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[Dremark]

Damnit. So still no way to play E.X. Trooper, unless Capcom localize it, which will never happen. -_- Miss those DS days where stuff weren't region locked.

And the GBA days, and the GBC days, and the GB days.

On the other hand Sony has 2 home consoles and 2 portables which are basically region free and the Xbox 360 leaves it totally up to the publisher. Not sure about the Xbone though.

Really not sure why Nintendo decided to implement this on third handhelds when they (and everyone else) had no history of it pre-DSi and everyone else seemed to be moving away from it on consoles.

 

[Andrefpvs]

you know why

Are you going to start making some sense with your posts or can I just ignore you for good?

 

[1337]

Uggh. Such an anti consumer practice. Would have loved for them to show that they werr getting it. They didn't region lock the GB, GBC, GBA and NDS, wonder why the change with the 3ds.

 

[jWILL253]

So, what the fuck is Nintendo's problem, exactly?

 

[Starwolf_UK]

It allows Nintendo to charge more from gamers outside North America. Oh, wait, you meant a defense in regards to consumers' benefits? Sorry.

Seriously, I think region locking is born from NCL's obsession with control. That same obsession is behind them not allowing users to move their digital purchases via a standard activation/deactivation procedure that doesn't involve calling technical support.

Maybe games cost more to distribute outside of North America as like people generally have higher wages or the products are more niche (a digital product on a cloud computer doesn't have such clear cost justification). But no Nintendo are greedfaces.

If you have both systems in possession you don't need any technical support. At the same time it used to be limited to 5 goes and well with so many limited editions (the faceplates should have killed these but no the XL gets no faceplates because we've got to keep the gravy coming) people were hitting the cap.

Take Shovel Knight, for example. The game is due out later this year on Wii U in PAL territories. Meanwhile, it's already out in North America and available globally on Steam.

I don't disagree but I like how the developer is excused here. They made the following choice which resulted in the delay: Let's translate it and to to only start once the US release was finished. Since they were busy developing the core game (there are updates to come) I guess they didn't have time to consider the translation until something was out.

Well the alternatives are hold the game back for everyone (not ideal, kickstartees are impatient and the developer want revenue sooner rather than later) or not translated it (they've had the ratings sorted for ages so presumebly an English only version would have been a simultaneous launch).

Did they ever do a poll to backers asking if they wanted the translation? Moreover, would it not have been possible to release an English version then have the translation as an update (that way we can have both translation and simultaneous release). I have the strange feeling the Steam version will get the translations before the game even hits the eShop...unless NOE are doing the translation or something...

So, what the fuck is Nintendo's problem, exactly?

A thing I recalled is counterfeit games. GBA and DS were (and still are*) completely swamped with them. The lack of region lock made things easy here as you only had to produce one copy for most of the world. The DSi ironically fuelled confusion as sellers could just state "oh it is an import and DSi is region locked innit" as an excuse for the game not booting.

Maybe in that sense that calls for a region free eShop as you can't pirate the eShop in the same way.

*-Did you know the Mother 3 translation has piracy protection. As in you can not modify or remove the intro disclaimer about it being a free translation (if you do the text rendering fails). This is kind of like the protection Konami put in some NES games (if the logo was missing it would go into bullshit hard mode)

 

[peakish]

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

The overhanging risk of cultural contamination is the big one.

 

[tanooki27]

Are you going to start making some sense with your posts or can I just ignore you for good?

you know what to do

 

[Panajev2001a]

The overhanging risk of cultural contamination is the big one.

Should Nintendo lobby politicians to make importing consoles or carrying a console out of the borders of its intended home country illegal to stop this heinous crime and save us from ourselves?

This argument also kind of calls for region locking to be implemented at a single country level... Heck, there are parts of a single country which have wildly different local cultures too.

 

[toddhunter]

Maybe games cost more to distribute outside of North America as like people generally have higher wages or the products are more niche (a digital product on a cloud computer doesn't have such clear cost justification). But no Nintendo are greedfaces.

