just wanted to know if anyone out there has a chipped wii...or 360 or ps3

a friend of mine just got his wii chipped for around £60 and has already started downloading plenty of games, and the uniquness of this chip is that it updates itself so theres less chance of it breaking whenever nintendo puts out a new update on wiiconnect24, and if it does break theres a reboot disk for it. he asked me if i wanted mine done and i told him i wasn't sure, mainly because i'm not totally convinced that it won't break my wii, aswell as i think i would prefer buying the authentic games to downloading (yes i am one of those few people that still buy albums in shops aswell)... however there is an appeal there, as i'm strapped for cash being the broke university student that i am, and getting afew extra games which i wouldn't be able to afford would be a bonus

 anyone have an opinion on whether chipped gaming is right or wrong? would you do it or are you totally against it?

I highly encourage everyone to not DL Wii games without paying for them. I guess chipping is fine because it lets you import games that would never be released in your area.

About stealing older games on systems that are no longer supported, I see more wiggle room in this. I often play old NES games on the Facebook.com.

And I don't think comparing CDs to games in entirely accurate. Stealing $.75 (one song) is different than stealing $50. Also, many music artists don't mind if you take their songs. I have not looked into this, but I doubt this is the same for Wii developers. I tend to rent, borrow, or buy used most of the games I play. If they have Gamefly where you live, you can use the service for very cheap by playing 20 short videos on your PC every month ($10 off).

Anyway, you cut it, I don't thing you should lose sleep about the moral issues of something like this. The legal issues and possible damage to your system seem more important.

I'm against it, because the point of consoles existing is to provide a tightly controlled platform (right or wrong) for games. Chipping or even allowing Linux installation on it (I'm pro-Linux in other contexts) removes this, making it the same as a PC and therefore pointless because PCs already exist and have better raw performance.

Putting aside all the arguments of pro mod chip vs anti mod chip (piracy, stealing, importing, playing backups, etc) the one element of the Wii that makes me weary of modding it is the GPU/texture memory failure issue that is still outstanding. The artifacts started showing up on my Wii about a month ago, and I'll be sending it back to NOA for repair next week once I finish Galaxy (I have the UPS label in hand already).

When I first read all these reports of Wii GPU failures, I dismissed it saying "yeah, right" because "that's not going to happen to me."

Well, it happened to me. If I had modded my Wii, I'd be hosed. Unblemished, however, Ninty will fix or replace it for free. Until reports of these type failures cease, I would be vary cautious of doing anything that will knowingly void your warranty.

I'm not sure that the existence of this thread is good for the site. Many forums prohibit discussion about such illegal practices, and I suppose they do it for a reason.

My stance on pirating games you enjoy ( and I have used this phrase before), is that you are pissing in your cherios while you eat them. If you like a game and want/expect them to make more you have to do your part to send that message. Otherwise you are basically saying you couldn't care less if they do or don't bring out similar games or sequels. The power to buy is your power to influence, don't just be a spectator who leaches off the system.

There are already widespread threads about how third parties are weary of the Wii's selling power for their software. I believe that third parties are currently on board and developing a ton of good games, but if those games that come out in 2008 do not sell sufficient numbers, I think that the Wii might be in some trouble.

By chipping your wii and downloading games, you are contributing to this problem, and you are seriously working against yourself. If these games don't sell sufficient numbers to make it worthwhile, developers will either a) bail on the console altogether or b) stick with minigame compilations and crappy PS2 ports.

It is uncertain as to whether it is illegal in the first place, and of course you don't know what country's laws this server falls under.

I have a modded Wii, i have downloaded a shitload of games but just to try them since Nintendo's Greece distributor doesn't allow Nintendo games to be on rental, and of course to avoid some trash. Therefore 90% of my pirated games are gone now cause i own the original, 5% are gone because they where trash and 5% are still here cause they are not released in Europe.

Well it won't break them, there are labs that test the chips out, so I guess it would not break your wii, but don't expect to the laser of the wii to last longer then a not modded one..... I am neutral about modding ur wii, because, you can't compare the economy of united states, canada, or of europe, to the economy of south america(am not sure about others part) Here in Argentina originals are pretty expensive even more expensive then some prices in Canada, if I was in north america, or europe I would buy originals, but since am here no way.