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Topic: Reasons for Region Locking

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moosa

Reasons for Region Locking

-Gives console maker and publishers more control over product release and supply chain

-Allows publishers control over the content of software: some countries are more sensitive to particular kinds of content than others or may be offended by certain things.

-Protects publishers and enforces publishing agreements: sometimes a software title may have different publishers in different regions, and importing from another region can hurt certain publishers (which could even discourage localization efforts in some cases).

-Software ratings boards (ESRB, PEGI, etc.) are different for each region: each title is rated individually for that region (could possibly be quite a different rating given from one region to another), and there are government regulations involved here.

-Potentially limits the impact of software pirates and hackers: if something is compromised it may be restricted to one region rather than the whole world.

There. Now you can go back to complaining about the 3DS's region locking without being completely clueless as to why.

Edited on by moosa

Stop complaining and GO PLAY GAMES.

Bankai

moosa wrote:

Reasons for Region Locking

-Gives console maker and publishers more control over product release and supply chain
-Allows publishers control over the content of software: some countries are more sensitive to particular kinds of content than others.
-Protects publishers and enforces publishing agreements: sometimes a software title may have different publishers in different regions, and importing from another region can hurt certain publishers (which could even discourage localization efforts in some cases).
-Software ratings boards (ESRB, PEGI, etc.) are different for each region: each title is rated individually for that region (could possibly be quite a different rating given from one region to another), and there are government regulations involved here.
-Potentially limits the impact of software pirates and hackers: if something is compromised it may be restricted to one region rather than the whole world.

There. Now you can go back to complaining about the 3DS's region locking without being completely clueless as to why.

And yet Sony manages to, um, not do region locking. Because, my dear Moosa, being region free doesn't mean that games need to be released in every region. Rendering most of those arguments above void.

Pretty awesome to see Nintendo so user friendly, right?

Edited on by Bankai

BenAV

Fair enough I guess.

BenAV

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moosa

WaltzElf wrote:

And yet Sony manages to, um, not do region locking.

Yes, that's because console makers are allowed to make a choice between doing so or not.

Edited on by moosa

Stop complaining and GO PLAY GAMES.

moosa

There's no game here Waltz Elf. There's a difference between whats best for your personal tastes, what's best for Nintendo, and what's best in general. I'm just telling you why there's a decision to be made by a console maker here.

Edited on by moosa

Stop complaining and GO PLAY GAMES.

Bankai

moosa wrote:

There's no game here Waltz Elf. There's a difference between whats best for your personal tastes, what's best for Nintendo, and what's best in general. I'm just telling you why there's a decision to be made by a console maker here.

There's the decision to be consumer friendly, or not consumer friendly.

Guess which one Nintendo opted for?

moosa

How about protecting the publishers?

Stop complaining and GO PLAY GAMES.

LordJumpMad

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Aviator

WaltzElf wrote:

Guess which one Nintendo opted for?

Ooh I know! I know!
/me has his hand raised high

Edited on by Aviator

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You know
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Can I just like, hang off the back of your horse
And can you go a little faster?!

moosa

WaltzElf wrote:

moosa wrote:

How about protecting the publishers?

Yeah, Sony sent Activision out of business alright.

It's not about going out of business. It's about doing what's in their best interests. Publishers are the ones responsible for providing us with the games. If Nintendo doesn't work to take care of them, they're not going to want to support their platforms.

Stop complaining and GO PLAY GAMES.

BenAV

I know by as a result of the region locking there's that chance that some games might only make it to North America, thus me not getting to play them... But in the end that will probably only happen to a few decent games over a whole console's life (not really any complaints about the Wii on my end) and they're unlikely to be the games that I'm most excited for so instead of having a fit about it I'll just concentrate on playing all the other great games coming my way.
I don't have enough time and money to buy and play every game in the world anyway.
It'd be nice to be able to buy games from the US if I choose but it's not that big of a deal, for me at least.

BenAV

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Bankai

moosa wrote:

WaltzElf wrote:

moosa wrote:

How about protecting the publishers?

Yeah, Sony sent Activision out of business alright.

It's not about going out of business. It's about doing what's in their best interests. Publishers are the ones responsible for providing us with the games. If Nintendo doesn't work to take care of them, they're not going to want to support their platforms.

