Nintendo's hard-on for region locking anything it can has just got a little more ridiculous, if one Australian gamer's troubles are anything to go by. According to an Aussie NeoGAF user, imports from Animal Crossing: Wild World to Animal Crossing: City Folk/Let's Go to the City are region specific, meaning a US DS card won't import to a PAL copy of the game.
Even more stupidly, it seems that DS AC cards bought in Australia won't actually work with the Australian version of the Wii game. A stupid sad cat merely whines at the unlucky Aussie: "Hrm? I don't think you have the right game card."
Basically, the "Australian" version of Animal Crossing: Wild World is the United States version. While perfectly acceptable on the DS, where cards are region-free, Nintendo's utterly needless region-locking of this import feature has basically ruined a part of Let's Go to the City for Australian gamers. According to a European gamer, this isn't a problem elsewhere in the PAL territories, but we'll see how widespread it gets.
Incredibly stupid and needless region locking like this is pathetic. I wish Nintendo would realize that it doesn't need to be this anal about making sure only certain people can play certain games. Many Western developers get along fine without forcing territory locks, a company as big and influential as Nintendo should grow up about it.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
1:09 PM on 12.04.2008
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Pathetic, indeed.
i guess its so that things like this can happen. hehe.
Nintendo realises Australia doesn't need all the european languages, so gives us the US version, then completely stuffs up with the console release by not imagining that this region locking garbage would be a problem.
Regional coding serves only one purpose: To create a monopoly. Even now, with the Aussie dollar in the tank at $0.65, I can still get a game cheaper from PlayAsia than I can from a local retail outlet. This is pathetic.
Why should anyone support a company that doesn't give a flying fuck about making sure their own games are compatible with themselves? And all at extra cost? For games that come out months later?
This is another one of those poor choices by companies desperate for profits.
This is another one of those poor choices by companies desperate for profits.
Jus' saying...
Sure there's the possibility of a customer buying a game in a language they don't understand (rule of thumb: if you can't understand the back of the box, you're not gonna understand the game!).
But the fact is that region locking has never hurt a publisher's coffers. Back in the day the had an excuse (We only had 16k to play around with), but now it's pure greed and global price fixing.
I was equally shocked to find Sony didn't do it with the PS3! That's not like them at all!