New Exploit Makes The 3DS Region Free Without The Need For A Flashcard Or Game Cart

Hmm, might hold onto my xl when I get my new 33ds for different region games.

This seems cool. But if Nintendo is adamant about continuing this practice of region locking than certainly they would try to stop this.

@readyletsgo - 33ds? Oh, so Nintendo stupid to coming up with name ideas in the future?

Well, with the release of Rune Factory 4 and SMT4 over here, the problem solved itself for me really (for now)

Nice. Will keep my old xl then!

not interested...

Woot! Another stability update.

Quite happy to see this. Maybe now I can finally play Puyopuyo Tetris. :c

@MetalK9 lol stupid phone doubled up on a 3.

I give it a day until Nintendo fixes it. I don't care much for importing, but it's good to know that–at least for a little while–people can play their imported games on their non-imported system.

Wait, the New 3DS isn't region free? Boo!

This is pretty awesome-- if its real.

I hope nintendo doesn't fix it. There are quite a few japanese games I'll be buying if this exploit never gets fixed.

Basically what I'm sayin' is someone will be making money if they don't fix this exploit. Some company that made the game will be selling another copy. I fail to see anything wrong with this.

This is amazing! Too bad I don't own any import games.

I usually don't care too much about region locking. There's usually only a few games that I want that don't come over. But with Nintendo of America not release the regular N3DS in America, I'm kinda ticked about it.

Time to import some Japan excusive games.
Also this exploit clearly demonstrates how easy it would be for Nintendo to just release an update and make the 3ds region free.

Okay, this is pretty awesome! I just hope this won't turn into a bigger kind of exploit.

@nintendomasterr I think Iwata mentioned in an interview that it's only a few lines of code that make up the region-lock, so yes, it would be child's play for them to get rid of it. Sadly, they don't.

@Damo Small mistake: the 3DS isn't the first region-locked Nintendo handheld - it's the DSi.

And there will probably be a stability update before imported games reach their destination

Awesome, though I expect Nintendo will add more stability soon.

Waaait a second.
He plugged in the Japanese version of the game, yet the English version booted up. Something's fishy here.

@MetalK9 @readyletsgo Sure it was a typo but knowing Nintendo it'll probably happen anyway

As per usual; the homebrew guys [well I think it's homebrew] show up Nintendo.

If it's that easy then why the F hasn't Nintendo got this sorted yet?!

@Damo
Except for DSi enhanced games such as the Japan-only Fire Emblem New Mystery of the Emblem Heroes of Light and Shadow.

Time to find the money for the DQ games. May update my old 3DS to 9.4, too.

@AVahne If you look at the bottom screen you will see some Japanese. You will be surprised by how many of their games use English. When I got my Japanese N64 years ago sure I couldn't understand any written words but I was surprised that the voices were in English.

@Samuel-Flutter I agree, I really dig Nintendo, but more often than not, they tend to be so inconsistent and irritating

@Spoony_Tech
Hmmm, alright then. I looked at the link in the article and saw that this exploit is from smealum, so I trust that this is real now.

@BLPs, it does make sense. If you read the video's description, you get a link to the loader's code, along with a technical explanation of how it works.
@Kirk, simply because they don't want to sort it out.

I think that the eshop at least should be region-free. Of course, I would like to see it removed altogether, but at the very least we should be able to download games from around the world.
That said, there is an argument to be had that a validation of the game cartridge such as a region check does help to lock out piracy, and widespread cheating, but to me it doesn't hold up, as importing is open to only a small number of people. They should just have a more intelligent anti-piracy system.

I agree that this exploit is a bit puzzling. For one thing, the video doesn't say which website to use.

Does anyone know where I can buy Inazuma Eleven GO Dark/Shine (EU) for cheap online? I need that game now that this is a thing....

OH!
GLORY!

Why not just do an update and make everything region free Nintendo? I have imported games. I bought Disney Epic Mickey 2 for the Vita. It was download only here in North America but Europe had the game.

@ZenTurtle Don't think piracy is the issue. I'm pretty sure it's the impact it will have on localized sales. With region locking, they can accurately judge anticipated sales for other regions. Without the system in place, they have no way of knowing how many fans in other regions have already imported a game. Which means they then localize it and it doesn't hit it's sales mark due to a lesser demand. That's the problem.

