The New Wii Update Has Killed All Forms of The Freeloader and Action Replay!

[Kyle15]

A new update just came out, and it came with a disclaimer saying that it could mess up unlicensed hardware you own.
At least they are warning everyone now, yet a warning back then would have been best....

[Ed Oscuro]

I'd love to see the legal justification Nintendo has on destroying ("bricking") someone else's property because the owner of said item did something Nintendo didn't like.

Not official legal advice, of course, but my thoughts on what's likely the reason: You're already breaking the EULA if you install a modchip, I think, and there's already legislation in many places about circumventing copy protection (or whatever it is the freeloader is doing).

It's good they've started warning people this will happen.

[extrarice]

Not official legal advice, of course, but my thoughts on what's likely the reason: You're already breaking the EULA if you install a modchip, I think, and there's already legislation in many places about circumventing copy protection (or whatever it is the freeloader is doing).

It's good they've started warning people this will happen.

Sure, you're breaking the EULA, but you still *own* your Wii. Nintendo does not have the right to destroy your property. Hell, Sony got in trouble with that over the CD DRM that installed rootkits on Windows a few years ago.

[MonoTekETeA]

My question is if I download the update, and then install the chip, will the chip still fry, or is it the update process this time around that fries it?

And as for the gamecube, the region switch looks easy enough to install...:
http://www.superufo.com/review_html/...ification.html

[extrarice]

My question is if I download the update, and then install the chip, will the chip still fry, or is it the update process this time around that fries it?

And as for the gamecube, the region switch looks easy enough to install...:
http://www.superufo.com/review_html/...ification.html

If Nintendo had any brains about how to do this properly, the update would at least change the firmware to do a hardware consistency check at start-up. If anything was amiss, fail to boot the hardware.

That being said, I don't think Nintendo has the brains or guts to go this way.

[Mayhem]

Indeed. The update does nothing to stop installed chips afaik, it's just a bluff warning. At least two people I know with chipped Wii's are still using theirs fine.

[Flack]

The warning states:

"If your Wii console has an unauthorized technical modification, this upgrade could cause interoperability of your console."

Consider it a warning shot. Mayhem's right -- the update doesn't stop mod chips from working, but it does prevent the GC booting/swapping stuff.

Anyone who thinks one mod chip will work forever in this new time of internet connected consoles is a silly toot.

[kazuo]

Anyone who thinks one mod chip will work forever in this new time of internet connected consoles is a silly toot.

This is why the chips have updatable firmware.

[josekortez]

My Wii won't read the Freeloader or Action Replay discs, and I've never connected mine to the Internet. I've had mine since March 2007. I'm sitting here, looking at a stack of GC imports, my Cube is in my storage unit and I'm pissed off! Nintendo is so full of crap sometimes...

[Kamisama]

Your thoughts?

Online Updates suck.

[smork]

Online Updates suck.

Region protection sucks.

[Oobgarm]

If there's any company mode adamant about protecting their shit, it's Nintendo. Think of how many US sales of Smash Brothers they lost due to importers. I mean, I'm all for it, but you gotta look at it from a business standpoint-if something has the ability to cut into your profits, you'd try to quell it as well.

Online updates aren't the only way systems will get updated, of course. Popular and other new titles will require them to be installed off the disc before the game will work.

Sounds like another PSP-style fiasco just waiting to happen.

[smork]

If there's any company mode adamant about protecting their shit, it's Nintendo. Think of how many US sales of Smash Brothers they lost due to importers. I mean, I'm all for it, but you gotta look at it from a business standpoint-if something has the ability to cut into your profits, you'd try to quell it as well.

But it doesn't cut into profits. It's bullshit accounting. Nintendo still makes a sale, just not NOA. And that sale is largely at a higher price than the US sale.

I understand how a particular business unit would want to protect their business, but the corporation as a whole still gets theirs.

On top of it, when someone imports a less-popular title it serves as free advertising and test marketing in the new market. Look at Ouendan -- Japan sales of the first game weren't all that great, but it got imported like crazy, convincing them to make a new version just for the overseas markets (Elite Beat Agents). That begat the actual sequel.

Not to mention the region coding just pisses people off. It never pays to alienate your customers - penny wise and pound foolish.

