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Mod-proof Wiis to be released in Japan?

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 May 2007 2:48 User comments (32)

Mod-proof Wiis to be released in Japan? According to Japanese retailers, Nintendo is planning on releasing Wii consoles in Japan that are mod-proof.
The new hardware revisions would include the "snipping" of "some of the pins from the surface-mounted IC on the motherboard,", a change that would make current modchips useless and send modders back to the drawing board.

No official word from Nintendo yet, and so far the only systems affected would be Japanese consoles, not North American or European.

More updates as they become available.

Source:
Joystiq

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32 user comments

126.5.2007 15:07

i have the first wii so no worries for me

226.5.2007 16:06

Where there is a Wii, there is a way!! ha ha ha!

326.5.2007 16:06

Ya right.....the only way to make it mod-proof is to not sell it...for every high payed gaming engineer, there is 100 non paid hackers and pirates....it will just take a week longer to hack

426.5.2007 16:11

Nintendo has thrown down the challenge...hackers will answer the call, maybe even diverting their hacking efforts on the PS3 to the Wii.

526.5.2007 16:14

mod proof. hmm where have i heard that before. o yea, xbox 360.

626.5.2007 17:42

The way Nintendo is going this will be possible with the success they are having.

726.5.2007 19:21

no, they're telling the truth.. it is mod-proof, only for the current mods.

826.5.2007 22:19

The 'Cube stopped pirates due to its use of Mini-DVDs and other unique features.

However, the Wii uses full sized DVDs and with it already have been modded its gonna just take them some time before they mod the new "hack-proof" Wiis.

Just like the regular XBox (4+ revisions, if I remember right?) and the PS2 (12 revisions?) it will just take a little more time at the drawing board before the new Wiis have been chipped.

This too will help Nintendo as if the board revision is massive then the Modchip makers might (probably more like "will") destroy several dozen Wii's before successfully getting the new revision chipped.

This will cause the Wii sales to go up even more as a result of this good "challenge" to Modchip creators.

Peace

EDIT: corrected spelling

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 26 May 2007 @ 10:20

926.5.2007 22:34

The few thousand wii's they sell to hackers world wide is pretty irrelevant. Nintendo releases a lot of their own games so preventing piracy has more of a company benefit then third party groups being happy with its efforts. Mod proofing the wii, or any console for that matter, is about the software sales, not the hardware.

1026.5.2007 23:35

Quote:
Nintendo is planning on releasing Wii consoles in Japan that are mod-proof.
Oh, it's NOT April Fool's Day?

Why spend all this time and money developing new mobo methods when online could just take out the mod chip a la Xbox Live as of late?

Oh well, I have a launch-morning system anyways, but it's interesting to see Nintendo actually attempt to stop piracy after allowing me to enjoy an R4 with WiFi features...

1127.5.2007 00:38

Originally posted by Pop_Smith:
The 'Cube stopped pirates due to its use of Mini-DVDs and other unique features.

However, the Wii uses full sized DVDs and with it already have been modded its gonna just take them some time before they mod the new "hack-proof" Wiis.

Just like the regular XBox (4+ revisions, if I remember right?) and the PS2 (12 revisions?) it will just take a little more time at the drawing board before the new Wiis have been chipped.

This too will help Nintendo as if the board revision is massive then the Modchip makers might (probably more like "will") destroy several dozen Wii's before successfully getting the new revision chipped.

This will cause the Wii sales to go up even more as a result of this good "challenge" to Modchip creators.

Peace

EDIT: corrected spelling

====================================================================
PS2 17 revisions and counting.
I think the Xbox has 3.

basically you want to stop mods make a system like the GC/DC and don't support flash cards above 1GB.

1227.5.2007 01:17

Quote:
online could just take out the mod chip a la Xbox Live as of late?
Seeing as this is the first Nintendo console that is open to widespread piracy it's possible that they can't take out the chips the same way Live does.

I'm sure if they'd prefer to just brick modded consoles remotely therefore generating another sale rather then revising their mobo.

1327.5.2007 01:32

Quote:
[quote]online could just take out the mod chip a la Xbox Live as of late?
Seeing as this is the first Nintendo console that is open to widespread piracy it's possible that they can't take out the chips the same way Live does.

I'm sure if they'd prefer to just brick modded consoles remotely therefore generating another sale rather then revising their mobo.[/quote]
=====================================================================
Like MS dose with badly made consoles? LOL

I am surprised the WII dose not have some form of online protection setup..it makes me wonder Nin this time could not focus on mod protection,a WII mod will play 100% downloaded games GC/WII/VC on it in time at least.

1427.5.2007 06:58

Quote:
basically you want to stop mods make a system like the GC/DC and don't support flash cards above 1GB.
DC as in Dreamcast? If by mod-proof you mean mod-unnecessary then I think it really nailed it ;)

The only reason I bought a Dreamcast last year was because I knew the games were easily acquirable and I didn't need to fork out for a bootloader or mod chip.

GC as in GameCube? One of my friends had a modded system and another runs the PSO exploit.

I agree about the flash cards part and especially the Wii having USB2. It makes an awesome PSP and Zen charger but will only be exploited in the future to run 500gb of awesome.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 May 2007 @ 7:00

1527.5.2007 08:04

I don't care, I live in the US and I already bought a Wii two months ago and getting it modded in 3-5 weeks unfortunately.............

