppiemaster

    Posted Feb 9, 2007 8:59 am GMT

    great I have over 50 american gamecube games

  • _TheJoker_

    Posted Feb 1, 2007 12:27 am GMT

    I hope they relese it soon.

  • Munchlax357

    Posted Jan 30, 2007 3:21 pm GMT

    does anyone know how long this will take?

  • txmethod

    Posted Jan 29, 2007 2:50 pm GMT

    has there been any updates on Freeloader for Wii?

  • txmethod

    Posted Jan 17, 2007 1:17 pm GMT

    thanks hazuki

  • hazuki

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 11:46 am GMT

    To txmethod- pal is basically englands form of tvs. American tvs are ntsc. Though most tvs in england can do both ntsc and pal now. Nobody in the public knows when the freeloader will come out, but dangit i hope its soon. Nintendo lied to us long ago, once again, and said it was region free. Now only the wii is completely region locked *a good bit of 360 games are region free, ps3 games ARE ALL REGION FREE*

  • txmethod

    Posted Jan 11, 2007 3:59 pm GMT

    quick question: what is a PAL version of a game? what does PAL stand for? and does anyone know when this free loader that lets you play import games is coming out in the US? im dying to play some damn naruto and bleach. Thanks!!!

  • hazuki

    Posted Jan 3, 2007 8:23 am GMT

    "He stated that the reasons for this were varied, including to protect against piracy, and because "very, very few" people play import games." Lies. I've met thousands of people on the internet who play imported games. Region locking a system CREATES piracy because people mod their system to get them to play, and get the idea like "hey i modded the thing, why not pirate games as well?". Get your act together n$ntendo and m$crosoft. In japan, there are a flood of japanese games that won't come here or will alot later in time. Heck, even on spike tv reggie said that and tried to make up for it saying "oh, well the US got it first and wii sports which makes up for it" big deal.

  • mononokehime316

    Posted Dec 31, 2006 5:22 pm GMT

    "This is good for UK.... but I don't know... I've never liked to put "no-original" parts on one of my consoles... "

    dont worry it wont harm your console it will be a disc not an add-on. Im very pleased with this.

    99% of PAL games now run the same speed as there NTSC counterparts thanks to the Dreamcast and its innovative 50/60hz option(although lots of sega 1st party games for the saturn were optimised by sega VF2 for example ran faster than the NTSC versions). This is useful for importing games that wont get released here like NCAA Football 07 we get madden but not college usa football. Its also useful for that Tecmo golf game that has no UK release date at this time as well as more obscure Japanese titles with no western release.

  • MatchLegacy

    Posted Dec 30, 2006 11:10 am GMT

    To all those who have no idea what they're talking about:

    1. There's nothing "illegal" about it.

    2. Datel was going to SUE NINTENDO because they were going to make it region free originally (not the other way around). So all you people praising Datel for making the freeloader; they're the ones who swayed Nintendo into making it region-locked to begin with... to make more money.

    3. A freeloader has nothing to do with piracy at all. You still buy the games. However, now you can play games that dont come out in certain countries at all (such as how every one of the Wii games I wanted only come out in japan).


    On the other hand, thank God the freeloader is even possible. The game selection SUCKS SO BAD. The only decent game so far out there for the US is Zelda. Hopefully Bleach Wii will be a redemption on Japan's part. It looks sweet.

  • WiFi-Kid

    Posted Dec 23, 2006 11:00 am GMT

    Awesome! BTW, we in the U.S. are a bit spoiled, and sometimes many of us may feel bad for the PAL People!

  • skywalker333

    Posted Dec 21, 2006 10:12 am GMT

    nope, not even half of the EU games are translated in anything else but english.
    some games do, BUT they come out later than the main release 99% of the time!
    btw i got .hack part 1 in EU when in USA part 3 was already on the market for months. sorry but i dont want to wait for 1,5 year to play a game.
    there are tons of games that never go to usa from japan. even less ever come to europe.

    the funny fact is the one you just mentioned. the best gaming makers are in europe. but still, we get their games AFTER the usa release! now, is that fair?

    also, i know japanese and i want to play tons of anime rpgs, part games, adventures etc that are never published either in usa nor europe.

    now, GIMME freeloader NOW!!!