When they are the only one still doing it, yes.

Whatever argument you can come up with for region locking, it comes down to that simple fact. Nobody else seems to have a problem, so if Nintendo have legitimate issues causing them to still region lock, they need to sort that shit out.

 

[dan2026]

Atlus laughs at your pain!

Spoiler

 

[sfried]

People still going on about this? Did many people really believe that guy who had flakey Smash Bros. news?

When they are the only one still doing it, yes.

Whatever argument you can come up with for region locking, it comes down to that simple fact. Nobody else seems to have a problem, so if Nintendo have legitimate issues causing them to still region lock, they need to sort that shit out.

Anyways, I don't see the whole region-locking disappearing anytime soome because of two things:

1. The SwapNote controversy - Has reaised alot of alarms for Ninty about how kids can be (tricked into) using their products in less than savory means. Better just upset the importers than upset the parents, eh? While their solution, which is to force parents to "unlock" their 3DS web browsing experience for $0.30 would work well in Japan (because perhaps of laws, or something about kids can't have credit cards), most likely it won't hold much water elsewhere. With that said, parental concerns seems to be a reputation Ninty would be keen on holding on to, whichleads us to...

2. Laws - Some countries are apparently more strict about the whole videogame rating thing than others. And while other consoles allow other games to be region free, it seems Nintendo doesn't want to run into another legal debacle about how their consoles would allow certain explicit content from other countries. In other words, since each country would have a different rating "standard", it seems just trying to find the rough equivallent of "their rating" to"our rating" would be a major (legal) headache.

In other words, Nintendo apparently doesn't want to end up appearing on FOX news as some sort of "problematic device" for kids. The problem is people have pigeonholed Nintendo as being the primarily "kid friendly console" and apparently plenty of people have banked a lot of money into that, so much that they may not want to lose that reputation. (Again, see how swiftly/decisively they killed SwapNote.)

 

[Nibel]

Was in the market for a hand held for travelling with work...

Get lost Nintendo and come back when you are ready for the 20 th century you greedy chumps....

Ipad it is then

I agree that the region-lock needs to go ASAP, but this post lmao

 

[Dremark]

2. Laws - Some countries are apparently more strict about the whole videogame rating thing than others. And while other consoles allow other games to be region free, it seems Nintendo doesn't want to run into another legal debacle about how their consoles would allow certain explicit content from other countries. In other words, since each country would have a different rating "standard", it seems just trying to find the rough equivallent of "their rating" to"our rating" would be a major (legal) headache.

If this is an actual issue why does Sony have no issues with it? None of their platforms really have region protection anymore.

No one lock handhelds before the dsi and I never heard of this being an issue then, why would it be now?

 

[sfried]

If this is an actual issue why does Sony have no issues with it? None of their platforms really have region protection anymore.

No one lock handhelds before the dsi and I never heard of this being an issue then, why would it be now?

Did you not read my post? Does Sony have a reputation to keep concerning kids? Did you see how swiftly Nintendo acted concerning the SwapNote/children pictures dillema? When the parents start to complain, thats when they start becoming concerned. Hence why they were so adamant about the whole "3D viewing under 7" thing.

 

[Jackano]

What's the point guys?
There was nothing that let us believe the n3DS will not be region-locked, outside some random guy just wishing on twitter this will change.
From there some clickbait sites "reported" the guy wet dream, and then reporting it was actually nothing legit (surprise!).
And now because of this "news", we're discussing the fact the n3DS is region-locked, which there was no doubt about it in the first place.

This whole story has been artificially created from nothing, I was expecting some closed thread instead of that.

 

[toddhunter]

2. Laws - Some countries are apparently more strict about the whole videogame rating thing than others. And while other consoles allow other games to be region free, it seems Nintendo doesn't want to run into another legal debacle about how their consoles would allow certain explicit content from other countries.

Again though, those are not real reasons, just things Nintendo may or may not think they have to do.

