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.
It's you who's not understanding. I wasn't being condescending (Edit: call it mock condescension; it was meant to be lighthearted. I wrote this for the people who really did have no idea). My first post was purely informative, on a factual basis, not argumentative. It's completely OK if you don't like region locking and think Nintendo shouldn't have gone through with it. I never said one choice was better than another.
The point and the bottom line is that Nintendo (obviously) had some legitimate reason for making the choice to go the region locking route, for better or for worse, and it's not in black and white. That's what this thread is about. If you'd like to contribute to the discussion as to why, then have at it.
Nintendo choose to region lock simply because of the parental controls. They are trying to protect their customers from exposure to inappropriate materials by enforcing the controls to be set for every game (in consoles from the DSi onwards). If they chose to allow games to be imported, then every game would need to be rated by ESRB, PEGI, OFLC, USK and BBFC (and probably others) even if it was a US only release. That's a pretty hefty expense for a publisher. The cost of these ratings is a major reason so few games reach Australia (and the main reason for Waltz being so bitter with life).
I think it's a shame that Nintendo puts in the amount of effort it does to try protect kids and to show that it's doing all it can to counter the negative press video games get for harming kids and all they get back is abuse. They could easily drop region locks, not bother about parental controls, communication with strangers but they do it because they believe it is the responsible thing to do.
Director of Four Horses. Developer of Digger Dan games.
On sale on the Nintendo 3DS eShop from 19th May 2016.
www.fourhorses.co.uk
Nintendo choose to region lock simply because of the parental controls. They are trying to protect their customers from exposure to inappropriate materials by enforcing the controls to be set for every game (in consoles from the DSi onwards). If they chose to allow games to be imported, then every game would need to be rated by ESRB, PEGI, OFLC, USK and BBFC (and probably others) even if it was a US only release. That's a pretty hefty expense for a publisher. The cost of these ratings is a major reason so few games reach Australia (and the main reason for Waltz being so bitter with life).
I think it's a shame that Nintendo puts in the amount of effort it does to try protect kids and to show that it's doing all it can to counter the negative press video games get for harming kids and all they get back is abuse. They could easily drop region locks, not bother about parental controls, communication with strangers but they do it because they believe it is the responsible thing to do.
Very good point. At least in Australia we can get games from Europe so it's not all bad... Just not North America or Japan. I guess if anyone's that desperate to play games from another region they could always buy a second system from that region.
Nintendo choose to region lock simply because of the parental controls. They are trying to protect their customers from exposure to inappropriate materials by enforcing the controls to be set for every game (in consoles from the DSi onwards). If they chose to allow games to be imported, then every game would need to be rated by ESRB, PEGI, OFLC, USK and BBFC (and probably others) even if it was a US only release. That's a pretty hefty expense for a publisher. The cost of these ratings is a major reason so few games reach Australia (and the main reason for Waltz being so bitter with life).
I think it's a shame that Nintendo puts in the amount of effort it does to try protect kids and to show that it's doing all it can to counter the negative press video games get for harming kids and all they get back is abuse. They could easily drop region locks, not bother about parental controls, communication with strangers but they do it because they believe it is the responsible thing to do.
Bitter? Not really. I've got various Japanese consoles to fix that problem that no game's get released here.
I don't buy a single excuse Nintendo comes up with until everyone else also does region locking. Sony has dropped it over time, Nintendo has adopted it for this generation of handhelds.
Whether you agree with the reasons for region locking or not, that is the reason it is done by Nintendo. I'll expect the Wii U to be the same story.
I guess part of the decision for them would be how many customers it would have a negative impact on and the answer to that is very few and those that find it a big problem can always import the hardware, too.
Given that Nintendo hardware and games seem to be portrayed as being for a younger audience, I think it's pretty much inevitable that Nintendo will do all they can to reduce the number of "my son's GameBoy tought him to swear" and other nonsense made up headlines.
Director of Four Horses. Developer of Digger Dan games.
