Brawl is the key to unlocking doors.
The Wii U Is Natively Compatible with GameCube Software
Nintendo is a stupidly lazy company. We here at Lusipurr.com have long claimed that the Wii U is natively compatible with GameCube software on account of the fact that it is natively compatible with Wii software, and those two systems are virtually indistinguishable in terms of architecture. As it turns out the Lusipurr.com staff has been completely vindicated in such speculation by the release of a Wii U homebrew application by the name of Nintendont, which allows Wii U owners to natively play GameCube content on their systems through the Homebrew Channel.
Nintendont will not allow for the playback of GameCube software directly from disc, since the Wii U disc drive does not support the format, but what it does allow for is the playback of this content from SD card or USB device, making it a convenient way to access one’s complete GameCube library. Moreover, while Nintendo do not even allow the Wii U’s stock standard Gamepad to be used when playing in Wii backwards compatibility mode, Nintendont on the other hand allows for diverse control options including: the Wii U Pro Controller, The original GameCube controller via adapter, and even the mighty Dualshock 3! Once the Smash Bros. GameCube controller/adapter combination are released at the end of the month they are sure to be added to this list, making them useful for more than that game alone, despite the best efforts of a lazy Nintendo.
I have consulted the bananas…
Nintendo’s Iwata Suggests the Bleeding Obvious
Region locking is one of the most anti-consumer oriented practices alive in the industry today, and it has absolutely no place in a recreation that is as expensive as gaming. Nintendo devices were not always region locked. It is certainly true that Nintendo’s home consoles have always been region locked for the most part, but their portable consoles were always traditionally region free up to and including the DS. All that changed with the release of the 3DS, which saw Nintendo moving against the industry trends of Sony and Microsoft in order to erect an impenetrable wall of regional DRM, rather than moving to dismantle such anti-consumer barriers. Speaking personally, region locking on Nintendo’s handheld has meant that one has had to wait fifteen months on from the US release of Shin Megami Tensei IV in order to purchase the game, and even then the title is only available as a digital download, which feels far less tangible than a physical copy.
Sony has not supported region locking since the release of the PSP and PS3, while even Microsoft has ditched the practice for their eighth generation console. Nintendo stands in stark contrast to this, continuing their support for region locking with the release of their eighth generation Wii U, while bucking the trend of their portable console philosophy by enabling region locking on the 3DS as well. All this retardation may be changing [slowly, slowly] however, as Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata recently floated the idea of doing away with region locking during an investor Q&A session:
“The game business has a history of taking a very long time with localization among other things, such as having to deal with various issues of marketing in each particular country, or games that have made use of licensed content that did not apply globally, and had all kinds of circumstances, so to say, that region-locking has existed due to circumstances on the sellers’ side rather than for the sake of the customers. In the history of game consoles, that is the current situation.
As for what should be done going forward, if unlocked for the benefit of the customers, there may also be a benefit for us. Conversely, unlocking would require various problems to be solved, so while I can’t say today whether or not we intend to unlock, we realize that it is one thing that we must consider looking to the future.”
Iwata’s insistence that “unlocking would require various problems to be solved” roughly translates into the diabolical problem posed by no longer having access discrete captive markets which Nintendo and their third parties can effectively price gouge, such as Japan and Australia. Perhaps Iwata sincerely intends to do away with region locking the moment that Ebay and Amazon cease trading in import games? Whatever the case, this does not sound like a path that Nintendo intends to travel down tomorrow [even though they could patch it out of their consoles within the month], and such thinking will likely not bear fruit until the release of Nintendo’s next console, if at all.
The practice of swatting is not only incredibly dangerous, but also obscenely expensive…
Bungie Fans Are Just the Worst
Last week Lusipurr.com reported on the fact that Bungie’s Xbox fans were such entitled little brats that they felt justified in claiming refunds for the mediocre open-world shooter, Destiny, due to the simple fact that PS4 owners has access to some minor exclusive DLC. This week the situation appears to have escalated some, as an unnamed Bungie executive found himself ‘swatted’ in the early hours of Thursday morning. At approximately 04:00 on Thursday morning the police [with helicopter in tow] descended en masse upon the house of one very surprised Bungie executive, after hearing that he had placed explosives in his yard, and was holding a family at gunpoint.
“The caller said he had an assault rifle and he had placed explosives in the yard and he was holding a family hostage. He wanted $20,000 to release the family.”
This situation sparked an hour long ordeal, with the frightened Bungie executive eventually surrendering himself to police in his bathrobe, before it was determined that the call did not originate from inside the home. The police believe that the suspect behind this incident has ties to the video game industry [duh], with deputy Jason Houck speculating that:
“Maybe a contractor for his work or someone at his work who didn’t have a great experience with him.”
While it is more than possible that the call originated from a disgruntled former colleague, one considers it infinitely more likely that it was made by a butthurt Bungie brat. Maybe the individual was unhappy at the PS4 receiving exclusive DLC, or maybe they were unhappy at the general state of the game and felt short changed, either way the modus operandi of this incident fits online shooter culture like a glove. The root cause of this gleeful malevolence is gamer entitlement, and this kind of gamer entitlement is going to get someone killed at this rate if nothing can be done to curb the growing incidences of swatting one’s enemies on a whim.
