Wii U Will Be Region-Locked

Though it comes as little surprise, it appears as though Nintendo's Wii U console will be region locked. The latest issue of Famitsu reports that Nintendo plans to prevent its new console from playing software outside of specified territories. A direct quote as translated on Twitter: "What can be played on the Wii U is restricted by a region-lock feature; software not sold in the same region cannot be played."

This is hardly the first time Nintendo has applied this policy. Wii and the 3DS were locked, as were some models of the Nintendo DS. Earlier Nintendo hardware featured physical differences in carts as a means for region locking.

So... anyone planning to import a Japanese Wii U now? If Nintendo of America's strange localization timetables continue, we're not sure how long we'll be able to resist. Stay tuned to IGN for the latest details on Wii U as the system's launch approaches.

Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com and the leader of IGN's Nintendo team. He also watches over all things WWE, Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed and much more. Follow him on Twitter, if you dare!

Source : ign[dot]com

New Final Fantasy XIII Game "Just Entered Production"

Work on the new title in the Final Fantasy XIII series that will be announced in September has apparently only recently started.

In this week's Famitsu (via Andriasang), producer Yoshinori Kitase said that the new project only recently entered production and that we'd find out the game's title on September 1.

While it's not much, the news that the game hasn't been worked on for long lends credence to the idea that we could be about to see Final Fantasy XIII-3. When it was first revealed that new series details were incoming, many fans were hoping they may in some way relate to the long-absent Final Fantasy Versus XIII, but unless you count 2006 as "recent", it appears we can now rule this out.

The Final Fantasy 25th anniversary event in Shibuya kicks off later this month, with the new game scheduled to be revealed at 11.30 on September 1 through the "Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Saga: New Developments Presentation".

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant, and would personally prefer Final Fantasy X-3. Let him know your thoughts and feelings on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

3DS XL Starts Strong in Japan

Japanese sales data from Enterbrain (via Famitsu) has revealed that nearly 200,000 3DS XLs were sold during the system’s first week on sale. According to Famitsu, 193,441 systems have been sold since the system launched in Japan on July 28th.

Separately, New Super Mario Bros. 2 (which launched alongside the system) saw equally impressive sales, with 430,185 sold in the same period. That figure is only for copies of the game sold at retail and does not include customers who downloaded New Super Mario Bros. 2 via the eShop.

The full Japanese hardware and software sales chart won’t be revealed until tomorrow, but things are certainly looking promising for Nintendo’s supersized handheld. The original New Super Mario Bros. on DS went on to sell more than 10 million units, while lifetime sales of the original 3DS have crossed 19 million units worldwide.

3DS XL was also released in Europe, but sales haven’t been revealed for that territory. The system will launch in North America on August 19th alongside New Super Mario Bros. 2 (which hits Europe on August 17th). For a look at the changes in Mario’s latest outing, check out our tour of New Super Mario Bros. 2.

Source: Andriasang

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com