Gaming Everyone wants the 3ds to be region free
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OK. I understand. Thanks.
Spoiler alert: not everybody lives in the US of A. And for those who do, allow me to point out that occasionally games release earlier in Europe. Gaming's not exclusive to Japan and the US.
BTW, I imported a 3DS from America with Shin Megami Tensei IV, Etrian Odyssey IV and SMT Soul Hackers (among other games).
Everyone also wants Nintendo to make account-based systems for the 3DS as well as tying games to your account rather than the system. People also want Nintendo to make new IP's. Unfortunately Nintendo is very conservative and doesn't dare to make big moves, and thus they are making themselves infinitly stuck in the past.
Region lock is in place these days mostly because of reverse importation (importing games from US and EU for Japanese gamers). Unlike US and EU, video game in Japan is significantly more expensive. Japanese gamers have tendency to import games from US and EU market because it is much cheaper than buying it domestically.
Nintendo wants the region-lock, maybe some devs want it too,
but clearly, when the OP said everyone, he wasn't talking about neither of them.
The OP obviously was talking about the end-user.
Many do not know, or care, but I don't see any end-user in favor of region-lock.
Sometimes I think Nintendo still believe they're making games in the 90s
Just think about it, if people were to import games from a different region, they wouldn't get the same game in their own region.
That means that their region won't get many sales, so there will be much less support for that region and anyone who doesn't import is majorly screwed over.
That means that their region won't get many sales, so there will be much less support for that region and anyone who doesn't import is majorly screwed over.
The places that import are majorly screwed over NOW.
Sony isn't doing region-locking, but I kind of expect this kind of thing from Nintendo by now.
Since I had to download the sequel to Hotel Dusk because it wasn't available in the US, I am really glad the DS was region free.
By the way, region locking has other reasons behind it other than money or accurate statistics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Region_lock
"Pricing. It is difficult to maintain a single pricing structure that can be applied worldwide due to currency conversion, taxes, international trade laws (e.g., European Union free movement of goods). Considerations such as local/national discretionary income, the prevalence and ease of obtaining pirated media, competing products/services and loss-leading promotion (to establish a foothold in a territory) can also affect pricing. Region-locking a console means that there is no need for pricing parity across the world; different territories can have different prices for games without people simply shopping "wherever is cheaper"."
"Sensitive regions. Some games could be regarded as offensive for religious or political reasons, and regional lockout may be required to prevent these games from being distributed in sensitive countries."
"Staggered launches. If a console is region-locked, then staggered launches of the games would be easier, as console producers could easily control the huge bow-wave of people wanting a game the moment it is released."
All of these reasons are bad, but since when do business-y practices benefit the customer? :l
Oh, so we don't deserve to have some games because they'd be cheaper than where they were originally released? People will complain about anything; it's better to complain about not getting a game than complain about the price. And about sensitivity; well the U.S. is the least sensitive country in the world. We have a right to have games that are offensive to other people just like they have the right to complain about those games. Movies are planned for release and then are released all over the world within 4 to 7 days of each other. Why can't they do the same for games? Oh right; they can't possibly make that many copies of a game. It'd be too expensive to print all that crap.
It's extremely cheap to print physical copies actually, the most expensive part is probably the ink for the manual, and games don't exactly ship with the kinds of fun manuals they used to.
But they do have the money, right? The game industry made more money in 2011 than it did in 2008; you'd think they'd be able to print the same types of manuals. And have games gotten less fun to play over the years as well? The type of manual depends on the type of the game; if it's a child's game, then the manual'll be light and airy; for something like Skyrim, it'll be dark and demure. The only things these items have in common is that they tell you how to play said game.
Incorrect. Cartridge itself is the highest cost in production. All cartridges use NAND chip (same type of chip used in flash drive, memory card, and SSD), and NAND is much more expensive than a Blu ray disc used in PS3.
Cartridge itself can cost a couple dollar itself. Cartridge is favored in handheld due to small size, low power consumption, and high reliability from no moving parts. Downside is that they are more costly.
Forgot about carts using different technology than discs. I know that it's cheap to manufacture discs though.
When everything goes digital, region locking will make no sense - at least no logical sense. Some countries will probably still ban things they view as offensive which I mostly view as double-standards anyway since countries will do things like prohibit nudity in games but sawing off limbs or making heads explode is somehow less graphic and offensive.
Not for everything though. If it was, I'm sure weird Japanese sexual games would make it to the states more often. Least sensitive about violence, I can see that though.
Games in the US are much cheaper than in Europe and Japan, sure, however Japan has games even cheaper than Europe, I've ordered some games from Japan and I didn't pay as much as I pay for a new one here in Europe, a normal 3DS game costs around 40€ to 50€.
For example, Dragon Quest 7 in play-asia costs 55$/41€ and that's already more expensive than the actual game.
In Amazon.jp the game costs 3,643¥ which is 36$/27€ and Pokemon X/Y pre-orders cost around the same price.
The expensive games that usually have those bonus content and cost like 6000¥, still manage to cost less than a 50€ game in Europe.
Speedrunners like to use the fastest version of the game; for example, the Japanese version might have exclusive glitches in addition to faster text.
That's why I'd want region-free. The Japanese version of OoT is the only one for me.
That's why I'd want region-free. The Japanese version of OoT is the only one for me.
Japanese games will usually have several editions. If a particular games sells well, it will have "Best" edition which is considered bargain edition.
Pokemon X/Y has similar price for all region mainly because it is launched at the same time. For games that launched in Japan few months early (majority of them), they'll be more expensive than US/EU counterpart.
I was talking with a Japanese friend about the pricing just now, he told me that in general the games go for 4000Yen and the normal 3DS goes for 15000Yen, that's less than the European price. A normal game in most European countries (excluding UK) goes for around 6500Yen while only a few games in Japan go for the prices above 7000Yen.
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