  • Chirico_Cuvie

    Posted Dec 20, 2006 8:54 am GMT

    Don't throw the lame generalization that we in the US get/have everything. The main reason you get stuff later is all your neighbors that speak German, Spanish, and French. It tkes time to localize a game for all four languages, and the EU version has all four language options. Lately companies have finally found that it's better to do all the localization in development and release it globaly. While I agree that EU has consistently been the afterthought of the videogame industry for decades, look how it payed off. Most of the best game makers are based in EU. Many great games are made there, probably due to the fact that you guys got everything last so people went and learned to program to make their own games.

    The Pro Action Replay was a Godsend for the Sega Systems.

  • ebonyflame

    Posted Dec 20, 2006 1:56 am GMT

    lostn

    I guess its easy for you to say things like that when in reality, the US gets shafted on many of the great games released everywhere else regularly. At least where you are, the games eventually get localized. Here in the states, lots of games never even get released. You should direct your comments to the gamers in other countries such as Japan.

  • lostn

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 8:09 pm GMT

    "He stated that the reasons for this were varied, including to protect against piracy, and because "very, very few" people play import games."

    LOL. Nice reasoning.

    And to the spoiled americans posting here saying how 'it's not needed anyway'... Freeloader wasn't aimed at you. It's meant more for the rest of the world that has to wait months after the US release to get their version, which costs, more also, and is 20% slower.

    If you're in the US, of course you don't need to import. Why would you? You got everything. Not every nation is as fortunate as yours is.

    I live in a PAL country, buy all my games. But none of my games are PAL versions. My GC has a freeloader, and all my other consoles are modded. PAL versions are inferior and I won't touch them.

  • Gamepro2421

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 7:28 pm GMT

    would this make the Japan VC games accessable in America?

  • acu02151

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 7:24 pm GMT

    well as they still haven't dated trauma center for the UK and it isn't listed in the games coming out next quarter on the Nintendo website I may have use of this.

  • magesx

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 7:01 pm GMT

    Next thing you know Sony's going to steal datel's technology to make their own system region free. >:[




    Oh wait.

  • metroid_dragon

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 12:35 pm GMT

    This is looking great.

  • chaduma

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 12:34 pm GMT

    Interesting but, I'm not a diehard importer. So this looks to be of little itnerest to me.

  • 9344891

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 12:10 pm GMT

    i hope it comes soon i cant wait

  • zillik

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 12:08 pm GMT

    nowing datel "lots of there stuff broke on me" i wont buy it becuase they have bad products

  • Lord_Bafford

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 12:05 pm GMT

    don't they need permission to do that from nintendo first....or do they WANT to get sued?

  • GFofgaming

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 11:48 am GMT

    Shouldn't that be illegal.

  • Travis281

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 11:42 am GMT

    I will definetly not be using this.
    Buy the games or rent them, you "cheaters"!

    This device is for playing imported games that are region-specific. I don't think you have the slightest idea what this article is about.

  • G_W_X

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 11:09 am GMT

    I will definetly not be using this.
    Buy the games or rent them, you "cheaters"!

  • pp222

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 10:19 am GMT

    Awesome! Now i can play the Bleach and One Piece games for Wii! Way to go, Datel!

  • exedeath

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 9:59 am GMT

    Finally. Now I can start importing again, and now my imorted GC games will work with the Wii.

  • SqueekyC1ean

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 9:38 am GMT

    kewl beanz but i still think it shoulda been regeon free to begin with

  • cfamgcn

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 9:38 am GMT

    Go DATEL!!!

  • zerot40

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 9:18 am GMT

    WOOT! GO DATEL! Now I can finally import Wii games soon.

  • LordAndrew

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 9:00 am GMT

    That's the way to go.

  • mjc0961

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 8:01 am GMT

    What? Interact created Game Shark, which was a great prodcut, then Mad Catz got a hold of it and turned it to ****, just like everything they touch.

    Anyway, I'd say this barely qualifies as news.

  • Chargrilled

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 7:50 am GMT

    I import things sometimes.

    i would welcome a version of freeloader for the wii.

    i do also agree with nintendo that the market for importing is very small compared to the total number of machines out there at any given time.

    hopefully they wont be spiteful and patch out the ability to use freeloader.
    it isnt like nintendo to do that so i dont imagine they will patch it out.

  • axillia

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 7:31 am GMT

    Hopefully Nintendo won't send out patches to block this. They need to realize that there is a market for import games. They should've realized that with the DS as EB Games/Gamestop is now selling at least two imports for the DS.

  • gerardinsito

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 7:23 am GMT

    This is good for UK.... but I don't know... I've never liked to put "no-original" parts on one of my consoles...

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