Ultimately, region free consoles can lead to less localizations. Which means it's give and take, really. With region free, you get access to more total games but in a foreign language, as opposed to region lock and getting less total games but more games in your own language.

Good. Region locking is just stupid and Nintendo should not have implemented it with the 3DS.

It works great on my American XL! I'm playing Dragon Quest VII...And I just bought that for my collection of DQ stuff!

Wish I knew what site he open's up because he didn't link it

Works perfectly, got my attack on titan game to work on my NES 3ds, still doesn't beat playing it on my new Groudon Edition 3ds tho.

@JaxonH That's a really sound argument that I agree with myself. However, I do find myself wondering, even though region locking has its benefits, there are some negative impacts. For example, should someone from the UK (who has a 3DS with many games from the region) move to the US, they wouldn't be able to buy any games for their system (even though both PAL and NTSC have English). So in that case, if you're moving around regions of the world, region locking can be an inconvenience.

Completely out of curiosity, i tried this little exploit to see if i could play a Japanese DS game i have and wondered if it would translate to english, i got the black screen, but the game didn't load.
Very nice to know I'll have to look into importing some US and Japanese games. Yay for exploits like this, Boo to thieves and pirates!

I smell an update on the horizon.

"We are losing stability!"

But this is nice I will try this out.

@AmazonianBeauty DS games are region free. 3DS games are not

@Chubblings Right. There's definitely cons as well.

I don't know why Nintendo is so against region free. I hope they'll just leave this alone.

Only game I want to import is Senran Kagura 2 but then again I'm sure they'll bring it to the west soon.

@stephbm6
i know they're region free, i was more interested in the language translation, and if it was possible to do it to DS games.

If I completely relegate my online gaming to the New 3DS, that'd mean I could play things like Devil Survivor 2 Broken Record on my XL without worrying about the game never making it to Europe or doing so in 2027. Interesting.

I just really want to know how doing that to bypass region locking was figured out. It's not like it's an obvious thing to do now is it.

I hope Nintendo doesn't catch this exploit before the new 3DS XL's release in the US.

Right, https://github.com/smealum/regionthree/
Read the readme.

Can you hear that rumbling? It's the sound of an incoming "stability patch" :3

Lame, I wish the New 3DS wasn't region locked or else I'd just order a small-sized one from Japan

I was all excited til I read "The catch is that it doesn't work on the shiny New Nintendo 3DS."
I guess I won't be importing that white new 3ds after all.

Region lock is a bad relic of the past (when TV sets were different) and needs to go away. This is the digital age. Games should be available on the same date, just like steam does. Both Nintendo and Sony have delayed games for stupid reasons like "QA" and "Rating" although the problem is not as huge as the previous years.

@JaxonH "Ultimately, region free consoles can lead to less localizations." I used to agree with you but now we have tons of localizations for region free platforms like the Vita with EU dates almost same as the US ones to avoid import. In fact the only notorious EU game delays from recent memory are SMT4, the latest Blazblue and the first Persona fighting game.

@MetalK9 Really, you're chewing him out for a simple spelling error? m8

While it looks real, I'm a little confused that it is in English since I would expect the game to only have the data for the Japanese version. I wonder if characters that had a different voice in Japanese would speak Japanese instead?

Region locking is certainly one thing Nintendo should just drop. Still don't see any profit for Nintendo this way, aside from the few who would import an entire system from another region this way.

@BLPs It bypasses the Home Menu Region Checks and runs straight into cart mode. It does work, as I've checked personally.

Best part of this is Smealum's comment on Neo-Gaf. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=147851798&postcount=239 (Probably be banned for it).

I see some stability on the horizon...

For those wondering why the link was not included it is because the website is the gateway 3ds site and he does not support piracy they have going on there. I tried this last night with the Japanese copy of Pokemon black and it unfortunately it caused an error (not serious just an error has occured amd goes back to home screen) and didn't boot up. I asked him through twitter about it and it won't boot D's games. This is really cool though. It will be fun to finally play games exclusive to Japan for once. I really don't get why Nintendo has not done an update to remove the region lock because this is obviously now an easy switch. (Also the Pokemon transfer app recognizes that I'm using a Japanese copy of the game and let's me transfer over Pokemon so the system already knows that there is a game in just doesn't play it.)

