Topic: Australia considers banning the sale of region locked gaming consoles.

This would probably include the Wii, 3DS, Wii U, and Xbox 360.

http://aussie-gamer.com/news/australia-considers-banning-regi...

"More interesting, however, is the recommendation that region-locking (also called “geo-blocking”) be legally circumvented by Australian consumers should they — in the case of gaming consoles — find a cheaper video game elsewhere in the world."

Australia's region is the same as the UK. So most of us already do this.

On the other hand, banning region locked consoles? What the heck Australia?! If it leads to a special WiiU and 3DS which don't have region locking, I'm all for it but if it means that they're not going to be sold here anymore (which is more likely, since our videogaming population is quite small) then that would just lead to more importing.

If you ask me, it's because the Australian government still doesn't take video games seriously as a medium. In their eyes, gaming is just a niche hobby that part of the population enjoys and the other part doesn't. There's a lot of patronising going on where the people who don't play games are trying to make policies to benefit the people who do play games. And fail, most of the time.

So yeah, until we get our act together, have fun laughing at us!

They sure like banning stuff.

I think companies would readily remove the region locking if it was going to make the difference between being allowed to sell their consoles vs not.

By the time Nintendo finds a way to meet the Aussie government demands, I'm sure features like that would be widespread.

Is there anything anymore governments do not want to get involved in?

why do they want to ban region-locked gaming consoles and promote their users accessing outside-region shops to get better prices? isn't this the same country that has banned Saints Row IV for a console that has access to cross-region digital shops (e.g. users will still likely be able to buy the game from the US or EU stores if they can't be bothered with importing)? You'd think they'd be all about locking stuff down, lol.

True, why would they want people to use their money on other countries instead of their own. One would thinknthat they would rather ban non-region locked consoles instead.

Australia has such a small population that publishers could easily take a small hit by lowering hardware and software prices in the region, as they'd recoup those minimal losses in other territories.

Or am I seeing things through rose-tinted glasses and/or completely missing the point here?

This is what I'm thinking. Thank goodness I don't live in Australia (no offense to fellow Aussies on here).

It probably costs more than it's worth as it is now, to have the thing region locked in Australia. I think the fact that Australia uses the PAL format would be enough to have things more flexible.
A digital trade market is possible, because otherwise prices would vary and that could cause some weird data if digital media was being sold outside of a company.

Just think about how you trade Pokémon on the DS games. You offer a Pokemon in exchange for another one, and it won't trade until your demand is met.
Really, the only thing you end up freeing up is bandwidth on a worldwide network. I just don't see selling games digitally working at all.

Maybe Australia will go DLC only, then Nintendo can just sell eShop cards which saves shipping space and Australia doesn't have to charge its citizens as much.

EDIT: Physical goods is what I believe is making things cost so much. You still can't avoid shipping consoles or other hardware, so perhaps they would charge less for hardware, but you're stuck using the eShop with an anonymous trade option, and the price as is on the eShop will require users to trade within the same price range.
Still, though, that's some pretty big speculation, as Nintendo would probably have to be twice as rich to let people trade games with each other online.

Australia is doomed

Good thing I live in America. :3

what does anything you've said have to do with Australia potentially banning the sale of region-locked consoles? all i see is a bunch of babbling about digital sales, and a weird Pokemon analogy that made no sense whatsoever.

I read a few months ago that Adobe is so expensive in Australia that it's actually cheaper for an Aussie to fly to the US, buy Adobe there, then fly back to the US, than buy Adobe in Australia, so I think this could be a reaction to that, however absurd this seems. I sincerely doubt the Australian government is applying pressure on Nintendo to drop region-locking, but still, WTF?

Okay... seriously, some punctuation is needed; it sounds like you're saying fly to America and back (buying a copy at both stops).

This picture accurately sums up my love-hate relationship with australian politics.

@theblackdragon
The article states the Aussie government wants digital resale, but that's not a viable option when things can vary so greatly. That's why I'm saying trading IS an option, as long as there are rules for what you can trade.

Digital = cheaper, flexible, region-free

The only way I see this Aussie problem being fixed is if digital becomes the most viable option. The problem is shipping physical goods.

EDIT: Unless Nintendo decides to open an Aussie Nintendo factory, then they won't gave to ship goods out so far.

@SCAR392 Shipping isn't the only problem, y'know. You also need to factor in advertising, server hosting for online games, getting a rating from the Australian Classifications Board, plus a lot of other costs even if you're releasing digitally.

Plus, most games are on discs now. I highly doubt that all our discs and game cases are pre-made overseas and then get packaged and sent to Australia. That would be horribly inefficient.