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Emily Rogers: NX might be region free

M

Mandelbo

Member
If 3DS devkits weren't region locked either then there's probably not that much of a story here.

Really, really hoping it's true though...
 
H

HandsomeCharles

Member
FantasticMrSnake said:
What's the benefits of the region lock? (I mean why the 3ds was region locked when the ds wasn't)
Click to expand...

Essentially it gives the platform holder more control over what can be sold, when it can be sold and where it can be sold. It means (for example) that a retailer in the UK would have to go through Nintendo's UK distributor in order to get stock, even though it may actually be cheaper to import the stock from America.

In other words: $$$
 
Stilton Disco

Stilton Disco

Member
I'll believe it when I see it. Given the complete lack of justification for it up until now, I'm not holding my breath on Nintendo suddenly coming to their senses on it now.

Would need brilliant of true though.
 
M

maxcriden

Member
For new page:

There are posts ITT about how GCN dev kits were region-locked and about how dev kits never are. Can anyone clarify this?

Otakumegane said:
It's not happening. They execs laid it out pretty clearly they don't want it happening.
Click to expand...

Got a link? I thought they didn't really indicate one way or the other but perhaps I'm misremembering.

Toadthemushroom said:
Nice news if it does indeed extend to the retail hardware. I posted this in the other thread on the subject:

I'm more interested in finding out whether it's region free for digital content. Currently the best model seems to be iOS, which doesn't tie your Apple ID to every service on the device.

Instead you can sign out of the App Store, retain your primary Apple ID for iMessage, iCloud, Game Center etc., but sign into the App Store using a different Apple ID from a different region, purchase and download content from iBooks, Music, App Store, then sign back into your primary account and have no restrictions on how you use that content. You can also change the country your primary account is associated with, if you can prove it with a billing address.

Given the way games are distributed nowadays you're going to miss out much more on Japan-only digital titles than physical games. But on the other hand, Nintendo is the most forward thinking out of the big three in terms of making it as easy as possible to publish games worldwide: the eShop supports the IARC ratings system, which lets developers generate a bunch of worldwide ratings for a digital game free of charge. But currently it doesn't support Japan's CERO. But NCL is gradually lowering barriers to entry for Japanese developers too - something which happened just in time for Bitsummit this year.

That would be nice.

Xbox One also does a great job in terms of making sure there's only one SKU for games across all regions, from what I gather.
Click to expand...

I'd be psyched for that as well, but as Shiggy posited I expect it's entirely possible the NNIDs will be region-locked and that you'll be locked into one on your system, even if the system is region-free.
 
B

Bowl0l

Member
I bet Nintendo will innovate ways to keep each region profits separate.
Most probably
a. one NX can only accept one NNID unless the
account is deleted or
b. NX eshop is region locked
E.g. US NX cannot open EU eshop
c. combination of a. and b.

Imported physical games will remain useless since you cannot download patches, DLC.
 
B

Bluth54

Member
I don't think the dev kits or prototypes not being region locked really means anything, I can't imagine Nintendo ever region locking something like that.
 
Z

Zhao_Yun

Member
Aostia said:
I think that NoE has improved a lot and we got better treatment than NoA did for both 3DS and Wii U, honestly.
And in any case, the most important thing people don't realize is that localization should be our main concern, not region free.
What is the advantage of gtting DQ Monster Joker 3 if it is in Japanese?

btw, I'm not THAT sure that the dev kits being region free means something meaningfull in terms of final product. She should have worded it better, imho, because I'm pretty sure that the "final product" part is just her wishful thinking, not actual insider rumor
Click to expand...

Might want to remind you that Atlus games always took ages to come over to Europe although the games were already in English (hopefully that changes with the new Deep Silver Deal now, but then again we still don't have a date for SMTIV:Apocalypse).
Ofc a region-free console doesn't help much if nothing is getting localized, but we were having issues with games releasing ages apart despite them being localized into English. Besides, there are Japanese games that have a low language barrier like Rhythm games or something like Puyo Puyo Tetris which were also out of our hands. The physical 3DS version of Ace Attorney 1-3 even has the English text on it, but can only be played on a JP 3DS. I also assume that making a console region-free is way easier to do than to localize all the games. There will always be instances when games cannot be localized for different reasons, but I at least want the option to be able to play those games nevertheless.
 