The DS had none of these issues and neither did the gameboy. Protecting their family image? Kids go nuts all day playing minecraft and it isn't on a Nintendo device and it isn't on a region locked one either.

If they are trying to protect something, it isn't actually something that is real in 2014. It just needs to end.

 

[sfried]

Again though, those are not real reasons, just things Nintendo may or may not think they have to do.

The DS had none of these issues and neither did the gameboy. Protecting their family image? Kids go nuts all day playing minecraft and it isn't on a Nintendo device and it isn't on a region locked one either.

If they are trying to protect something, it isn't actually something that is real in 2014. It just needs to end.

Once again, read what I just posted. The GameBoy and DS did not let you connect to the internet (unless you had that special Opera browser card for the DS): The DSi did. Kid plus internet is apparently something they've had trouble dealing with, as indicated by SwapNote controversy (and more recently Comic Maker).

What's the point guys?
There was nothing that let us believe the n3DS will not be region-locked, outside some random guy just wishing on twitter this will change.
From there some clickbait sites "reported" the guy wet dream, and then reporting it was actually nothing legit (surprise!).
And now because of this "news", we're discussing the fact the n3DS is region-locked, which there was no doubt about it in the first place.

This whole story has been artificially created from nothing, I was expecting some closed thread instead of that.

Yeah this is a bunch of people complaining about nothing.

Because GAF. Because apparently Nintendo isn't Sony

 

[DXB-KNIGHT]

Region locking should be implemented as per game and not as per system, that's a good middle ground solution although I fail to see the threat of not implementing region locking.

 

[toddhunter]

Once again, read what I just posted. The DS did not let you connect to the internet: The DSi did.

So does the PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, ipod, iphone, ipad, android tablet even your fridge, should you choose to do so.

Nintendo control the platform, so being able to connect to the internet is completely irrelevant to region locking games. They could easily allow the default case to be no region locking and region lock something that is going to be legal in Japan but illegal in Germany. They could easily control situations that put their child friendly image at risk.

The thing is nothing like that actually happens in reality. There are no games that people would accidentally import and bring about the downfall of an entire countries youth. Laws are different? Besides some violence related things, what exactly are you talking about? Which games have this issue and haven't been released everywhere anyway?

 

[sfried]

Region locking should be implemented as per game and not as per system, that's a good middle ground solution although I fail to see the threat of not implementing region locking.

Perhaps that should ultimately be their solution. That way they can lock down only software that can be used as exploits.

From the sound of the Homebrew guys, though, they seem to be holding off until the New3DS releases. So I'll wait and see...

So does the PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, ipod, iphone, ipad, android tablet even your fridge, should you choose to do so.

...and they are not Nintendo consoles?

Nintendo control the platform, so being able to connect to the internet is completely irrelevant to region locking games.

You didn't read what I wrote about SwapNote, didn't you?

The internet is completely relevant with the whole region issue debacle. Has less to do with software per se, and more with what exploits people use it for.

 

[Dremark]

Did you not read my post? Does Sony have a reputation to keep concerning kids? Did you see how swiftly Nintendo acted concerning the SwapNote/children pictures dillema?

Did you not notice how I specifically quoted just the part about legality? Their reputation has nothing at all to do with legality.

Although to be honest the rest of your post doesn't hold much water either, content has always been an issue in countries like Germany, but Nintendo, Sega, Sony, et al never locked their portables until the DSi. They also have worldwide control over what gets published and an imported game isn't really any less likely to produce controversy than an imported game in a modified or imported device.

 

[maquiladora]

Yeah this is a bunch of people complaining about nothing.

Because GAF. Because apparently Nintendo isn't Sony

Really?

 

[toddhunter]

You didn't read what I wrote about SwapNote, didn't you?

Yes I read that, you keep mentioning it and it still isn't a game. It could have been on the DSi, it could have been region locked and I still could have played SMT4.

 

[StormKing]

.

