Nintendo thwarting Wii modders with epoxy-locked chips; Wii Backup Loader abandoned

A double shot of bad news for the Wii hacking set today — not only do new Wiis appear to have a modchip-proof layer of epoxy around the DVD-ROM IC chips, Waninkoko has abandoned the Wii Backup-Loader project. The modchip news isn't all that surprising — Ninty's been fighting a losing battle against chip devs for a while now, and gluing things down with epoxy is a logical solution — but Waninkoko quitting is a bit of a shock, since we just caught wind of the Wii Backup-Loader a few days ago. Apparently he's not happy that it was leaked this morning, so he's dropping it, but surely an outpouring of affection in comments will change his mind.

[Thanks, Linh T]

Read – New Wiis have epoxy-locked DVD-ROM chips
Read – Waninkoko abandons Wii Backup-Loader