@Yosher I think they do lose when proper High Street specialist games shops are selling USA games. (e.g Mario 64 they are doing that for at one close to me right now). Just making it a choice (And locking the 1st party) I don't see why they don't go for that.

(The Louvre guide shows it is possible for them to do).

@belmont
That's actually an excellent solution I never even thought of. Nicely done.

EDIT: Although, upon further analysis (I've been pondering this since you replied) I suppose not every game will be able to get a worldwide release. Some games are initially determined too high risk for certain regions (predicting too low sales numbers) but are later reevaluated and cleared for localization, often times after a shift in the market with success of a given genre. Or other times 3rd parties will step in and later take the risk of localizing as well. As far as Nintendo's actual games are concerned, I can't really think of any notable releases we're missing, aside from Fatal Frame Wii U. And that's a text heavy game that would be rendered near useless without speaking Japanese.

So I suppose your solution would certainly prevent some missed localizations, but I think a good many others would still be at risk.

And Vita gets many localizations, true, but I'm thinking that's because it's open season right now for publishers to take advantage of the non-existent competition in the west. Go to any retailer website and check the Vita games pre order section. There's maybe 4 to 6 obscure Japanese titles and that's it. That's the only games competing for Vita owners' dollars at the moment, which is a huge opportunity for localized games to sell more than they normally would. The actual good games, like God Eater 2 Rage Burst, has not been localized for the Vita. And I can't help but wonder if I would be playing that game had the Vita had a region lock in place...

As always, people do what Nintendont. During the last Direct I was expecting to see an announcement saying they were exterminating region lock for the 3DS with the New 3DS coming out, but it didn't happen. Still waiting for the announcement though. People are living overseas, travelling, and bringing their 3DS, Nintendo, you know that? Just give us the damn region free thing for physical copies!

So backwards not making wii u or 3DS not region free the games that don't come to the eu people could import them same for american gamers they could import eu only games. In this day and age it holding nintendo back.
I hate the way blu ray players and even dvd players are region locked as well in the UK unless you lash out for a modded one.

@JaxonH Let me put it to somewhat more detail. When I said "worldwide" release I meant North America, Europe, Australia, other PAL regions and maybe South America. Japan was out. Just like how Steam somehow got it right. IOS and Android do this too. I am not sure since I never had an X-box but MS does the same I think. Same release date on all major western territories via Nintendo eshop and PSN. A unified rating system is not needed as proved by Steam. The only problem, as I see it, is translating the game in major EU languages but most people know English nowadays. A publisher that wants to translate a jrpg may do it, submit it to Nintendo or Sony only once and let the do the rest. Sony does this already for indie developers. I think a unified digital store for Ninty and Sony. Others have done it. It may be costly or unpractical but they surely can do it. Hope I made sense.

As for the Vita it may wasn't the best example but since it is the top chose these times for localizations I mentioned it.

@SmashMario Nothing about this is risky but don't use it if you don't want/need to. It's only useful for a few things. In my case, I will be using it to skip any forced firmware update on my MM 3DS cartridge next month.

Cool, but I have no use for it.

@SmashMario How?
It said, this won't break your 3ds or anything

I actually see nintendo maybe not fixing this, since they know we want the region lock to be gone, and this works! unless this leads up to more piracy then nintendo could patch it :/

goes to on amazon and buys dragon quest vii for 3ds and now i wait! :3

Too risky. 3DS aren't cheap, and I don't want to brick my 3DS just because Japan got a few games the US didn't. I would rather import a Japanese 3DS and play them that way.

@Chubblings
If you change region you can still play your existing games and buy games but you cannot redownload games from your previous region and lose any credit that you had in that region.

I had to switch my 3DS to US as I had a US points card and that was how it worked for me.

I have no use for this as I don't enjoy playing games I don't understand a word of, but this is great for people who import.

@Luna-Harmony But with Blu-Ray it is the choice of the company making the content whether to lock it or not. A decent amount is Region AB (Which all apart from Russia / China).

@JaxonH Other alternative is just add English to the Japanese release which for the Vita people are doing. Apparently the Japanese version of the updated Bravely Default release can do that as well.

I never understood Nintendo's stance on region locking. I really hope they can exploit the New 3DS as well. Region locking is absurd and unnecessary in this day and age.