On sale on the Nintendo 3DS eShop from 19th May 2016.
www.fourhorses.co.uk
I guess part of the decision for them would be how many customers it would have a negative impact on and the answer to that is very few and those that find it a big problem can always import the hardware, too.
Unfortunately I don't believe the majority of people who take issue with the region locking actually would ever import/go to another country and buy a foreign videogame. Of course there are those who would and do. But you know, give a gamer an internet connection and something to complain about...
I'd like to bring up another point that you touched upon DiggerDan about videogames and bad press. If for example some game popped out of Japan that featured chibi girls that you could wiggle their breasts around with the touchscreen or something (I'm making this up but I wouldn't put it past them). Then say someone in Australia somehow caught wind of it and as their eyes bug out of their head they immediately declare the "child fondling sim" banned throughout Australia. What if then the console wasn't region locked, and so gamers, excited by the press reaction and rebellious as they are, began importing the infamous child fondler by the boatload? That could create a really bad situation for Nintendo, the game's publisher and developer, and perhaps most of all, the videogame industry in the Australian region, which is already said to have some strict government regulations. Now, this exact scenario might not actually happen, but it brings to light the significance of the issue where something that may be rather routine in the likes of Japan might not be socially acceptable in other regions, and not only is that something we might want to protect young people from, but the reaction to that could potentially hurt the whole industry.
Parental controls don't even need region locking. Just allow only accounts with full authorization to play imported games. It's easy as that. I can't believe that Nintendo still insists on region locking nowadays.
It's like, I just love a cowboy
You know
I'm just like, I just, I know, it's bad
But I'm just like
Can I just like, hang off the back of your horse
And can you go a little faster?!
-Gives console maker and publishers more control over product release and supply chain
Maybe! But many publishers have abandoned Nintendo's consoles anyway. If Nintendo wants more third party support in the future region locking won't help. And Sony does fine without region locking.
moosa wrote:
-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.
You could always block imported games with parental controls for a child account.
moosa wrote:
-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).
Just set the European und North American release date around the same week ==> Almost no imports! If a game is available in your region why should someone import it?
moosa wrote:
-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.
The ratings are irrelevant since the game isn't officially published in that region. Government regulations could only be a problem for the person who has imported the videogames. It's like when you watch the DVD of a movie which is forbidden in your country. Who would blame the manufacturer of the DVD player? And as I said you could always block imported games with parental controls for a child account.
moosa wrote:
-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.
Definitely not! The region locking would just be the first thing hackers would get rid of.
@Aviator - Agreed, but the region lock adds that little bit of protection. You can't control everything your child does and indeed shouldn't. You need to give them some level of self control and regulation. My son has his own 3DS at the age of 5 and the parental controls let me know that he couldn't go onto the eStore and use any of his remaining balance to buy something inappropriate when he is unsupervised with the device. Suggesting that a parent's job is to sit next to them watching everything they do on their handheld console is quite frankly scary to me. I remember stories of parents who locked their daughter to a radiator for 6 years when she was about eleven as they were scared she'd do something they wouldn't approve of.
@moosa - I don't really understand your point. Are you saying region locking is bad because people might import something inappropriate? Nope, re-read it and I think you are supporting my argument that Nintendo region lock to protect (in their eyes) their customers.
@Guybrush - Yeah, that'd be a good all round solution, allow systems that don't have any parental control play other region games, but what then if you have a Euro system with the rating level set to PEGI 16 (suitable for 16 year olds and above by PEGI standards) and you stick in a US game with an ESRB rating of E 10+ (suitable for 10 year olds and above by the ESRB standards)?
Common sense would say that it's probably suitable for the PEGI 16 standard, but who decides? And what with rating systems that are a bit closer together? Would an ESRB AO (18+) game get a PEGI 18 rating and vice versa? They might claim to be suitable for people of the same ages, but the critera for each standard is very different. It just makes more sense for Nintendo to region lock, whether some of their customers don't like it or not.
Director of Four Horses. Developer of Digger Dan games.