1627.5.2007 10:06

damn good thing i got my wii this month also I gotten the coveted D2B dvd chip so the wiikey modchip worked.
Awesome almost all my systems are hacked except my PS3 but I am waiting patiently for that.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 May 2007 @ 10:06

1727.5.2007 12:06

Originally posted by muccione:
Ya right.....the only way to make it mod-proof is to not sell it...
LMAO!. haha.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 May 2007 @ 12:06

1827.5.2007 12:10

Originally posted by Pop_Smith:


Just like the regular XBox (4+ revisions, if I remember right?) and the PS2 (12 revisions?) it will just take a little more time at the drawing board before the new Wiis have been chipped.

there were 12 revision... but the mods from the old revision still worked with the newer... so obviously they changed it to make it better.. not prevent mods..
thanks sony.

1927.5.2007 15:35

Usually the revisions were done to cut costs on components rather than make it "better", although sometimes it does both.

2027.5.2007 17:17

Quote:
Originally posted by Pop_Smith:


Just like the regular XBox (4+ revisions, if I remember right?) and the PS2 (12 revisions?) it will just take a little more time at the drawing board before the new Wiis have been chipped.

there were 12 revision... but the mods from the old revision still worked with the newer... so obviously they changed it to make it better.. not prevent mods..
thanks sony.

V1-11 were fat PS2's, the slim was goes from v12-17. They did try to stop the mods by moving things around a little bit but in the end people found the solder points and all older modchips still worked.

By why release a "mod-proof" Wii in Japan of alll country's? Wouldn't the US have a higher piracy rate than most country's, surely there would be a more effective place than Japan.

Sure as hell it wont be mod-proof for long though.

2128.5.2007 04:13

If this was Sony people on this board would be ripping them all the hell but i guess Nintendo get a free pass.

2228.5.2007 09:21

NextGen, have you even read the thread?! Thats all people are doing...is ripping on Nintendo!

2328.5.2007 09:27

....mod chips work for speficic revivsons on the PS2..they are not backwards compaitable.

2428.5.2007 16:50

Originally posted by ZIppyDSM:
....mod chips work for speficic revivsons on the PS2..they are not backwards compaitable.
There are a few that work with ALL versions, but most have a specific ranges like 4-11 etc.

I would actually agree with Nexgen76, if this were Sony making such a stupid claim people would be bashing the hell out of them.

EDIT: Just to note Nintendo never actually claimed anything (yet).
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 28 May 2007 @ 4:59

2528.5.2007 16:59

In case anyone forgot, the article clearly states:

"No official word from Nintendo yet."

They never claimed the new Wii's to be "Mod-Proof". The changes might lessen the heat put out by the board or cause it to use less electricity or something. But, that doesn't mean that they did it simply to prevent modding. I fail to believe that Nintendo would release a new Wii revision just to prevent Mods for being installed.

Although, yes that could be the case.

Peace

2628.5.2007 17:02

Quote:
Originally posted by ZIppyDSM:
....mod chips work for speficic revivsons on the PS2..they are not backwards compaitable.
There are a few that work with ALL versions, but most have a specific ranges like 4-11 etc.

I would actually agree with Nexgen76, if this were Sony making such a stupid claim people would be bashing the hell out of them.
true but some of the post can lead others to think and mod chip on any PS2, mod chips are far more fickle than that :X



BTW if Ninento implements a RFID in the game discs and new revision that would put a stop to it till its defeated,really they all talk the "end of piracy" talk but do little to do anythign about it and even less of them do anything effecaint about it.

2728.5.2007 17:30

Originally posted by Pop_Smith:
In case anyone forgot, the article clearly states:

"No official word from Nintendo yet."

They never claimed the new Wii's to be "Mod-Proof". The changes might lessen the heat put out by the board or cause it to use less electricity or something. But, that doesn't mean that they did it simply to prevent modding. I fail to believe that Nintendo would release a new Wii revision just to prevent Mods for being installed.

Although, yes that could be the case.

Peace
Modern revisions to save manufacturing costs seem to be all the mod proofing they need now adays.

Has anyone actively gone a anti mode path? sony has had so many revisions I dunno if it was from being cheap or hacking togather bad sht 0-o

2828.5.2007 19:44

@Zippy
The Xbox seems to be the first console that has actively blocked mods, as it too had a firmware hack. Now with the 360 MS a pushing harder than ever for no piracy with their huge ban of Xbox Live users, the thing with that is by banning the actual console MS might see an increase in sales of the 360 (from people buying new consoles) but software sales will definitely drop through people thinking "screw M$, they ban me, I never buy games again". Other than that the PSP with its firmware updates would be the only system that tried stopping piracy, but the PSP scene is a huge as ever.

2929.5.2007 05:59
REAM
Inactive

actually, the mobos are now out, here is a picture of the part that stops the chips that are soldered from working, becuase the legs that power the chips are gone.


This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 29 May 2007 @ 5:59

3031.5.2007 17:23
dvmo
Inactive

Quote:

PS2 17 revisions and counting.
I think the Xbox has 3.

basically you want to stop mods make a system like the GC/DC and don't support flash cards above 1GB.
um actually the thign with the dc is that u just have to burn bin or cue files to a disk to play them i must have about 50 illigal coppies of games and emulators for my dc and no chips or boot discs are needed.

3110.6.2007 23:12

Has anyone seen a wii mod proof in the US yet. I want to buy a wii and mod it as soon as a store says they're in stock. I've been reading about people bricking their systems by putting in original copies of games. It sounds like you really could mess up your wii by puting in backups then putting in paper mario, or not having the latest version of firm ware, this sounds scary.

3228.6.2007 00:17

Many companies before Nintendo have claimed that their product is (Insert Adjective Here) Proof.

They too will realize that there are more of us than there are of them.

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