 

[Nintendojitsu]

@Homebrew community: Our hopes and dreams now rest on your shoulders.

 

[sfried]

Yes I read that, you keep mentioning it and it still isn't a game.

And that was the point I was trying to make?

First of all, the situation with SwapNote proves they apparently have trouble with kids using the cameras to post...illegal stuff. The second is about how these content ratings tie in with them trying to "lock down" their age restriction meathods so that kids can't be able to exploit different region games to gain access to the higher-level stuff in the OS/bypass content restriction.

 

[Dremark]

And that was the point I was trying to make?

First of all, the situation with SwapNote proves they apparently have trouble with kids using the cameras to post...illegal stuff. The second is about how these content ratings tie in with them trying to "lock down" their age restriction meathods so that kids can't be able to exploit different region games to gain access to the higher-level stuff in the OS/bypass content restriction.

Honestly brining up swap note in this is completely irrelevant. If they want to restrict children from being able to post illegal stuff they could simply not allow photos to be shared in software titles and since the control the standards and practices for titles worldwide region locking would be completely unessesary in regards to this.

 

[toddhunter]

And that was the point I was trying to make?

First of all, the situation with SwapNote proves they apparently have trouble with kids using the cameras to post...illegal stuff. The second is about how these content ratings tie in with them trying to "lock down" their age restriction meathods so that kids can't be able to exploit different region games to gain access to the higher-level stuff in the OS/bypass content restriction.

Yeah your point is wrong.

Games being region locked has nothing to do with programs like SwapNote. They can lock that down all they want and it still wouldn't have anything to do with the games.

I doubt anybody would even care about it. In fact, because of how bad the region locking is I don't even have a NNID on my 3DS, because that limits you to one individual eshop and codes from the same "region" no longer even work. So as it stands I can't use anything like that anyway.

Do you have any reason why games should be region locked? Because I'm pretty sure you don't, which means this is still a big issue and worth highlighting.

 

[geordiemp]

When NiNTENDOMiNATiON made a tweet with the word Rumour.

We're in the 21st century.

Nintendo is not, its still 1995....with PAL and NTSC games...LOL

I agree that the region-lock needs to go ASAP, but this post lmao

Why, I travel allot to Asia and America with work. I play on old laptop steam games but its dying....and in pain....I need something that fits....and cant be bothered with stupid things just so game prices can be higher in some regions to get the most $$$$ its just stupid greed and it looses more than it gains, just so that some game prices in some regions can be held higher for longer...

 

[Bjoern the Smexy]

NoA better have colored buttons.

Watch the American version having dark and light purple buttons.
I would laugh so hard.

 

[NewGame]

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

Devils advocate, activate!

For Nintendo some games are tailored for each region, this includes difference in language and often has the strangest translations even between NTSC and PAL regions.

If I recall correctly some games require certain text or characters to accommodate certain accents to text files. This used to be an issue with little 1MB memory carts but not so much today. Voice acting though can cause issues if the whole game is voiced in English/German/Spanish/French/Etc for a lot of the PAL regions this can be very important. Imagining buying a game but finding it wasn't in your language, you'd be pretty cheesed.

Other examples in language include cultural context or slang, for example in Mario Party (6? 7?) one of the mini game descriptions used the word '*****' but in Australia that is a derogatory term against mentally disabled people so they had to recall all the Australian PAL release copies and patch it to be 'crazy' or something.

Region locking from a business perspective is also quite... good... for hedging your sales by controlling imported products.

Also promotional differences between regional products vary. Nintendo has (correct me if I'm wrong) over 9 different 'Club Nintendo(s)' which all require game registrations from specific regions. This proved very annoying in Australia when some retailer purchased UK versions of games (slightly different boxart, slightly different back of the box text, different language options) but their Club Nintendo points were invalid for Australian accounts.

Then there's differences between region hardware (Remember the 50hz vs 60hz issue?) and differences between controller style, layout and appearance.