Ok. You don't seem to be getting the point. I'll write it out for a kindergarten student's level, since you were so good to be so condescending in your first post:

Nintendo didn't need to region lock its consoles. It's entirely possible for a console manufacturer to do right by the third party publishers (Sony) while not sticking the boot up its consumers' backsides.

The real reason for region locking is to protect retailers. And... well, whatever. The sooner they all fall over, the better.

Bankai

BenAV wrote:

I know by as a result of the region locking there's that chance that some games might only make it to North America, thus me not getting to play them... But in the end that will probably only happen to a few decent games over a whole console's life (not really any complaints about the Wii on my end) and they're unlikely to be the games that I'm most excited for so instead of having a fit about it I'll just concentrate on playing all the other great games coming my way.
I don't have enough time and money to buy and play every game in the world anyway.
It'd be nice to be able to buy games from the US if I choose but it's not that big of a deal, for me at least.

Having been to Japan just recently I can promise you you have no idea what you're missing out on. If anything, it's getting worse and worse for getting good stuff released outside of Japan.

Edited on by Bankai

Raptor78

But although Sony have left their system region free, they do have a history of suing companies that provide grey importing of their games so that would not make them consumer friendly either... just a bit more deceptive on how they get the money.

Im not siding with Nintendo over this, I wish they hadnt region locked the 3DS, although ths is also down to the developers to utilise locking just as they did with the PSP, which only had one region locked game to my knowledge but at least it ment that Sony had included the option when building the system. I just want to remind you that while Sony is happy to make their systems region free they also do not want you to play grey imported titles on them.

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Bankai

Raptor78 wrote:

But although Sony have left their system region free, they do have a history of suing companies that provide grey importing of their games so that would not make them consumer friendly either... just a bit more deceptive on how they get the money.

Im not siding with Nintendo over this, I wish they hadnt region locked the 3DS, although ths is also down to the developers to utilise locking just as they did with the PSP, which only had one region locked game to my knowledge but at least it ment that Sony had included the option when building the system. I just want to remind you that while Sony is happy to make their systems region free they also do not want you to play grey imported titles on them.

Grey Importing is an entirely different matter and Sony (and Nintendo) is right to shut them down when possible.

Consumer friendly is being able to go on a trip to Japan or the US and bring yourself home a present.

BenAV

WaltzElf wrote:

Having been to Japan just recently I can promise you you have no idea what you're missing out on. If anything, it's getting worse and worse for getting good stuff released outside of Japan.

Yeah, well I'm sure that there's plenty of good stuff that doesn't make it out of Japan and I do agree that that is a problem...
The main thing I'm talking about is games being released in North America and not in Europe/Australia.
I can't speak/read any Japanese so it'd be a bit hard for me to play many Japanese games properly with or without region locking.

BenAV

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Bankai

BenAV wrote:

WaltzElf wrote:

Having been to Japan just recently I can promise you you have no idea what you're missing out on. If anything, it's getting worse and worse for getting good stuff released outside of Japan.

Yeah, well I'm sure that there's plenty of good stuff that doesn't make it out of Japan and I do agree that that is a problem...
The main thing I'm talking about is games being released in North America and not in Europe/Australia.
I can't speak/read any Japanese so it'd be a bit hard for me to play many Japanese games properly with or without region locking.

Aside from RPGs and some especially complex strategy games you'd be surprised how easy it is to play games without knowing the native language.

BenAV

WaltzElf wrote:

BenAV wrote:

WaltzElf wrote:

Having been to Japan just recently I can promise you you have no idea what you're missing out on. If anything, it's getting worse and worse for getting good stuff released outside of Japan.

Yeah, well I'm sure that there's plenty of good stuff that doesn't make it out of Japan and I do agree that that is a problem...
The main thing I'm talking about is games being released in North America and not in Europe/Australia.
I can't speak/read any Japanese so it'd be a bit hard for me to play many Japanese games properly with or without region locking.

Aside from RPGs and some especially complex strategy games you'd be surprised how easy it is to play games without knowing the native language.

Ah well... I still have plenty of games that I have in English that I haven't found the time to play through yet so I'll manage without them.

Edited on by BenAV

BenAV

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