Wii muligvis regionsfri

The Wii will be region-free, or at least it should be.

That's the word from Wired News' Joel Johnson, who found Nintendo's VP of marketing Perrin Kaplan at the recent New York City press event and got her to reveal that, like the Nintendo DS, Nintendo's Wii games will work on any console regardless of region.

While there may be a region lock that third-party publishers can choose to turn on, Nintendo seems to be setting the standard by making its own first-party games region free.

Here's what Joel filed this morning:

Wired had the opportunity to sit down after with Nintendo Vice-President of Marketing & Corporate Affairs—not to mention affable conference host—Perrin Kaplan to ask a few questions that weren't addressed in the press conference.

• Will the Wii be region-free? Yes. Like the Nintendo DS, the Wii will be able to play games from other regions, such as Japan, without any restriction. Kaplan implied there might be a region lock that publishers would be able to flip on, but it doesn't sound like the first-party titles from Nintendo will be restricted.