Daft Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 This is from clubskill.com... A new Government rule may destroy the availability of WiiConnect 24, one of the Nintendo Wii's most touted new features, in the UK. The British Government is enforcing a new law which requires standby features of appliances to be slashed from product designs. Some mentioned products by the Government include set-top boxes, chargers, televisions, lighting, freezers, fridges, washing machines, and computers. These must be created in a more energy-efficent manner, and standby features will no longer be tolerated. According to the Government, standby features consume at least 8% of the UK's energy each year. WiiConnect 24 takes advantage of a standby feature to allow the Wii system to be 'always-on'. Whilst it remains on, Nintendo and your friends may be able to send messages or 'phone' your system, visit and interact with your town in Animal Crossing, and send downloads to your system, amongst other features. The new law means that Nintendo may have to rule out this feature for the UK, which may also mean that the UK becomes treated as it's own entity, rather than part of the European region. We'll keep you posted on the matter! AAAAHHH!!! Has anyone else heard anything about this!? Please don't be true!!! :shock:
Fierce_LiNk Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 The only thing we can hope for is the launch of Wii before the this new law comes into action. This is the first i've heard about it.
AshMat Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 The only good part of that is the UK being it's own entity part. If that's true, wed get games earlier because we wouldn't need all the other languages. But the rest sucks
Ramar Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 Like any law in the UK it will takes ages to come into play. So I'm expecting Nintendo to slip by it some how.
blender Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 The wiiconnect is not a standby feature. The wii is clearly serving some function when in wiiconect mode (ie gamedownload, message exchage etc). The government initative would be to stop things like tvs which serve no function when in standby. ... another crap weekend new story I'm afraid. So don't get over excited !
pedrocasilva Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 I think they should make some rules for the equipment to apply, a limit of energy consumption for each device would be enough. But it's unrealistic, look at PC's for example, all of them can go into standby mode nowadays... take it off? that's just stupid, specially considering it's not a internacional measure... just a demand from a single country, these devices are not custom made to a country. Anyway... just my two cents, they probably won't/can't forbid any device who started production before the law being applied to be sold as is... They can't turn the devices people bought into something mutantly ilegal, just as they can't go store in store and demand that they send all their stock back to the manufacters because it goes against the new law. As these things take time to be parsed and applied, Wii may come out before, be unafected by it, and last 5 years in the market without any changes.
The Bard Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 Wow, I think this is great news. May be because im pissed, althoug that is wearing off now, but its alsop becuase im impressed that the britain is doing something to be energy efficient. Keep at it.
gaggle64 Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 Honestly, I actually think this law is a good idea. 8% is a crap load of energy and subsquent carbon emmisions. I do wonder hpw this will affect the Wii though.
The3rdChildren Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 I'm sure it'll download whatever it was supposed to when it turns on next anyway, so no big deal.
Fierce_LiNk Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 To be honest, i'd be more worried about what the other 92% is being used on.
pedrocasilva Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 Honestly, I actually think this law is a good idea. 8% is a crap load of energy and subsquent carbon emmisions. I do wonder hpw this will affect the Wii though.On paper it looks good, but in reality, it's not viable, not like this... First a country alone can't demand these things, there's international acepted standards, if they want to change anything; that's the way to do it... Doing these lone demands to the manufacters requires changes in the PCB's and all, will a small company even bother for UK market? It's just too far fetched... all of the sudden all the televisions can be turned of with the remote but they wont go into standby? so... we have to get up and go there press the button for it to plug again? (standby in the televisions means that it obeys to the remote even while it's shut). like I said a device in standby should meet a certain energy usage, but forbiding it all together is just stupid... the clocks with alarm we have by the bed are also in standby most of the time... aswell as loads of other devices.
Fierce_LiNk Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 I've followed that link to ClubSkill.com, and they haven't stated a source. Lord knows where they got this information from.
pedrocasilva Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 I've followed that link to ClubSkill.com, and they haven't stated a source. Lord knows where they got this information from.That's a bad habit of theirs, I've noticed it before in previous tidbits started by them.
ShadowV7 Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 Well this is odd.They have no source and if UK is treated differently then we don't need to wait for translations.But a lot of appliances have standby so it's stupid.If it is true im sure Wii will be out by then.
Ashley Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 As someone else said somewhere (on a non-Nintendo forum): UK Government: Can you get rid of the standby feature cause its using energy and shit? Japanese company: No thanks bye.
Blue_Ninja0 Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Why all this talk about the translation of the games? Even if Nintendo has to make a slightly modified Wii in the UK to obey to that law, you would still receive the PAL Multi5 games that the rest of Europe receives. Those games would obviously work on UK's Wii. Why would they make a different version of a game just for UK?
Hal_9Million Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 I think this is the dumbest news I've heard all year. Like shit is that going to happen. I can bet you my grandmother.
ndreamer Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 thats a dumb law nearly everything has a standby mode these days even my battery charger has a standby mode that turns of chargin when it's done. standby modes are designed to save power not increase it, imagin if all those devices didn't have that mode tv whould be left on, chargers will be left charging, vcr's will be on 24x7. that will increase power not lower it.
Charlie Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 There will be loopholes. Yeah, like just leaving the console on full power. That's defintely happening though, there have been other articles on it. Nintendo will slip by it though, it will take ages to come into play, and they wont want the UK to be an entity on it's own, they'll just give us the PAL one.
dabookerman Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 I was never gonna use it anyway. how long does it take to download a character, 2 mins??
Mike Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 I don't think I'll be able to use WiiConnect24 all that much anyway - I don't leave my PC on at night, so there won't be any wireless signal for my Wii to pick up overnight.
Kazzahdrane Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Ditto, I don't have a wireless router so I'll probably take my Wii online using one of those fancy Wi-Fi Connect USB dongles (once they confirm Wii compatibility).
Atomic Boo Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 To be honest, i'd be more worried about what the other 92% is being used on. Yes but the other 92% will be split into many more chunks, some probably much smaller than standby consumption. Plus, standby modes is something that they can try and stop straight away, or at least take action on. The sooner they get the message out the earlier it'll come into action. I was never gonna use it anyway. how long does it take to download a character, 2 mins?? No becuase it does it while the console isnt actively being used so you dont have to download it and wait for it. Its a great thing because the wii is basically always updating and refreshening - so it is constantly growing with cool stuff
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