On sale on the Nintendo 3DS eShop from 19th May 2016.
www.fourhorses.co.uk
@Guybrush - Yeah, that'd be a good all round solution, allow systems that don't have any parental control play other region games, but what then if you have a Euro system with the rating level set to PEGI 16 (suitable for 16 year olds and above by PEGI standards) and you stick in a US game with an ESRB rating of E 10+ (suitable for 10 year olds and above by the ESRB standards)?
Common sense would say that it's probably suitable for the PEGI 16 standard, but who decides? And what with rating systems that are a bit closer together? Would an ESRB AO (18+) game get a PEGI 18 rating and vice versa? They might claim to be suitable for people of the same ages, but the critera for each standard is very different. It just makes more sense for Nintendo to region lock, whether some of their customers don't like it or not.
Of course you can't use foreign ratings for the parental controls. Only accounts with full authorization (who can play every game in their region) should be allowed to play imported games. This way it would definitely be legally safe for the console maker.
Is region locking a software or hardare issue? I assumed it was a software issue that could be patched if nintendo wanted. Simlar to the wii not playing dvds.
It astounds me how people feel the need to compare nintendo to Sony so often.
If you do a google search Nintendo has actually commented on the reasons for the region locking. Just because Sony does things one way doesn't mean that Nintendo has to follow suite. I actually feel that the region locking shows a greater commitment to their customers because they actually care about what games are available in countries and the issues of what is appropriate and inappropriate. Nintendo isn't hoarding all the good games for Japan and making faces at the rest of the world because they get more than us. They have their reasons.
"I never swear, my lord, I say yes or no; and, as I am a gentleman, I keep my word." - D'artagnan in Twenty Years After
Region locking is not about parental controls. Europe and Australia have very different parental control schemes, but they are considered the same region. How many little kids have a credit card to go onto playasia.com and import games anyways? Not releasing a game in a country makes it plenty difficult enough to keep games society deems offensive out of young consumers hands.
The real answer is $$$. Market conditions, exchange rates, purchasing power, taxes, market size etc. are different from one economy to the next. For example, games cost more in Europe than they do in the US, due to more translations, smaller individual markets, purchasing power difference, and higher taxes. What's to stop English speaking Europeans from just purchasing cheaper US versions of the game? Not a whole lot. This means lower sales for NoE and retailers. That's why region locking exists, to keep more customer money going to Nintendo/retailers and not shipping.
Honestly, I wish there wasn't a region lock. I'd import Pikmin 2 in a heartbeat, and NoE would make tons of $$$ on Xenoblade. It will be nice when everything is all digital, because then the retailer protection element will be eliminated, but as Steam in Australia shows, even digital services are working hard to maintain higher prices in areas used to paying more for games. Eventually, consumer protection/competitiveness laws/regulations/business culture will catch up with the digital age, I hope. Hopefully, Nintendo will do what Sony did and let people set up accounts on different region's stores. Given Nintendo's online system, we're at least 1 generation away from that level of sophistication, unfortunately.
You can defend the abomination that is called region locking all you want, Moosa. But the fact remains that all of those excuses by Nintendo are just a load of lies. Region locking just encourages piracy and hurts Nintendo in the end. At least Sony is smart enough to realize the benefits of having region free consoles and handhelds.
@Knux Shhh, he probably secretly works with nintendo & is trying to brainwash us into thinking region locking is good, lol. but any way, at least the older ds game's aren't locked, witch means i can still play JUS & reborn flame rumble x on the 3ds.
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Clearly the reason for region locking is to restrict international sale of these games. Nothing more. The classification and censorship arguments are at the very least non-issues and at most are simply enabling the ridiculous forms of censorship that certain countries implement when it comes to gaming. If the Australian government decided that GTA V for the Nintendo Wii U (or whatever) was RC because it happens to be "more than MA" I don't think it's a good thing that Nintendo makes it slightly harder for someone like me to give the government the finger and try to import it. Besides, I can play games from the UK and they have a different classification system..... and would you look at that! it doesn't break things!
If this is about keeping governments, publishers and retailers happy and potentially artificially keeping them going where a freer market would have instead broken them and made it harder to price gouge and censor....... I don't think that's a good thing.
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