There's a lot of stuff that varies from region to region. Nintendo want to control and micromanaged each regions game experience to suit that particular market.

But yeah it's pretty annoying and I'd rather it not be in place.

EDIT: Hey, did you know. The Smash Dojo is also region locked! Differences between regions are reflected in the various versions of the site

http://www.smashbros.com/

 

[Bomber Bob]

Ugh, but really who is surprised?

Nobody, but still FUCK YOU NINTENDO this is fucking 2014 THE WORLD IS ONE

 

[Rich!]

homebrew will come to the rescue

 

[Chittagong]

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

Nintendo operates a highly inefficient agent based distribution system where they appoint sole distributors in any country where they don't have an office. This means most countries, as Nintendo is small and scale doesn't afford them presence otherwise.

The sole distributors carry all the risk. They buy product from Nintendo at a very high price, leaving them with modest margin, but carry the full risk, cost and responsibility for distributing Nintendo's products in the market, a requirement for the 'privilege' of getting to be the sole distributor. They must commit to high minimum quantities and Nintendo requires to see proof of their marketing investment.

Nobody would accept these harsh terms if other companies in the same market were able to easily sell imported products at a lower cost, higher margin and no marketing investment.

The entire region locking system has nothing to do with the consumer and everything to do with Nintendo's arcane distribution system necessitated by their lack of scale.

Which is why they can never afford to dismantle it, million tweets or not.

 

[StormKing]

Nintendo operates a highly inefficient agent based distribution system where they appoint sole distributors in any country where they don't have an office. This means most countries, as Nintendo is small and scale doesn't afford them presence otherwise.

The sole distributors carry all the risk. They buy product from Nintendo at a very high price, leaving them with modest margin, but carry the full risk, cost and responsibility for distributing Nintendo's products in the market, a requirement for the 'privilege' of getting to be the sole distributor. They must commit to high minimum quantities and Nintendo requires to see proof of their marketing investment.

Nobody would accept these harsh terms if other companies in the same market were able to easily sell imported products at a lower cost, higher margin and no marketing investment.

The entire region locking system has nothing to do with the consumer and everything to do with Nintendo's arcane distribution system necessitated by their lack of scale.

Which is why they can never afford to dismantle it, million tweets or not.

If this is the case, why weren't the gba and the ds region locked? Was importing less prevalent?

 

[test_account]

Why, I travel allot to Asia and America with work. I play on old laptop steam games but its dying....and in pain....I need something that fits....and cant be bothered with stupid things just so game prices can be higher in some regions to get the most $$$$ its just stupid greed and it looses more than it gains, just so that some game prices in some regions can be held higher for longer...

He was just referring to what you said about the 20th century (since we're in the 21th century now).

 

[Chittagong]

If this is the case, why weren't the gba and the ds region locked? Was importing less prevalent?

Import of handheld games has always been an issue straining Nintendo's distributor relationship. I suspect it was initially a lesser issue because the target usernase was younger and less informed, and the primary channel was more a toy store than media store. It's hard to know what made them pull the trigger just this generation.

 

[Occam]

Food for thought: Printed books don't have region locks, either. Why should anything else? We live in a globalized world.

Region locking needs to be outlawed. I wonder when the EU is going to act.

 

[Fdkn]

If I import a game that's not on my language, or any language I understand, it's my problem. If I knew beforehand, I did because I wanted. If I didn't know, It's up to me to consider it a mistake and learn from it to inform myself before buying things outside my country.

Average Joe is not going to buy a japanese mario game to his kid and then complain because his kid can't play a japanese game. That just doesn't happen. This whole "Nintendo is trying to protect" is based on a non-issue, it's a lie as many others just to keep their anticonsumer practices and greed.

Some people would defend anything ffs.

 

[Mendax]

why would this be a " bad" rumour if people thought/hoped that nintendo was going to do something good?

 

[Rich!]

why would this be a " bad" rumour if people thought/hoped that nintendo was going to do something good?