S

Starwolf_UK

Member
My understanding is beta testing tends to be most like retail units but firmware installation has less restrictions so they are region fluid as opposed to region locked.

It's also possible at this point NX firmware doesn't fully exist. I remember playing the 3DS pre-launch and most of the units didn't have a system menu installed but just locked out the RAM it would consume. The units for playing things like Face Raiders did have a system menu on them though.

Galdius said:
On the Gamecube they were.
Click to expand...
That reminds me. Gamecube NR readers have a USA JPN switch on the side of them. This was how people figured out US and Japanese BIOS were both included in the retail units and could made similar mods to retail models. Of course the PAL versions have no such switch on the side.

But those were fairly different times (15 years ago) as on the cartridge systems it was mostly a physical restriction between US/Japan (PAL was always fucked and the NES was even two regions over there due to distributor differences). I remember a decade ago I foolishly thought the Wii could be a similar region locked unless you void your warranty type deal out the box but nope...I guess firmware gets complicated...

FantasticMrSnake said:
What's the benefits of the region lock? (I mean why the 3ds was region locked when the ds wasn't)
Click to expand...
It removes incentive on counterfeit copies as it makes the markets they can be sold in smaller.

From a digital perspective it allows you to discriminate for dumb reasons:
http://level5ia.com/inazumaeleven/uk/
This is not a problem for Ireland or any other eShop country but the UK...
 
G

ggx2ac

Member
Toadthemushroom said:
Nice news if it does indeed extend to the retail hardware. I posted this in the other thread on the subject:

I'm more interested in finding out whether it's region free for digital content. Currently the best model seems to be iOS, which doesn't tie your Apple ID to every service on the device.

...

Given the way games are distributed nowadays you're going to miss out much more on Japan-only digital titles than physical games. But on the other hand, Nintendo is the most forward thinking out of the big three in terms of making it as easy as possible to publish games worldwide: the eShop supports the IARC ratings system, which lets developers generate a bunch of worldwide ratings for a digital game free of charge. But currently it doesn't support Japan's CERO. But NCL is gradually lowering barriers to entry for Japanese developers too - something which happened just in time for Bitsummit this year.
Click to expand...

I'd want developers to take advantage of the IARC ratings system because there will definitely be indie games that won't have retail-physical copies so I'd want to be able to buy them off the eShop even if I am locked to the currency of my region.
 
R

Retrobox

Member
How is digital content handled on Playstation and Xbox? Can you download the Japanese, American and European version of games at any time?
 
W

wrowa

Member
Retrobox said:
How is digital content handled on Playstation and Xbox? Can you download the Japanese, American and European version of games at any time?
Click to expand...

You'd have to create different accounts for each store/region. I think it's technically against the ToS, but no one cares.
 
S

Skux

Member
The more she tries to hype this up, the less I believe her.

Nintendo simply isn't smart enough to do something like that.
 
C

Clov

Member
I really want this to be the case, but I don't want to get my hopes up. This is Nintendo we're talking about.
 
L

linkandzelda

Member
God, I hope this is true. It's what I want most from NX. No more buying 3-5 different consoles to get a full (as self-obtained as possible) Pokémon event collection. Not expecting it to happen though.
 
K

Kneefoil

Member
Ha! I'll believe it when we hear it from Nintendo, but until then, I ain't going to believe for a second that the system is region-free.
 
geordiemp

geordiemp

Member
Cant see and never seen the point of a region locked portable device of any kind.

Marketing ad = take it and play anywhere ****

**** within your region, terms and conditions apply.
 
C

Captainsweatpants

Member
Emily Rogers: NX might have 3DS virtual console games.
Emily Rogers: NX seems to have USB ports, might change in the final version.
Emily Rogers: NX will have stylus support
Emily Rogers: NX will cost between 0$ and 400$
Emily Rogers: NX more powerful than Wii U (but retail version might be weaker)
Emily Rogers: Third party devs love the NX (but aren't convinced yet)
Emily Rogers: NX has nothing to do with QOL (but might work together)
Emily Rogers: NX devkits don't have disk drives - might be a digital only console (retail version may have drive)

Wow, who knew I was a leaker.
 
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