Too late, they released Rune Factory 4 for PAL

@AshFoxX

As long as poeple pay for the games, why does Nintendo care? I don't really import games, but I have Japanese friends I'd love to play MH and Smash Bros with, but I can't...even though I'd be a paying customer (I hate Piracy). Nintendo makes a lot of mistakes with their systems, but this is the most randomly punishing to loyal customers. Just get rid of it already, Nintendo T_T.

I think we've been quite lucky in europe even with the region lock we've had most of the games come out over here haven't we, the only ones that come to mind that i can think of that we havent had are ex troopers and unchained blades, is there a website anywhere that lists all the games we havent had?

@R_Champ I couldn't agree with you more. As long as someone legally purchases their games it shouldn't matter which region they are from.

As cool as this exploit is, there is still no import game that interest me enough to try it. I know Dragon Quest VII and DQ Monsters 2 remake will probably never make out here due to Square Enix's too happy Final Fantasy focus at the moment and lousy business practice, I'm happy the way the 3DS library as it is. Now if only Nintendo stopped living in the cave man era and just make the Wii U region free, videogames as we know it will be a lot more accessible to everyone.

I hope nobody here is sucking Nintendo enough to support anything they do, including asinine things like region locking. This is fantastic news.

I also hope nobody is stupid enough to go "omg potential piracy" but that would be pretty hilarious actually.

does it work whit ds games to

f'n stupid that nintendo region locks....I wanna play Taiko no Tatsujin on the Wii U, but nooooooooooooooo, stupid US only games....so I have to stick to my soft modded original wii and the 5 japanese releases on that system

@pokedex DS games are already region free, but the answer is no, this won't boot a DS game.

@dronesplitter not all ds games are region free, pokemon black is not
and thanks for the answer

This posted twelve hours ago. Surprised my XL hasn't already prompted me to update for "stability."

Good. Now do the same for the Wii U so i can play Project Zero 5 already (still fuming over that one)

I personally don't have much of a use for a region free system. Most of the games I want to play always get ported over to North America. With the exception of Youkai Watch, but I know that game will arrive eventually.

Verry tempting. I won't have a XL Japanese system until Febuary and I am sick of playing on a tiny screen....I could use this on my NA 3ds XL...decisions...

@gblock You have more restraint than I do. I'm buying a JPN WiiU just for Taiko no Tatsujin. I can't resist!

@BLPs I import games I can't get in my region at all. Like the latest Rocket Slime game or DQ7 or Taiko no Tatsujin. I think for people that import from regions with different languages that is usually the case. I usually don't import something I can get in my own region...except Ace Attorney. But that is because I want a physical game.

This is at least a nice exploit to keep me from hauling around two systems.

@BLPs Nintendo releasing the new kirby game in June for EU is nothing to do with PEGI. Nintendo Europe just doing what Nintendo has Always done and that's delaying releases way behind Japan and America.

Also why is it that xbox and Sony platforms don't tend to have huge delays between US and EU release dates.

Nintendo platforms have the worst delays. You can't tell me this is all down to PEGI.

Also stop with the OTT reaction of people importing games. The amount of people who import games is a small %. It will hardly effect Nintendo's bottom line.

Sony and MS don't have this huge amount of people importing games.

@rayword45 He has enabled it like it or not though. Without his stage2 there would be nothing.

http://yifan.lu/2015/01/17/reversing-gateway-ultra-stage-3-owning-arm9-kernel/

Plus I think that is almost game over.

This is very good. One more wake up call for Iwata, Reggie and Nintendo in general. They need to step up to the modern times and kill off the stupid and stone age region lock.

Of course that requires for them to build a modern account systen also, which is only good.

I wish Nintendo would get rid of region locking themselves

@Ichiban < What he said!

@pokedex Ah, okay, didn't know that some DS games were region locked. Is it because it's DSi?

I don't understand region locking. It seems counter productive, if people want to buy games from other countries that means more $$ for Nintendo.

For me that's perfect news!!! Many times games for Europe regions get localized a lot time after the ones for the USA. Also, games like rune factory 4 and SMTIV got only a digital release and I hate digital!!! Now I can get story of seasons and etrian mystery dungeon from the USA and not wait for a year + for the European localization. Also, USA has much better prices than Europe in 3ds games

What games hit usa that haven't come to europe, I know Rune Factory 4, SMT4 and code of princess got retail releases over there rather than just eshop, are there any others though?

