Not that it comes as a complete shock to anyone, but it's looking like the games available on Microsoft's Xbox Originals download service still suffer from the foul plague known as region locking.
Seems Spencer over at Siliconera logged into his Japanese Live account to give it a shot, and upon attempting to download Magatama, was presented with an error message, saying that the game was not available for download in his area. Same goes for Puyo Pop Fever, which sucks, because that game was awesome on Dreamcast and I myself was hoping to snag the Xbox version.
While Japanese game demos, themes and pictures are still accessible for the most part to anyone with a Japanese silver account, I'll never get to play Innocent Tears on my 360, and that, dear friends, is just sad.
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
15 comments | showing # 1 to 15
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
8:52 AM on 12.05.2007
| 
Why do companies do this? Its not like they lose money
me being turned on to the Puyo Puyo series back with the GBA version, this hurts badly. Seeing that Puyo Pop Fever is quite rare these days....
and companies continue to bust are balls.
I wanna buy from you dammit!
In spite of you all saying "It costs nothing, why do they do that?" It's far more complicated and expensive to ship software to a region than you think. Localization costs money. Printing costs money. Writing manuals costs money. And not minimal amounts of money, hiring talent that is capable of doing these tasks and doing them to the same standard as your original software is not a trivial task.
The second reason, which Sony seems to use quite often, is quality. If a product is of lessor quality in their eyes, they will refuse to release. I know SNK (Neo Geo) ran into this problem with releasing some Neo Geo ports on the PS2, Sony didn't want 2d Games on the PS2, so, they simply never made it ashore here. When a company spends a great deal of money, time, energy creating a "brand" (which is something mystical, artificial, but feels "real" to the consumers) then releasing a piece of software that might damage that brand, even if the software itself could be profitable, would be a boneheaded maneuver.
None of these comments may apply to Puyo Pop, but it's a glimpse into the general ideas of software region exclusivity.
true all this comes to mind (especially the first Phoenix Wright...the limited first round batch, then came the complaints on why it was so hard to find...) But some of these games are pretty much common sense to release outside of Japan. For example...
The Kingdom Hearts Series. Last I checked, this game sold alot more than in Japan on the first game yet Japan gets Final Mix. Even though FM was left in english voices with Jap subtitles, we're left with no FM for America unless imported.
KHII did sell more in Japan from what I remember and even though the series is still bigger in America, we're left with no Final Mix + which you know will surely sell more in America.
the whole Sony/SNK ordeal is really just Sony's loss. We did get KoFXI and NGBC but seeing how they were being picky and not taking any of the past KoF games unless packed as a double for $20, i'm surprised these even made it seperately. Lets not forget Guilty Gear games, which are quite big but still get that $50 price tag. But they're usualy limited quantities of those anyway.
i'm all for importing but at times, you just wish not to pay an extra $20 for shipping and importing.