I am sick to death of paying $US90 for games here in Australia, and have turned my eye to overseas online retailers.  I do not really trust Ebay (call me paranoid) but have some questions about Amazon.

- Can the 360 and the Wii play US versions of games, or are they region-locked?

- Can Amazon legally ship games to Australia, where they have no Amazon store?

- Are there any problems that might arize from my purchasing games from Amazon.com that I have not forseen?

- How would payment work? (can I use an Australian credit card as usual? or do I have to transfer currencies somehow?)

Any help people can offer would be greatly appreciated.  Whilst I always knew that this was perfectly legal, it was an MS Australia representative's comments today that finally pushed me into this decision.

"If they (consumers) are able to find a better deal and its going to work on their system, they are absolutely within their rights to do that."

http://blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay/archives/009078.html

Wii is region locked, Idk about 360. YOu could mod it , but then it would void the warranty.

 That is so lame. I thought Nintendo was better than that.

I don't want to mod my consoles.

I believe chipping your console is legal in AU. Otherwise you can't play non-PAL games.

You could try the freeloader for the wii.

I just got freeloader, then got no more heroes and zack and wiki for $70 aus from the US. If i bought them here it would have been at least $150 if i could find cheap copies.

Freeloaders definately worth it atm, but Nintendo might block it with the next firmware update.

You can always import from the Uk. They will play on a normal Australian wii i think (someone should confirm this) and theyre a bit cheaper than in Aus.

Yeah but the price difference between here and the UK isn't enough to justify losing the convenience of going to a local store. So both the Wii and 360 are region-locked? That sucks.

Yes 360 is locked

You would have to get the hardware from the usa too, due to region locks. Alternatively you can get the Wii Freeloader, but it's not guaranteed to work in future firmware updates (I even heard it may be blocked in the next version already).

The only potential problems I foresee are getting your consoles repaired without shipping them overseas, and possibly customs taxes (depending on how strict the customs are there).

Regarding currencies, I have used my Visa cards to pay in many different currencies, it's all automatic.