[josekortez]

The ironic thing is that more than likely, I will end up buying a used Gamecube at Gamestop to play these games, and Nintendo still won't make anymore money off me. It's worth $30 bucks for me to not have to dig through dozens of boxes and be able to play Family Stadium 2003.

[ProgrammingAce]

I'd love to see the legal justification Nintendo has on destroying ("bricking") someone else's property because the owner of said item did something Nintendo didn't like.

The logic behind this is simple. Nintendo can't be responsible for every possible hardware modification you can make to a Wii. If you choose to add a mod chip designed by a company who doesn't have intrinsic knowledge of how the console is designed then you're taking a risk that *you* will break your console by installing a chip.

Think of it this way: Mod chips are designed to exploit bugs in the software/hardware design of the Wii. What you're doing is forcing the console to run code in a manner it wasn't designed to do in a way the console wasn't designed to handle it. When nintendo sends out an update, the code stored in the console will change. The bug that used to be at one location is now somewhere else in memory. Now the modchip you have installed is trying to modify the wrong code. This has the possibility to destroy your console.

Keep this in mind as well: If your modchip is working now, then Nintendo isn't taking away any of your functionality. Your system has all the same features as the day you installed the chip. It plays all the same games as the day you installed the chip. Problem is, when you purchase a video game system you don't just buy it because of the games that are out now, but also because of the games that are going to come out in the future.

In other words, don't install poor quality chips into your consoles and expect flawless performance. The chips are made by people who are just trying to make a buck.

[josekortez]

The logic behind this is simple. Nintendo can't be responsible for every possible hardware modification you can make to a Wii. If you choose to add a mod chip designed by a company who doesn't have intrinsic knowledge of how the console is designed then you're taking a risk that *you* will break your console by installing a chip.

Think of it this way: Mod chips are designed to exploit bugs in the software/hardware design of the Wii. What you're doing is forcing the console to run code in a manner it wasn't designed to do in a way the console wasn't designed to handle it. When nintendo sends out an update, the code stored in the console will change. The bug that used to be at one location is now somewhere else in memory. Now the modchip you have installed is trying to modify the wrong code. This has the possibility to destroy your console.

Keep this in mind as well: If your modchip is working now, then Nintendo isn't taking away any of your functionality. Your system has all the same features as the day you installed the chip. It plays all the same games as the day you installed the chip. Problem is, when you purchase a video game system you don't just buy it because of the games that are out now, but also because of the games that are going to come out in the future.

In other words, don't install poor quality chips into your consoles and expect flawless performance. The chips are made by people who are just trying to make a buck.

I'm not trying to weigh in on the technical side of this discussion because I don't know anything about the way that a mod interacts with the innards of the system, but why do they care whether the Freeloader or Action Replay works for GameCube games since the Cube is a dead system? Just asking as a layman...

[digitalpress]

But it doesn't cut into profits. It's bullshit accounting. Nintendo still makes a sale, just not NOA. And that sale is largely at a higher price than the US sale.

I understand how a particular business unit would want to protect their business, but the corporation as a whole still gets theirs.

While I agree with your assessment, I've seen the battle of market share within an international corporation first-hand and from the inside. 20+ years in corporate America working inside of an international umbrella.

Sure, the bottom line nets to equal for the mother company, but things are much more complicated than that. Without going into loads of boring detail, the foremost issue in losing a sale to "the other guys" (let's say the US division losing a sale to its Japanese counterpart) is that it makes "the other guys" bottom line just that much higher than ours. When mother company looks at this with its objective eye, that means "the other guys" are doing just that much better. If there's a continued and cumulative trend, they win the quarter, or maybe the year. That means they get more attention from mother, their employees get more money, their projects get more funding. Not good for our side.

Simplified manyfold, trust me there is no love lost between corporations under the same wing but operating on different sides of the Pacific ocean. It's every bit as competitive as two age-old rivals competing for customers in the same market.

[ProgrammingAce]

I'm not trying to weigh in on the technical side of this discussion because I don't know anything about the way that a mod interacts with the innards of the system, but why do they care whether the Freeloader or Action Replay works for GameCube games since the Cube is a dead system? Just asking as a layman...

I'm not sure nintendo intentionally broke the freeloader. It's quite possible that while they were updating something else in the operating system, they broke freeloader compatibility.

Also, see what DP posted above. It may have been intentional as well.