No Wii Speak Channel With Used Mic Hardware

In a move likely designed to keep Wii Speak off the preowned market, Nintendo has packed the forthcoming microphone peripheral with a "Wii Download Ticket Number" required to access Wii Speak Channel. Available separately or with Animal Crossing: City Folk starting next week, Wii Speak is a microphone allowing multiple players in a room to chat with others online while playing games like City Folk. Nintendo plans to launch a Wii Speak Channel in December allowing users to voice chat without needing to load a game first. Wii owners, however, can only download the Wii Speak Channel with a “Wii Download Ticket Number,” which is a 16-character code printed on a pamphlet included with the peripheral, according to a report from game weblog MTV Multiplayer. The pamphlet says that the code “cannot be replaced by Nintendo or your retailer if it is lost or stolen.” A Nintendo representative also told MTV Multiplayer that the Wii Speak Channel will only be available to new Wii Speak purchasers and not through any other means, such as the Wii Shopping Channel. Electronic Arts pursued a somewhat similar strategy with the NBA Live 09, including a single-use code with each PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 copy that could be redeemed for a free download of "NBA Live 365," which allows for daily updates of the basketball game's "Dynamic DNA feature." Consumers who purchase used copies without the code have to pay $19.99 to download NBA Live 365.