I have a feeling that this also has to do with the parental features restricting specific ESRB, PEGI, CERO and etc. ratings. Since each region has their own rating system, each game would logically have it's respective rating encoded in the game in order to make this feature work.

I couldn't find the post, but someone said region locking was a conspiracy by Nintendo, blah blah blah. Truth is lots of things are region locked (DVDs, BluRays) and it's done for the same reason; profit. For 99.99% of people region locking means nothing as the buy all their software from local retailers. What it does do is give the system another code it must recognize before booting software, making piracy that much more difficult.

Um... Region locking is a conspiracy. It is artificially limited supply so that you can further squeeze your customers. There is absolutely no good reason for region locks. Anyone that cares can easily bypass it anyway, regardless of the media. The 3DS will be no different.

People, including NeoGAF, are missing the vital point why Nintendo is doing this. It's not to sabotage for people who wants to import games.


Recently, Nintendo has been in legal battles with manufacturers of devices such as the R4 chip. These devices not only allows people to do homebrewing and play imported software (which very harmless) but the ALSO allow people to play copied games on their DS. Recently in the UK, Nintendo won such a battle and while new manufacturers undoubtely will plop up, a big step has been taken as far as legal concerns. Remember, not long ago R4 wasn't even illegal in the UK. With a thing like this decided in court, it'll be much easier for Nintendo to track down these companies and kill them.


So what has this to do with things? Well, the reason the judge went Nintendo's way was because the R4 chip bypassed a security lock of the system. The R4 manufacturer said that it's simply a software program, similar found on regular PCs. But in contrast to a regular software program, R4 bypassed the console's natural security.


By putting in region locking in the 3DS, these manufacturers will have to bypass that too, making an illegal act which Nintendo easy can track down now that it's actually illegal (in the UK at least). Of course someone in Hongkong will hack the 3DS in a week after it's been released, but everyone already know that, including Nintendo. The best thing they can do to stop piracy and copied softare is to play by the rules, and that's exactly what they're doing with the region lock on the 3DS.

Everyone knows that region locking is truly to prevent people from buying the same product (official, not bootleg) from other countries where it may be sold at a cheaper price. It doesn't prevent people from copying it and distributing it within that same country.

Time to break out the sonic screwdriver. Remember Nintendo, you made me do this, I warned you and yet you still did it anyway. You had your chance and I only give one of them.

i don't get why people can't just be happy they have the system. I never imported a European game, they are so many games in America that I haven't bought that I'm curious about, but don't have time for. How do these people have TIME to play American games and import games from all around the world? They need jobs to pay for the systems, so how do they have Time to play them.

Typical.

If you lived anywhere else in the world you would understand, even then there are plenty of other people with with much wider and varied tastes from yours that aren't limited by Made for AmericaTM. I wouldn't have half the number of games I have if I didn't import them due to artificial price inflation or the simple fact they didn't release them here. Telling them to buy another 3DS just because of a few bits of data is a slap to the face.

If getting the 3DS region free just so happens to jailbreak it, then so be it.

People in Australia (or New Zealand, which for some reason I think oohhboy is from...maybe I'm just crazy) are getting screwed here.  Prices there are unreasonably, ludicrously high and importing is often the more affordable option.  Plus there's often annoying censorship or the game just never gets released. 

I've only ever imported a few games but one of those was the original Band Brothers and it's my most played DS game by a long shot.  It sucks no longer having that option without resorting to illegal means, but fortunately I predict there will be easy ways around this.

Could just not get a 3DS and play something else.


Always sad to see a game company doing things that make it hard for the honest consumer to buy games. I wished they went with other alternatives to combat software piracy.

They still might, this is not confirmed yet. Besides, region locking wouldn't matter to most gamers.

But they charge sales tax online in New York.....

luckily its a portable system so the way around this is to just buy another!

I'm sure 3ds will become a top 3d movie player too..so this will help the movie companies with their own conspirations

Shh, they might change my title again (my last one was about the rumored name of the PlayStation Move being Arc).

:confused;

Or I can give Nintendo the middle finger. This has nothing to do with combating piracy and you have been drinking too much cool aid if you believe that. Seriously, do you really believe the PSP2 is a real alternative?

It's not just people down under, but places like Europe, for example the UK where games prices are set at 1USD=1 British Pound meaning a 50 pound game cost $78.753USD!. Also the asinine english to english translation delays. It's all bloody english and only an absolute tiny number of words have mixed meanings. Then there are some people who can play Japanese games.

Import gaming is a tradition outside of the US I can do without and Nintendo just poured salt into the wound.

*Checks conversion rates* Oh wow! $1.00AU = $1.00US. New PS3 games usually come out at $120, so go figure. I bought my DSi XL for $300. My dad bought Super Castlevania 4 for $160, but granted, the dollar was worth ~30% less back then.  Regardless, games leveled out at $100 here much like it did at $50 in the US. Consoles here don't usually get slapped with the 100% increase that the games do anymore, which I find strange. Fair enough, we have a smaller market and our ratings board charges quite a bit to get the little stickers slapped on the games (which really needs to change, as our DSi Ware shop is pathetic due to this reason), but the fact remains that our dollar has doubled in worth over the past five years, yet software prices haven't changed in the slightest to reflect that fact, thus importing is incredibly awrsum.

I guess all it means is that companies who produce piracy carts will have to release multiple versions for different regions. After that, any ROM should be usable through bypass from the cart itself.

I'm not sure if I'll just import a US 3DS. I've only imported a few DS games in my time, so it'd definitely be a big step. If I decide against it, I'm willing to bet the first major release to have a 6 month delay here will push me over the edge and down the road of pirates. Yarrgh!

