Ultimately the reason I have an issue with region locking is that while it does give publishers more control over the sale of their goods and helps them maximize profits, such a minuscule proportion of consumers are interested in importing gaming products in the first place that I feel it really has no significant effect on a company's bottom line. It does more to drive good will and word of mouth of anything. The lack of region locking on the DS for example, while not necessarily integral to its overall success, had a very tangible effect.
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Let's convince Nintendo to go region-free!
- Thread starter Cheesemeister
- Start date
fredrancour
Member
Do any sort of statistics on game importing numbers exist? I just can't imagine that any more than a tiny fraction of consumers would fool with it. It seems like it hurts a tiny tiny fraction of the most diehard fans for a very tiny potential profit margin at best.
Exactly. The people importing aren't many, so why should you lock it out if it doesn't effect your business in any significant way?
I have NA region consoles, but what if I were to move to another country? Then I wouldn't be able to buy any more games for the 3DS or Wii U, unless I bought a console locally! I wouldn't, by the way, as I don't see why I should need to buy a second 3DS/Wii U when the one I bought before still works fine! That's losing sales to me for an entire generation, whereas an Xbox or Playstation I buy in Canada will still work anywhere!
Some people have said "It stops piracy! If the 3DS or Wii U was region free, people can pirate!" and I have no clue where they get this logic! If anything, region free deters people from pirating software because they can get the game they want without a need to pirate! Plus, the 3DS and Wii U has no piracy scene! There's rips or games, but you can't do anything with them! Also, look at something like the PS3 (region free) vs Wii (region locked), and guess which has more piracy?
I'm unaware of such statistics but it wouldn't be the individual consumer that would affect the profit margins, it's the retailers.
When Nintendo wants to publish a game in Europe they have to follow all the rules and regulations of the EU, this comes with a cost which is passed on to the local retailers when they buy. If there is no region locking then the retailers could cut out NOE by importing for cheaper from NA.
However it's hard for me to give this any basis as many Film studios/ Game Publishers frequently publish without region locking and business carries on like normal.
This is what I bitch about in my Miiverse post on Region Locking. You know what came out of it? A tiny fraction of consumers outside Japan imported Ouendan en masses that it become a hit, that Nintendo took notice and made Elite Beat Agent, one of the greatest game on the Nintendo DS, then it spawned a sequel.
With 3DS like this, there are no next Elite Beat Agents waiting to happen.
Zevenberge
Member
Too bad about the typo in that hash tag.
That's got to be heartbreaking once the author noticed it.
Zevenberge
Member
He tells me to tell you it is, indeed. He didn't want to post it yet.
As someone who does not own a Wii U - isn't there an edit button on MiiVerse?
IWATA: "Region fee? Brilliant! We shall charge them to be region free!"
Princess Viola
Member
Iwata: (laughs)
That would still be a huge improvement over the current system, assuming the fee isn't something asinine like the cost of the system.
Princess Viola
Member
I would legitimately pay like $5 or something to have my 3DS and Wii U be region-free.
You know what? I'm totally fucking fine with that. Charge us ten dollar or a penny, pop up a disclaimer that some games may contain inappropriate contents for where you are living. Throw us a bone.
People would still complain though and attack Nintendo...Lol.
Princess Viola
Member
$10?!?? It should be $9.99!!
Terrible Majesty
Member
I would pay this.
Lets be real here, Nintendo dropping Region lock would make people say "Nintendo is scared of the competition so this is why they did it"
No "Good job, Nintendo
"
Lord Ghirahim
Member
I'm ashamed to admit I would fork out the cash.
Arren
Member
More like "Nintendo is actually listening to its fans and embracing a common standard, for once".Lets be real here, Nintendo dropping Region lock would make people say "Nintendo is scared of the competition so this is why they did it"
No "Good job, Nintendo
Zevenberge
Member
I would too. Honestly, a fee of $/E 10 for a firmware update that removes the region lock? A no-brainer.
Dion Blaster
Member
If this works somehow, can we keep the momentum going right into an account system campaign?
Lol I wish...
Ew no pls.
Fixed. Why make it any more complicated than that?
I see absolutely no reason why it should work like that.
That sounds horrible, no thanks.
First thing i thought when i read that, lol.
