Nintendo are ready to do battle with the Japanese Wii modding community.

Many of us have heard of the 'modders', companies or just individuals that like to tamper with their console's circuitry in an effort to change the way it works. Some modders claim to have created mod chips that allow them to play burned discs, region-free games and other less sinister things. That could all change very soon, according to a Japanese retailer.

Nintendo are reportedly removing several pins from the motherboard in NTSC-J Wii consoles, rendering the current batch of mod chips absolutely useless on new models. There is no news on whether this anti-modding campaign will come to America and Europe, but you can bet Nintendo have something in the warp pipeline. Will this deter the modders from creating new chips? The answer is most likely: 'no'.

Stay tuned to N-Europe for more developments.