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[Famassu]

Aaand with this they are further cementing my decision that 3DS XL will be my last Nintendo handheld.

 

[SkullHydra]

This is so dumb. The US version of the New 3DS better be exactly the freaking same!

 

[Kaybe]

But yeah I hope the Homebrew channel still applies to this when it's out. So tired of region locks at this point.

Sony has a pretty good solution if they care SO MUCH about parental controls (even if it's an excuse). They have given each rating a number in every region, and I think you can choose a number in the parental controls to only play games with that number or lower. Never used it but it sounds ok.

 

[rpmurphy]

Disappointed, since I am one of the small minority who takes advantage of region-free systems to spend more money, not less.

 

[frankie_baby]

Can someone remind me what the defense of region locking is? Honest question.

I'd imagine the main reason is to make it a lot harder/impractical for people to manufacture counterfeit cartridges

 

[Gleethor]

So region locking is terrible and nonsensical but a small part of me is grateful that I won't be tempted to buy smash 3DS twice.

 

[Toxi]

How do Australians deal with region locking?

It seems like it would have a huge negative effect there.

 

[Galdelico]

Totally expected.
Still sucks.

 

[PotionBleue]

Isn't Tilmen banned from NeoGAF?

 

[UncleSporky]

I thought region free games could eat into profits for companies doing localization like XSEED (Marvelous). The market is already small for Senran Kagura, if everyone who wanted it already imported it then why bother localizing?

 

[Sapiens]

Why can't there just be a little hack that just engages region-free and nothing else? Sigh...

 

[Tempy]

Region locking is the devil. Be it games console, or blu-ray.

 

[Vibranium]

I can only hope Nintendo wakes up for the handheld successor.

They have to realize that tons of their international fans want to live in/visit Japan and bring the 3DS with them to experience all the cool games over there. Denying Japanese culture from fans is wrong and prevents Nintendo from uniting their players across the world.

 

[Stet]

No. The majority of the userbases for gaming devices don't know about or care about region locking.

It really is something you seldom see outside of dedicated gaming establishments.

Let's separate the two, though. I'm more interested in the people who know about region locking but do not care.

 

[dark10x]

This continues to suck for those of us that move abroad for work. I've purchased far fewer 3ds games (and Wii U) as a result, however, so it's their loss.

 

[SerTapTap]

I thought region free games could eat into profits for companies doing localization like XSEED (Marvelous). The market is already small for Senran Kagura, if everyone who wanted it already imported it then why bother localizing?

I could be wrong but as someone with a pile of imported 360 games I'm pretty sure most physical importing is done because a game wasn't/isn't yet localized anyway. In that case, a region lock is a straight lost sale, not a "protected" local sale

 

[Griss]

It's just such a backwards policy for a PORTABLE gaming device.

The time I'm most likely to buy a 3DS game is when I'm travelling. But when I'm in the US (which is my most frequent destination) and I want to waste some time, I can't buy a 3DS game because my 3DS is PAL/EU. On top of that, my Wii U is US/NTSC so I have to import all my games!

Gah!

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

Region locking the 3DS was one of the stupidest things Nintendo has done. Too bad they still haven't seen the light.

 

[metalslimer]

Nintendo to continue being the most backwards company. Even MS has this shit figured out.

 

[Meneses]

Yeah, no way I'll get this.

I already half-regretted getting the 3ds (only halfway because DS games are still region free and they make up 90% of my purchases).

 

[Jotamide]

SMT IV, that's all.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

What sucks about region locking is that it's not a policy I would refuse to buy a product over but sometimes I really want to.

 

[Xizk]

Never going to get a PAL Nintendo console again after seeing how SMT IV was handled.

 

[ZeroX03]

How do Australians deal with region locking?

It seems like it would have a huge negative effect there.

Uhhh, what do you mean? Banned games? We just import copies from the UK, we're all just PAL anyway. It has about the same impact on us as it does any other European country.


I'm not for region locking, but can't think of too many times it's annoyed me on 3DS. Would've liked SMTIV and Miku earlier I suppose, but no exclusive titles spring to mind. Vita on the other hand, single account acts as a pseudo lock, and that got really annoying fast.

 

[Tempy]

Sometimes a Japanese game is only localized for the US and not Europe (or vice versa). Having to deal with that crap is annoying.

 

[Toxi]

Uhhh, what do you mean? Banned games? We just import copies from the UK, we're all just PAL anyway. It has about the same impact on us as it does any other European country.

I'm not for region locking, but can't think of too many times it's annoyed me on 3DS. Would've liked SMTIV and Miku earlier I suppose, but no exclusive titles spring to mind. Vita on the other hand, single account acts as a pseudo lock, and that got really annoying fast.

Okay. Sorry, not very knowledgeable about that sort of thing. I just assumed that Australia would be lowest priority for releases, but I guess you're just getting them when they come to Europe.

 

[Spotty Ren]

 

[DizzyCrow]

If thay want to lock games that WILL be localized to protect the local market/publisher/their profits, fine, but games that won't be localized never shouldn't be locked, actually they are losing sales, this lock should be applied only where it makes sense.

 

[HUELEN10]

Nintendo 1, Bootleg Luigi Owner 0!

