Topic: Nintendo 'Investigating Internally' Removing Region Locking on Future Systems

[Shaymin]

The status quo will remain for current systems.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/40225/nintendo-investigating-internally-removing-region-locking-on-future-systems

Although nothing is official, the next Nintendo system(s) may be more import friendly.

At an investor Q&A session, Satoru Iwata was asked to provide an update on a statement made at the 2nd quarter (October) briefing regarding region locking. Iwata's reply was "Removing region-locking from current game machines presents various issues, so we don't consider that to be very realistic. However, regarding NX, given the customer feedback and proposals from the market, while nothing has been decided yet, we're currently investigating internally what problems there would be in realizing it. You can think of that as the current situation. I understand your desire, so I'd like to look at it optimistically going forward."

It appears a lot will depend on the nature of the NX, as although handhelds prior to the 3DS were region free there has never been a Nintendo console that came region free out of the box. It would also not preclude Nintendo or 3rd parties from still region locking their games, as happened with the 2012 Playstation 3 release Persona 4 Arena.

[Adrock]

I'll likely never import anything ever, but if true, thank Jebus. Region locking is such a silly restriction and something that Nintendo need not worry about. Nintendo handhelds up to DS weren't region locked. It made no difference.

[Enner]

If security was one of the reasons for region locking, Nintendo can find a better way as well as remove a reason to be angry with them. If company image was a reason, I find it highly unlikely that an imported game will cause any sort of PR nightmare.

Region locking these days always strikes me as something motivated by money, with different regions having different (i.e. higher) prices than others after currency exchanges. Whatever small gains Nintendo gets from having different games being way more expensive in different regions, I don't think its worth the ill will they have garnered for having region locked systems.

[famicomplicated]

The "Internal Investigation" will go like this:

Iwata: Someone do some research on region-locking, it's a hot topic it seems.
Employee: Yes sir!
*5 minutes pass*
Employee: Sir, it looks like the smart thing to do, business-wise, and customer-wise.
Iwata: I see....
*Walks back into office*
*Picks up phone*
Iwata: Hello? Hardware dept? Yeah, it's me. Region lock the NX immediately.