Nintendo today disclosed that the Wii U is region-locked. Speaking to CVG, the company confirmed the new console won't support games purchased outside of its region, meaning North American Wii U systems can only play games bought in North America. Nintendo then closed its arms and grumbled furiously under its breath, before finally blowing us an unnecessarily long raspberry (or so it seemed to us.)
While Sony and Microsoft leave the decision to region-lock games with publishers, Nintendo typically takes matters into its own hands. The GameCube, Wii, and 3DS are all region-locked, although the DS isn't. We should know, we've played plenty of Ouendan on ours. Such good times (sigh.)