Freeloader enables region free fun for Wii, just not in Australia

Mike Bantick
Monday, 03 March 2008 04:03

Your IT - Entertainment

Totally unofficial (Duh!) but the new Freeloader from Datel allows region free gaming on the Wii, a boon for PAL regions, except Australia.

Want that NFL game that is only released in the U.S region, realise you cannot play it on your PAL Wii, well then consider Freeloader for the Wii.

By inserting the Freeloader disc, waiting for it to fire up like a normal game, and then inserting any Wii game, from any region, you will be playing those ‘imports’ in relatively no time.  No console hardware modification required.

Of course this is all totally unofficial, and most likely to be blocked by Nintendo with the next ‘essential’ firmware upgrade, but for now Freeloader provides an unabashed glimpse into a DRM free world.

For those in the Australian PAL region however, there seems to be a catch, Australia is not a shipping option from the codejunkies web site .  The product seems to be marketed to Europe and North American Wii owners only.  Understandable given the lucrative market in those regions, but yet another annoyance for those down under that already wait substantial periods for PAL versions of games for the under-libraryised Wii.