Because the source is bullshit

 

[Starwolf_UK]

If I import a game that's not on my language, or any language I understand, it's my problem. If I knew beforehand, I did because I wanted. If I didn't know, It's up to me to consider it a mistake and learn from it to inform myself before buying things outside my country.

Average Joe is not going to buy a japanese mario game to his kid and then complain because his kid can't play a japanese game. That just doesn't happen. This whole "Nintendo is trying to protect" is based on a non-issue, it's a lie as many others just to keep their anticonsumer practices and greed.

Some people would defend anything ffs.

You are doing it in your own home. What happens when a retailer imports a load and customers are too dumb to know the difference? I seem to recall hearing I think Target (it certainly weren't a mom and pop) having copies of Ouendan and Jump Ultimate Stars.

Maybe mass importation by retailers is what killed region free (it wasn't just exclusives, here in Europe US versions Pokemon games are a big thing...thankfully Pokemon Company figured out the problem and solved it with near simultaneous release, not region lock).

I said around the launch of the 3DS think Nintendo should harness the niche appeal it has and make you pay for a region unlocker (and joked in this thread about $0.30 each time internet unlocker style) as it is then clear cut and dry that you did it and know what you are doing.

Food for thought: Printed books don't have region locks, either. Why should anything else? We live in a globalized world.

The regional pricing differences on books are far worse than videogames actually. In particular academic textbooks (China and India get them much cheaper as more students and lower income). I think for some releases, regions have started getting lagged releases and updated editions are a thing to counteract both importing and second hand sales (many students sell their books).

The law aspect is interesting with books as back in the days of Dickens America didn't care about UK copyright so just pirated those books. Its kind of ironic how militant America is about copyright now.

 

[Fdkn]

You are doing it in your own home. What happens when a retailer imports a load and customers are too dumb to know the difference? I seem to recall hearing I think Target (it certainly weren't a mom and pop) having copies of Ouendan and Jump Ultimate Stars.

Maybe mass importation by retailers is what killed region free (it wasn't just exclusives, here in Europe US versions Pokemon games are a big thing...thankfully Pokemon Company figured out the problem and solved it with near simultaneous release, not region lock).

I said around the launch of the 3DS think Nintendo should harness the niche appeal it has and make you pay for a region unlocker (and joked in this thread about $0.30 each time internet unlocker style) as it is then clear cut and dry that you did it and know what you are doing.

Then it's target problem to deal with uninformed customers. it's not like the return policy is unknown.

 

[Sami+]

And that was the point I was trying to make?

First of all, the situation with SwapNote proves they apparently have trouble with kids using the cameras to post...illegal stuff. The second is about how these content ratings tie in with them trying to "lock down" their age restriction meathods so that kids can't be able to exploit different region games to gain access to the higher-level stuff in the OS/bypass content restriction.

Please explain to me how the locking out of physical cartridges is, in any way shape or form, relevant to parental controls. Do you honestly think six year old kids have easy access to Japanese adult imports for this to be an actual problem? Or that they'll all be savvy enough to utilize game-specific hacks to exploit the OS?

 

[Bony Manifesto]

You are doing it in your own home. What happens when a retailer imports a load and customers are too dumb to know the difference? I seem to recall hearing I think Target (it certainly weren't a mom and pop) having copies of Ouendan and Jump Ultimate Stars.

I'm failing to see the problem there. Why should Target be forced by Nintendo into not being able to sell legally-acquired games? That's exactly what Nintendo got in trouble for in Europe in the late 90s, but for some reason that's not even on their legal radar, yet they will make big policy decisions if they have even the smallest inkling they might get in trouble for it.

 

[Panajev2001a]

People still going on about this? Did many people really believe that guy who had flakey Smash Bros. news?