I have found it doesn't work with all games. I just tried running paper mario sticker star AU copy on US 3DS but I wouldn't work however my copy of cubic ninja did.

I don't think that there is any other in the current time, but etrian mystery dungeon, smt:devil survivor 2, story of seasons and forbidden magna have not been confirmed for europe while they have been for usa. And I don't want to wait like with rf4 or smtiv

@bravely I dont really mind waiting as long as the games get here eventually, I imagine devil survivor 2 will make it over here seeing as the other editions did, the rest i'm not too bothered about

@Ryu_Niiyama
ive thought about it, but I can't get it and only have taiko to play....just like I won't dump $400 into a PS4 to play No Man's Sky

@Morph Except from the waiting factor, usa and jpn games are much cheaper than the eu and uk ones. I only wish I knew about this exploit earlier, I've just returned from the usa and I only bought ds games .

@bravely yeah I always used to bring some USA games back with me in the past for the DS, but I just haven't felt the need to with the 3DS even forgetting about the region lock for the minute. The only game I really wanted the limited edition Code of Princess but that was about it. I might now pick up the boxed special edition of SMT IV now however.

@shinokami Same as me the limited edition of Senran Kagura 2 is so cheap now a days I'm thinking about double dipping even if they do release it over here at least I'd have the limited edition with the figures.

This actually requires a software based exploit. That's what the GO exploit is.

I got it working! lol this is awesome now I can finally play final fantasy explorers and monster hunter 4

I thought DSi was region-blocked?

Has anyone tried playing Digimon World ReDigitize Decode on a US or EU 3DS system to see if it worked properly on either of those systems? If it worked on either of those units, then was there was English text available once the game started up? Since apparently some games had English text programmed even though the games are region locked, most likely for development time. I know that Decode wasn't planned for an English release, but you never know.

"Region locking was a common practice in previous hardware generations, but both Sony and Microsoft have abandoned it with their latest systems."

Was it? I believe multiple broadcast encoding/formatting standards was what prevented games made for one standard being played on consoles built for another standards. Now that modern consoles renders 60 Hz, and all modern TVs displays 24 Hz + 50 Hz + 60 Hz, different regional video standards are no longer integral to console development. From the 80s until mid-2000s, these standards indirectly prevented export of games to regions with other video standards. However, modern 'region locking' is an artificial and deliberate constriction of import and export of video games and consoles.

It explicitly says do not push the home button. What happens if I do?

I do not own any 3ds imports, and I'm not gonna tart because they will get patched.

@BornInNorway81
It was, a lot of consoles from the PS2/GC/Xbox era and back were region-locked. For the cart-based consoles they used physical region locking, the console would be designed so only it's region's games would fit in the slot, but they were otherwise playable if you modified the hardware.

The Gameboy line wasn't though, and neither was the PSP. Not sure about the consoles.

@belmont There's also Devil Survivor for 3DS (its sequel may or may not be spared the same fate), another ATLUS-doesn't-care-for-Europe victim, and the only-recently-released Rune Factory 4.

@BLPs That was a problem in the DS era, yes, when people would import US releases and EU releases would get canned BECAUSE EU RELEASES WERE PLANNED WITH A HUGE DELAY.
In the any era, there's still a ton of Japanese games that don't ever get localized for reasons other than "no consumer interest" (such as Super Robot Taisen and its ilk, since there are huge licensing issues).

@unrandomsam
That is a reference to me. I once said something like "people who purchased Cubic Ninja for region free have been sold Snake oil" (it is still true btw but it doesn't really matter since this method exists)

So I've gone ahead & ordered Senran Kagura 2 from Japan in the hope this works. If not I have 5 cool new figures 2 CD soundtracks & a game I can't play. Hopefully it does not get patched be a bit cheeky if Nintendo patch it when the older 3DS handhelds are being discontinued with the new one coming out.
Also could you avoid the patch if they do by just turning off the updates?

It's a shame that 3DS is region-blocked. Same for Wii U.

what's the name of the link is there any video where i can see it or can somebody tell me thanks