Not exactly a modchip update, but pretty close: There is word going around that team SYNDiCATE is soon releasing an NTSC to PAL Patcher tool for the Wii. As its name suggests, it patches NTSC games into a format playable on PAL Wiis, and should work fine with modchip-equipped Wiis (can you say backup discs?).

And why would people want this? Given that the Wii's region-locked, we're sure European owners may want their copy of Super Paper Mario as early as April 9 (the US release date). Or for the resident anime otaku, this means a chance for you to get an early copy of the likes of One Piece or Detective Conan for your gaijin Wii - both titles are currently set for a Japan launch. Then there's also the off-chance you may have gotten a Wii modchip with no inter-region support, but that's another story.

The tool is currently at version 1.1, and allows patching from NTSC-U/J to PAL (Europe), and NTSC-J (Japan) to NTSC-U (USA), and is said to work with 70% of the games in the market, though titles like Cooking Mama (NTSC-J to PAL) and Trauma Center (NTSC-U to PAL) reportedly don't work.