New interview with NOA Associate PR Manager discusses Japanese games and region-locking.
SiliconEra recently published an interview with David Young, Associate Public Relations Manager at Nintendo of America, regarding the launch of the Nintendo DSi. Like many of Nintendo's products, Young said that the biggest challenge with the DSi is "getting it into people's hands and letting them experience what it's about." He also said that the level of DSi unit "production was pretty aggressive," indicating that widespread, Wii-style sellouts were not likely to be the case with the portable (this has since proven to be true).
While there was no confirmation of GameBoy games being sold on the DSi Shop or VC game sharing between the Wii and DSi, Young did mention that a "good portion" of DSiWare titles in Japan – such as the Moving Memo Pad– will find their way to North America. He also reiterated that Square Enix is working on DSiWare titles, and that there will be DS games enhanced with DSi features similar to GameBoy Color-enhanced games of the past.
An interesting part of the interview was when Young was asked about DSi region-locking. He explained that the DSi is "more of a network device" than the DS, introducing the need for greater content-locking abilities (the DSi, like the Wii, has parental controls that allow games with certain ratings to be locked out). Due to the different ratings systems across the different release territories, region-locking became a necessary feature. Young refused to speculate as to whether DSi-enhanced games would be region-locked, however.
Young was also pressed as to whether or not we'd see several Japanese games like Soma Bringer and Archaic Sealed Heat in North America, and he refused comment. He explained that while he'd love to see games like those and the remaining Mother games brought over, what gets released in North America is really out of Nintendo of America's hands.