Time to import Wii? Price comparisons from around the globe.

After the initial joyous statement from Nintendo USA that the Wii would be region free (up to publishers to choose region lockout), grumpy old Nintendo UK boss then says NON, it’s not region free :(

If that is the case, then maybe it’s time to consider importing?

BUYING A CONSOLE
Here’s a rundown of the console prices from various regions:

UK – £179.99 for the console etc PLUS game (Wii sports)
AUSTRALIA – $399.95 for same package as UK/USA
USA – $250.00 for console etc PLUS game (Wii sports again)
JAPAN – Y25,000 for console etc (no game)

Now for some currency conversions (I`ll round up to nearest £5 to be fair):

UK £179.99
AUS £165 – save £15, at least the same as postage from Oz so not too bad.
USA £135 – save £45, yikes thats a fair bit.
JAP £115 – save £65, Arrg thats not fair (even though you don’t get Wii sports).

BUYING GAMES
Hmmm, ok – next up lets look at game prices:

UK – £34 to £39
USA – $50 (1st party games)
JAP – Y4800 (1st party games)

And the conversions (rounding up to nearest pound):

UK £34 to £39
USA £27 – save at least £7, cheaper in USA once again
JAP £22 – save at least £12, soooper cheap!

So it looks like quite a saving could be made from importing, although I`d like to know more about how buying online games works (is it region locked or credit card based?) before trying it.
It’s a shame the UK seems to be getting overpriced once again, understandably there are shipping costs and VAT to consider, but if I remember correctly Nintendo did quite a decent job of Gamecube prices last time around – importing games tended to be more release date related than price (although maybe they reduced prices to combat FreeLoader users importing games?).

Hopefully more details on region-locking and so on will emerge over the next few weeks, to help potential importers make up their minds. I`d personally love the machine to be region free like a DS, so I could play my import Cube games on it.

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