You'll Want To Avoid Importing Physical Switch Games From China

Well, on the one hand, region locking sucks. But on the other hand, I can’t imagine any China-exclusive games that I would care about, so I guess in the end I feel pretty neutral about this.

Does it apply to Chinese players looking to import non-Chinese cartridges? I’m in the US, but curious.

I usually avoid just about everything from China out of principle (or I try to anyway, we get everything from China), but this is another solid reason to.

Almost certainly because of China's weird laws regarding game consoles and media.

I’m gonna be really annoyed when they get an exclusive Mario galaxy collection like they got on their shield or whatever it was.

Good at least for chinese people that they can import games from other countries.

shoudnt that go for importing mostly anything from china?

@Kalmaro you must avoid hell of a lot of stuff then!!

@readalie It doesn't. The end of the article: "Interestingly, Ahmed mentions that Chinese users can still import global Switch games and use it with their Tencent Nintendo Switch. Online services won't be accessible on foreign games, though."

@Kalmaro That sounds difficult, especially if you play video games. But I heard Nintendo was looking into moving some production to Vietnam instead, have you heard anything about that?

@Strumpan Unfortunately it's almost impossible in most cases seeing as how we get so much junk from China, thanks to labor costs being so cheap. I haven't heard about them moving product, that does sound interesting.

@Rodan2000 I do, unless it's unavoidable!

**** off Nintendo, just **** off with this ****!

@Kalmaro Does that mean you just avoid products from Chinese companies or do you try to avoid products made in China too? Unfortunately it seems many Western companies that present themselves as being moral just love those cheap labour costs. I mean, even Tesco were producing Christmas cards in a Chinese labour camp.

@nessisonett I try to do both when I can and it's hard because of the reasons you listed. We just buy so much junk from China these days that it's hard not to give them money one way or another.

That doesn't mean I have to give them even more money though.

I wonder why they did that? I can see an argument for allowing import games to work because the selection of officially released games is so limited in China but on the flip side I could see it costing them sales of local releases if games are releasing later there and there’s a better selection of games overseas.

It almost seems like they got it backwards, they’d want to limit the Tencent Switch to only play Chinese games to stop importers getting games out there early.

Unless it’s a price thing and the Chinese games are a lot cheaper than their international versions and they want to ensure unscrupulous sellers don’t start selling those overseas instead of official releases?

@LunarFlame17 wouldn't you want to play Uighur Organ Harvest Extreme & Knuckles?

Well I can see China Region lock to procure their gaming audiences. And since as other said if they games are cheap there chances Scalpers will buy China games and sell overprice to buyers overseas. So I can see the block happening. I do recall a game that was coming from China to Switch but not sure of it's title but heard there was one being made for Switch with China Folklore. I thought something like this was in the works not just for a China Switch but for the rest of us.

@Kalmaro missing out then dude. Some of these rep trainers I am buying from China are fire!!

Region locking should be illegal. It violates first sale and is a terrible practice.

Darn - I really wanted to play Welda - Bread of the Wire.

Any games from China worth importing ?

Wonder if their controllers will suffer from drift?

You know, considering how huge the piracy level is over there, is probably better it stays this way.

If that is the trade off for getting the switch legally in china, I doubt the Chinese are bothered by it. Doesn't really impact the rest of the world though.

I guess this is an IMPORTant article.

Dang! I really wanted to play Sweatshop Manager '20!

@Averagewriter Going any further? Do you realize this region locking is only happening because of tencent? It's obvious it was part of their agreement and if nintendo wants any chance at the chinese market they have to play by their rules, the rest of the world has nothing to worry about it. In case you didn't realize switch first party games are all a single version internationally, it's the reason why you can buy super mario odyssey from the japanese eshop and play it on english

@Mrrabbitpuncher I hate that I laughed at that.

I don't think the Chinese would care about region locking let alone the games that are available for it. As long as it doesn't apply elsewhere it's really not that big a deal. Just hope that region locking doesn't return in the next gen or ever.

I'm more concerned about Chinese customers, but if the Chinese Switch itself is region-free, that's not so bad. I still wouldn't want to live in China though because I'd hardly be able to buy anything that's not tested on animals.

I got an early Christmas gift when Gujian 3 got an English update on Steam. Only game out of China I really wanted to play. So this not an issue.

Gujian 3 is a blast and if you have a PC (and RPG fan) worth checking out.

I bought the Hong Kong version of Link's Awakening while I was in East China. It looks really cool on the shelf next to all of the English-language games. I meant to order the HK version of Dragon Quest 11 but accidentally bought the PAL version. Doesn't look quite as cool, but whatever. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Switch performs now that it is "official" throughout the mainland.

@Averagewriter I’m sure the pirates games will work just fine worldwide.

I don't understand the point of region locking at all.

Hmm... This won't be problematic unless China-exclusive games become a norm. I remember Nintendo's iQue division beginning game development and Tencent expressing interest in developing with Nintendo, but that doesn't mean they won't get localized.

That Rabbids game being described as a "party title" takes on a whole new meaning...

It's understandable.

This isn't the first time this has happened, as this is exactly how the DS worked. Chinese DS Systems could play games from any region while Chinese games were unplayable in systems from other regions.

@Tempestryke Region locking helps with stuff like censorship. Or, as in this case, would help locking out "external" hardware from Chinese buyers. (Since if you bought an imported Switch in China, you couldn't play local games)

Lol. In the age of digital releases, why would anyone order a PHYSICAL game from CHINA?!
That's just stupid or simply unrealistic. I doubt anyone would do that.

This article is completely pointless and unnecessary.

Tencent really botched this launch. A single physical release and region locking on it? I’m in China, but I’m happy I was able to import my Switch from Japan.

They clearly don’t know what they are doing here, from a business or convenience perspective.

To be fair I’ve never known anyone sad at the thought of not being able to play a Rabbits game

DLC is region locked on all Nintendo switch consoles though which sucks. My friend from Canada gifted me Splatoon 2 when she visited me and while the game works fine and purchasing DLC works fine, it does not play, instead you are told you must own a copy of the game to play the DLC.

region locking sucks no matter the region, but i should know the worst of it, I'm from the uk so I've had the worst from nintendo in the past when it came to releases over here.

I'm glad it's a thing of the past now but it's sad to see that other regions still have to put up with this regardless if it dosn't effect us at all.

I guess their only choice would be to buy a out of region console to avoid this.

"you'd probably have no reason to buy the Chinese version of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe when it launches physically next week"

Eh, the costs! Importing the Chinese version of Super Mario Bros u Deluxe (wich might be the exact same version) might be much cheaper then buying it here. Even considering the shipping costs. You can bet Chinese people pay far less for the same games. That's probably why they prevent us from using Chinese games!

@mist Just set your account to the appropriate region and you're golden.

Too late now, but if you'd made a second account with the appropriate region and redeemed the DLC on that it would still make the content playable for all other accounts on the console.

TLDR region free doesn't mean easy.

So their Switch can truly play ALL games (Chinese + rest of the world)