While we should have known this was coming and those who thought otherwise probably will be kicking themselves for assuming otherwise, but the Nintendo Wii U will be region locked. This means that only consoles bought in a certain region will be able to play that region’s games, meaning of course that there will probably be a slew of games released in Japan that we will never even be able to import.
This news comes from a translation of Famitsu courtesy of NeoGAF. This is unfortunately a continuing streak with Nintendo, as nearly every gaming device released by Nintendo over the years, minus the Nintendo DS, has been region locked.