Anyways, I don't see the whole region-locking disappearing anytime soome because of two things:

1. The SwapNote controversy - Has reaised alot of alarms for Ninty about how kids can be (tricked into) using their products in less than savory means. Better just upset the importers than upset the parents, eh? While their solution, which is to force parents to "unlock" their 3DS web browsing experience for $0.30 would work well in Japan (because perhaps of laws, or something about kids can't have credit cards), most likely it won't hold much water elsewhere. With that said, parental concerns seems to be a reputation Ninty would be keen on holding on to, whichleads us to...

2. Laws - Some countries are apparently more strict about the whole videogame rating thing than others. And while other consoles allow other games to be region free, it seems Nintendo doesn't want to run into another legal debacle about how their consoles would allow certain explicit content from other countries. In other words, since each country would have a different rating "standard", it seems just trying to find the rough equivallent of "their rating" to"our rating" would be a major (legal) headache.

In other words, Nintendo apparently doesn't want to end up appearing on FOX news as some sort of "problematic device" for kids. The problem is people have pigeonholed Nintendo as being the primarily "kid friendly console" and apparently plenty of people have banked a lot of money into that, so much that they may not want to lose that reputation. (Again, see how swiftly/decisively they killed SwapNote.)

1. The Swapnote controversy happened AFTER the DSi started the region locking trend.

2. They thrived with GB, GBA, and DS being region free. Laws did not massively change and their target market was fine with the region free product.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Once again, read what I just posted. The GameBoy and DS did not let you connect to the internet (unless you had that special Opera browser card for the DS): The DSi did. Kid plus internet is apparently something they've had trouble dealing with, as indicated by SwapNote controversy (and more recently Comic Maker).


Yeah this is a bunch of people complaining about nothing.

Because GAF. Because apparently Nintendo isn't Sony

How does Internet connectivity through a web browser relate to region locking cartridge games exactly?

 

[Panajev2001a]

Nintendo operates a highly inefficient agent based distribution system where they appoint sole distributors in any country where they don't have an office. This means most countries, as Nintendo is small and scale doesn't afford them presence otherwise.

The sole distributors carry all the risk. They buy product from Nintendo at a very high price, leaving them with modest margin, but carry the full risk, cost and responsibility for distributing Nintendo's products in the market, a requirement for the 'privilege' of getting to be the sole distributor. They must commit to high minimum quantities and Nintendo requires to see proof of their marketing investment.

Nobody would accept these harsh terms if other companies in the same market were able to easily sell imported products at a lower cost, higher margin and no marketing investment.

The entire region locking system has nothing to do with the consumer and everything to do with Nintendo's arcane distribution system necessitated by their lack of scale.

Which is why they can never afford to dismantle it, million tweets or not.

I remember how IMPOSSIBLE it seemed for NoE to end their stupid time availability restrictions for mature games on the eShop because of German laws which could not just easily change, yadda, yadda... Fast forward a few weeks after the initial outrage and wow, the impossible became possible . Restriction lifted.

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

homebrew will come to the rescue

I really hate having to rely on that kind of thing because I don't want to play a game of stability update leap frog for the rest of my system's life just so I can import stuff.

 

[Zing]

Nintendo operates a highly inefficient agent based distribution system where they appoint sole distributors in any country where they don't have an office. This means most countries, as Nintendo is small and scale doesn't afford them presence otherwise.

The sole distributors carry all the risk. They buy product from Nintendo at a very high price, leaving them with modest margin, but carry the full risk, cost and responsibility for distributing Nintendo's products in the market, a requirement for the 'privilege' of getting to be the sole distributor. They must commit to high minimum quantities and Nintendo requires to see proof of their marketing investment.

Nobody would accept these harsh terms if other companies in the same market were able to easily sell imported products at a lower cost, higher margin and no marketing investment.

The entire region locking system has nothing to do with the consumer and everything to do with Nintendo's arcane distribution system necessitated by their lack of scale.

Which is why they can never afford to dismantle it, million tweets or not.

Don't take offense, but despite your post sounding knowledgable, it doesn't account for the fact that region locking didn't appear until the advent of Nintendo's digital games with the DSi.