But i agree, maybe it's not such a bad idea at all. Just charge a small fee per game that you want to play on a system from a different region. Unlock it through the e-shop. I'd be fine with that. How many times does it happen anyway? Maybe twice in 5 years? When your WiiU notices a game from a different region is inserted, give consumers the option to unlock it in the e-shop. Charge 2 to 5 bucks. Keeps people from importing bargain bin deals from overseas as well because it adds up. Still beats modding your system, possibly losing warranty etc and keeps people from experimenting with homebrew (as in piracy).
Sure... but i'd take a small fee on a per game basis over no region-free at all.
Again: it wouldn't be justified. The reason why the machine is region locked now (or at least it's the only reason I can think of) is piracy. It's not costing or anything to have a region free console. That's also why it wouldn't be right to actually require a fee to play games without region restrictions.
Also a great way to add DRM to Wii U. Isn't so region free when servers go down with Wii U^4.
Starwolf_UK
Member
They've used age ratings in the past (David Yarnton and DSi). But given how everyone rallied against them when they blocked PEGI 18 games from being on the eShop until stupid o' clock in the morning...
If Nintendo are smart about data collecting they can tell when games are played out of region. Also the investor reports keep having Japan only games with minuscule amounts of sales outside of Japan.
If there a region free model of 3DS, I'd have bought that. I was prepared to pay more too. Heck if there was one when Fire Emblem came out in Japan I'd have bought my 3DS then. In other words Nintendo lost about a year of potential sales.
They don't to be the news again for someone complaining about Swastika on imported Pokemon card. Nintendo played it too safe to retain that "safe" image, imo. It's not all about piracy.
Lord Ghirahim
Member
I'd rather get an extra system than pay bizarre fees for selective region unlocking :/
Anyway, these scenarios are unnecessary. Nintendo should make their systems as free as the competition's.
You must import a ton of games then? My scenario was about paying a maximum of 5 bucks per game. That means you could get up to 40 games and still be better off. At 2 bucks, that would more than double... but ok, you could still do that in that case. But people like me, that come across two or three games per system per generation they would like to import? Nah, i'd be fine with that.
Piracy is the last reason i could think of. In fact, i think region locking endorses piracy more than anything. People can't get the game in their region, hence they just make sure to get it some other way. In my case, i was once tempted to play pirated games on my Wii (decided not to, because my backlog of games i actually paid for, was too big to begin with, no reason to start stealing shit) after i had soft modded my wii to play imported games. Modding my wii was rather cumbersome back then, and i did it just to play the US version of NMH (PAL didn't have blood... MK style, lol). I did that just for ONE game i imported. Otherwise i would never have done it. But once i did, the gates were wide open for piracy, had i wanted to. Other people won't even bother importing those games at all to begin with (and just steal). So i really don't understand the piracy argument.
The reason i always heard, was that they did region locking, because some parts of the world pay more for software than other parts. If people from Europe could start importing games from the US, were game prices usually are a lot lower, that means less profit for Nintendo. And i can imagine certain parts paying more than Europe, and others paying less than US.
If this ends up working (which I still very much doubt because, well, it's Nintendo) I think they will only enable it for the 3DS, as that is a platform for which this is a real problem. People travel with their 3DSs, and if they go to other countries they want to be able to buy 3DS games there and play them on their trip. As of right now, you can't do that, for example, as a European visiting the USA, or an American visiting Asia. For the Wii U, you can't make this argument, so I can't see them enabling the feature. Also, their portables used to be region free (Game boy, GBA, DS), but their home consoles have never been.
Andrefpvs
Member
Kotaku! http://kotaku.com/nintendo-fans-fight-to-get-3ds-and-wii-u-region-free-562038692
Thanks, Jason
Thanks, Jason
ExitPlanetDust
Member
Just saw this. Good stuff.
Destructoid too.
http://www.destructoid.com/gamers-campaign-to-end-wii-u-region-locking-256868.phtml
Looks like some of the sites I emailed are starting to run articles on this now.
http://www.destructoid.com/gamers-campaign-to-end-wii-u-region-locking-256868.phtml
Looks like some of the sites I emailed are starting to run articles on this now.
It's getting bigger by the day, hopefully IGN, etc also pick up this news.
shouamabane
Member
GinkoVonAgrum is my favorite Miiverse artist.
Also, nice to see Cosmo joining this campaign.
https://twitter.com/cosmowright/status/349304994543050753