Forgot to mention that it's never been an issue of money for me, but the absolutely pointless delays.
*EDIT*
OH! There's the edit button! :D The Return of Friend Codes story in 3...2...1 Sauce. No mention on whether or not they're universal or not. Funny how we're always hoping Nintendo learns from their previous mistakes before the launch of their new systems only to be disappointed. They obviously know everyone hates 'em. Frankly, if they're unable to do-away with something so trivial as these codes, I don't see any hope for an improved online infrastructure in the near future.

Remember Mario Kart DS? "WOW! It's Mario Kart online!! ...I might as well be playing against NPCs. <_<" Yep, we get another whole generation of that bullshit.

I see my decision to not emote that my first comment was in jest has back fired.
All I have to go on from the article for the reasoning of the region lock on the 3DS is piracy so I went with it in that post rather than assuming something else. Besides, the reason of price control was already mentioned and I didn't feel it needed to be mentioned again. As an aside, I don't see how it is a conspiracy when it is one of the points of region locking in other media (another (decreasingly relevant) point being different specifications).

I believe that the PSP2 is a real alternative in that the possibility exists. It is the same belief I have for iPod Touch, iPhone, Android phones, and Windows Mobile Phone Series 7 phones in becoming compelling portable gaming platforms.

My apologies for coming down hard on you. Unlike The Perms comment, I didn't pick up any sarcasm from yours and that last line threw a spanner into a machine already on fire.

I on the other hand don't believe those phones and Ipods will ever be suitable gaming platforms as a replacement for a real portable. They lack a unified control scheme that is also ergonomic, a shattered market with no standards, vague system requirements, size conflicts between functions, drains power out of the device that is often critical to be up 24/7, power requirements that far exceed current and near future battery tech. Toss in most games are glorified flash games. No, just no.

The PSP2 might be a threat should Sony stop trying to talk sideways in to it like a phone. Even then, given the games I expect them to get won't make for a good match for my tastes.

Honestly I don't buy that explanation, Germany has the USK, Britain the BBFC and yet neither gets separate releases on any platform with parental controls.

Piracy is a pretty lame reasoning for this.  What does region have to do with piracy?  Why couldn't I just buy bootleg 3DS games that are for my region?  So the Chinese bootleggers will only make illegal copies of the Asian version?  How dumb do you think they are?

The real reason is exactly what others have pointed out.  They do this because prices are different in different markets.  If it cheaper to import from a cheaper market then there is less incentive to buy locally.  Though for us, actually, that isn't really a threat since North America usually has the cheapest games.  The best reason for North Americans to import is if the game just isn't available in our region, which no company should ever give a shit about to begin with.  If the product isn't available in my country then I don't deprive any local company of my business.

But I guess there isn't really a way to be honest about the reasoning without looking like jerks.  What reasoning did they give back in the NES or SNES days when piracy was not so common?  They must have had some BS excuse to defend it.

I have never bought an import title for a Nintendo portable before so this doesn't really affect me.  And the Game Boy and DS were exceptions.  Most videogames systems have region locking of some form.  But it's just unfortunate to take something away like this.  I would argue that due to their portable nature having no region restrictions on a handheld makes sense.  If I travel a lot I may find myself spending time in different countries.  If I have one handheld that works worldwide I can buy games for it in any country I am in.  In that case I'm not even depriving the local businesses of anything.  I don't think anyone in Canada feels like I'm jerking around Canadian businesses by buying products from Japanese companies while I'm spending months in Japan.  In that situation I'm not importing to get a cheaper price, I'm just supporting the local businesses of where I happen to be at that moment.  There is less need for that kind of flexibility in a home console but with a handheld it makes sense.

The irony about the piracy excuse is that this gives an incentive for legitimate modding which may reveal vulnerabilities to pirates.  Whoever discovers the region mod may also discover how to crack the system for easy piracy.  Though maybe Nintendo will be smart and make it an easy mod.  I modded my Gamecube to circumvent the region lock and it was so easy that it did not require any serious crack that would enable piracy.  It was basically a hidden switch on the motherboard.

Didn't the UK agree to switch to PEGI last year since that is what the rest of Europe uses? Germany does have USK, and because of that there are several games that didn't get released in that country because they thought they were too violent.

No apologies necessary. That was a poorly written comment on my part.

While I entertain the possibility, I have similarly low expectations of phones being a comparable gaming platform. It doesn't help that the current crop of games seem to be cultivating an expectation of very low price points. I was thinking that really fun and really big menu-based or turn-based games could be a real possibility on the iPhone, but the fact that most games are priced and made at such low cost means that I can't really expect a Tactics Ogre or Dragon Quest on the platform. Game Dev Story sounds neat, though.

Square is planning to release a port of the PSP Final Fantasy Tactics remake on the iPhone at a premium price point. It will be interesting to see how that goes. I really hope it works; I want more substantive games on that platform.

That is very good to hear. I hope it does well. It would be good for the system to have bigger and grander applications. Well, not the entire system as the battery will probably crying out from the work load.

This is bad news if Nintendo happens to make a Tingle RPG or Captain Rainbow game for the 3DS. What the hell is someone in North America supposed to do when Nintendo absolutely refuses to bring those games here?

Buy an imported 3DS so you can play imports I guess.

I hope online play won't be region-locked too. I have a friend in the UK that really only wants a 3DS to play me in Street Fighter 4 & Ridge Racer since I refuse to get a 360.

Yes but if ratings are the only reason for region locking then Germany would be in a different region than the rest of Europe. If they really can handle multiple ratings for one game then why can't they stuff ESRB, PEGI, USK and CERO on the same cart? They've got 8GB!