One handy thing about the DS and DS Lite was that they were region-free, which was especially helpful when Nintendo pulled its regular international bullshit and denied Europeans timely releases. The DSi, however, put a stop to it, and it's hardly surprising that the 3DS looks to go the same way.
An alleged email from Nintendo of Japan states that the 3DS will be region coded, which means your foreign games won't work, at least until someone breaks the system in some way. This will likely be a big disappointment to import fans.
Although the news is not yet 100% confirmed, it's a logical step. The DSi was region locked, so it would be surprising if Nintendo reneged and opened up the 3DS. I'd say this is a done deal, so don't go importing any early 3DS games just yet, folks.
Damn, do I hate region locking.
[Via NeoGAF]
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Contest:
12:20 PM on 01.11.2011 | 
Ah well the 3DS will be an amazing piece of hardware regardless.
All your doing is hurting sales of games especially when a game is for example only released I. Japan plenty of others would love to import but no you have to be lame as fuck nintendo. Also loolong at you ms I know you give the devs the choice but you should change that and make it all region free. Region protecting does nothing good
And to think I was about to buy one. Now I know better.
Sarcasm aside, it sucks, but if there's a decent collection of US software then I'll still bite. And there's always companies like Aksys and Atlus who bring games over to us round eyes from time to time, so that's something.
And who knows, with Konami possibly publishing Otomedius Excellent for 360 in the states, maybe they'll bring over some other obscure Japanese titles as well. Here's hoping. I'll probably keep my DSi until I know the 3Ds plays my import DS titles.
Perhaps not. We're getting Pokemon Black two days before America.
Oh and there's no excuse to pirate. Your just an idiot with no money and really odd ways of justifying crimes.
@MasterBalls: If you buy a system you should be able to buy and use the games it was made for. I bought a Japanese DSi to play a region-locked game. I will not be doing that again.
This probably doesn't matter to a lot of people here, but an importer the 3Ds is not looking desirable now.
And to all you people claiming Nintendo is "forcing" you to pirate, or "forcing" you to mod... I don't see anyone twisting your arms or requiring you to do anything. This stuff sucks, but that doesn't mean you HAVE TO respond/retaliate in any way.
Also, was ANYTHING going to stop someone from hacking the 3DS... probably not.
Kind of a dick move in any case.
I have a ton of imported famicom games and whatnot, because cartridge adapters are cheap and easy to manufacture/jury rig, but when it comes to newer systems that's not so much an option, and people just opt for the R4s and the jailbreaks. It kind of sucks for people who legit import games. Either you buy a whole new system to play a few games on, or you just shrug your shoulders and mod your console which may have other ramifications.
How am I supposed to play Love Plus in 3D?
This is horrible news.
I mean, there are some genres you can go without, but anything story-driven or text/stat heavy is going to be a chore to play without some online reference.
Then again, the only games I have ever bothered to import are fighters, that time I imported Pokemon Crystal didn't work out so great for me.
First sentence of the article. Sometimes games aren't released in Europe at the same time as North America. A lot of Europeans speak English.
Yeah, some will do that, but others...yeah, they're not gonna want to play nice with this.
YOU ARE A PIRATE!
One of my favorite games of all time is Hatsune Miku Project Diva and that wasn't released outside of Japan, seeing as Japan tends to get alot quirky awesome games that we don't makes this news rather disappointing.
You're assuming that the only games people would import are ones from Japan. I have the European version of Last Window (Hotel Dusk sequel) which Nintendo didn't feel the need to bother releasing in America.
I think I have only imported one game in the history of my console adventures (would have been more but you hit the language barrier) I wish I could have enjoyed the Story for Carnage Heart portable but It was enough to enjoy playing the game. Long story short its not a huge loss to me personally but I feel for those who did enjoy importing games from other regions that otherwise would not have been released to them (I'm looking at you, majority of obscure JRPGs)
Will wait to see if a sequel of sorts appears. If it does, then I'll have to figure out some way to import a Japanese 3DS and just forget about the American counterpart.
It's a shame people assume the only reason people ever want devices unlocked/jailbroken is piracy - but it's nice to see things like this to remind people that there are perfectly legitimate reasons to want your devices to be free.
"All the more reason to pirate. Good job Nintendo, forcing people into hacking/pirating."
Not really. See, there's this thing called restraint.
A lot of people lack it but basically (in this example) the restraint would come from not stealing something just because you can't get it in your country or you lack the patience to wait for an official port that would not only support the game dev but also encourage the devs/nintendo to release all games to all markets.
Anybody who gets a copy of a game for free because they can't purchase it in their country needs to wake up and realise that by stealing potential profit from the devs they are cutting of their noses to spite their faces.
Daammmnnnittttt.
:/ Honestly, this sort of impedes my purchase. I don't wanna lose support for the amazing import titles I've got, plus I was looking into getting more. [Ouendan comes to mind; I still play the shit out of that game. Need sequel.] Great job, Ninty :D Thanks for the love! Guess I need to rely on NOA to bring over some good stuff, like Fatal Frame IV, the Last Window...Things are gonna be great. :]
Really, the only "region protection" the DSi had was the DSiWare Store.
I seriously hope the 3DS's region protection only applies to the 3DSware & the GB Virtual Console.
Others just play despite missing out on a little text. Without importers we may have never seen a western release of Demon's Souls, because Atlus might not have noticed it and picked it up. The poor quality of many translations and the average 3-5 month wait time for localization also affect things. Keep in mind that it DOES go both ways. Sometimes Japan and Europe take half a year, only to get an inferior port of an American game.
As for piracy, Microsoft's policy of publicizing bannings, focusing on heavy online integration in areas other than just multiplayer games, and creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and risk for pirates is a much smarter solution to the problem than restricting the hardware's capabilities. Sony tried to remove Linux support last year and ended up catalyzing a much bigger problem than the Linux had been.
"the restraint would come from not stealing something just because you can't get it in your country or you lack the patience to wait for an official port."
If a game sees no release in your country and no announced port, as happens often, a gamer has 3 choices.
1. Don't hack/pirate and never play the game = NO Developer profit.
2. pirate = NO Developer profit.
3. Hack and import = Developer profit.
The best decision is obvious, hacking will support developers. Nintendo do force people to hack with this move and that will inevitably cause a little extra piracy. Individuals are responsible for their actions but Nintendo will be responsible for their effect on the hacking/pirating statistics.
And not once did I say importing is a bad thing, my comment was fully in regards to pirating hence i suggested waiting for a port.
Of course if a port isn't forthcoming then hack and import.