 

[sakipon]

Sometimes a Japanese game is only localized for the US and not Europe (or vice versa). Having to deal with that crap is annoying.

Wonder if it would be somewhat realistic to have 2 regions: Japan and Americas/EU/AU. I mean, Xbox 360 was pretty much like that... only Japanese games were region locked (a lot of them, not all). 100% region-free would be the best but with Nintendo one should expect baby steps anyway.

 

[matrix-cat]

How do Australians deal with region locking?

It seems like it would have a huge negative effect there.

We miss out on a bunch of games, mostly. We're in the same region as the UK for physical copies, but anything digital that doesn't make it to the Australian Eshop is just a no-go.

 

[Takao]

Nintendo started region locking their handhelds with DSi, so I can see why some would hope for the opposite to happen with New 3DS.

 

[Andrefpvs]

yes you do

Why?

 

[Keyouta]

And the money I would have spent importing Japan-only 3DS games continues to stay at $0.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

Watch the NA version have purple buttons.

It would be awesome if it had the concave buttons though...

But yeah I hope the Homebrew channel still applies to this when it's out. So tired of region locks at this point.

The problem is I would want a region free eShop (as many interesting titles are eShop only, plus importing carts is time consuming and expensive) and even if homebrew does deliver that it violates the Nintendo Network terms of service.

By the time the homebrew channel comes out cart Rune Factory 4 may be so expensive I'll be best off importing a US system and getting it on the eShop.

Isn't Tilmen banned from NeoGAF?

Their last post was a link to their tweet of giving EA the finger...(didn't know the Luigi was a bootleg, thanks HUELEN10) Given how every other one of their posts was a link to a youtube video I'm guess self promotion was the reason.

We miss out on a bunch of games, mostly. We're in the same region as the UK for physical copies, but anything digital that doesn't make it to the Australian Eshop is just a no-go.

Unless you never linked an NNID to the 3DS in which case just go to system settings and change country to Ireland (I'd imagine the € price is cheaper than the £ price...£ price tends to be €5=£4.50...), connect to eShop and enjoy. If you have NNID though *dontforgetyourehereferver.jpg*

 

[qizah]

I'll never understand the reasoning behind this.

Even if you don't care about region locking, why would you be against having more options? Against others having more options? What a weird thing to say.

I never said I was against it.

I just said the vocal minority is very upset by it.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Surprising no rational human ever.

Fuckin shame, but expected.

 

[18-Volt]

"You gaijins will never get to play games we made exclusively for the glorious Nippon land. You're gonna have to wait for us to make up our minds about localizations. lol"

 

[Kazuma Kiryu]

tilmen was lying? I'm shocked.

 

[ActStriker]

This is why you don't listen to Tilmen.

 

[DNAbro]

Isn't Tilmen banned from NeoGAF?

Yup. His fanboyism knows no bounds. That Reggie pic above is his legacy.

 

[radios shipping overview]

Region-locking isn't about customers. It's about publishers wanting control over regionally-set prices, defeating reverse importing, and preserving overseas licensing revenues. Once a hardware company appeases publishers with region-locking, they don't go back.

 

[ZeroX03]

Okay. Sorry, not very knowledgeable about that sort of thing. I just assumed that Australia would be lowest priority for releases, but I guess you're just getting them when they come to Europe.

Sometimes we get stuff a little later, maybe a week or two because we're not a priority. Like the latest Danganronpa, we get our physical copies a week later than Europe. Thanks to importing & digital (and better worldwide release practices in general) it's much less of an issue than the 90s. That's when we could be waiting months behind Europe.

In Nintendo's case, recently we occasionally get stuff earlier. ORAS, Scribblenauts.

 

[Myggen]

Expected, still sucks though.

 

[Peltz]

NoA better have colored buttons.

I think they will to avoid consumer confusion as much as possible. In other words, I believe they are implementing them to distinguish the new device from old one to inform casual buyers that this is a new model with different capabilities.

Otherwise, the little c-button and 2 extra shoulder buttons, alone, may be too subtle of a change to notice for the average parent who tries to purchase the device for his or her child.

 

[KillerMan91]

What?

Long-history that starts with DSi on portable...

And on home consoles, Sony's first attempt on region free is PS3 (which was very welcome).

Besides, Nintendo home consoles usually were far more easier to unlock than Sony's (sometimes just removing a piece of plastic from the console, or shorting a resistance).


Me neither, but I like that they hear the question as often as possible, maybe they'll think about it for the next generation...

PSP was region free.

 

[Broken Joystick]

The rumour was vague enough that Tilmen could either take full credit if it was true or dismiss it if it was false. Not sure why anyone believes the shit that comes out of this fanboy.

U R AWESOME

 

[HUELEN10]

Truth be told, i am not well-informed on Tilmen or Tilmen on GAF. All I really know is that his fake 60 FPS vids are flawed by design. All I have heard is that he got banned for flicking EA off or something? What makes him a fanboy though, just that he runs a Nintendo blog?

 

[Brofield]

And with this, I'm glad the homebrew app was delayed to fix this grave error on Nintendo's part.

Cheesemeister u okay?

 

[axisofweevils]

I didn't realise Rob Crossley (formerly of CVG) was working for Gamespot now.