Hacking Is it illegal for Nintendo to be region locked in US

[Doran754]

They're charging you twice for the same game already, they've been arguably worse than Sony and Microsoft for years. People argue about on-disc DRM, but the fact that you can't catch all the Pokemon in any Pokemon game is somehow eh-o-kay. The same applies to Smash Bros. 3DS and Wii U - you won't get all the characters unless you buy both of their systems and both games. Totally cool, not at all a rip-off. ;O;

Ah, Nintendo fanboys/girls... I can never get enough of'em. Newsflash - Nintendo doesn't love you, they love your money.

What game are they charging me twice for?

The amount of content on Smash 3DS really doesn't make me feel like I've been screwed over by them somehow, It's worth every penny, In regards to pokemon, maybe it was a problem 15 years ago if you had no friends but nowadays, it really isn't, and it seems pety on your part to use that as an example of Nintendo "loving our money". Cutting 5 or 10 pokemon from one game doesn't force me to buy the other one, luckily enough for me there's millions of other people with the other game I can use instead, and to be fair there's like 749 pokemon or something nowadays, I'd be very impressed with them if they managed all that on one gamecart.

What characters won't I get if I don't buy both Smash versions? MewTwo? Is that it? I can live without MewTwo to be honest and people that do buy a different version of the game on a different console deserve it, because I won't. I might if I had a Wii U and im pretty sure the fun and enjoyment would be worth every penny. For the record not a 'nintendo fanboy/girl' I own 2 3DS XL's (one gateway) a 360 and a PS4 ..

I'd love to say you had some good points but I honestly don't think you do. I'm not here to discuss the morals of one particular company, especially one that's provided me with decades of entertainment.

 

[Sheimi]

Japan/Europe game prices are expensive. Usually, the US copy is cheaper. If there was region free, you'd have more people buying the US copy. Lose of profits. So, there is one reason why there is region locking for the 3ds/WiiU.

 

[Doran754]

Japan/Europe game prices are expensive. Usually, the US copy is cheaper. If there was region free, you'd have more people buying the US copy. Lose of profits. So, there is one reason why there is region locking for the 3ds/WiiU.

Could also be because the DS was region-free and they probably felt they got burnt badly with the millions of flash-carts around playing any region rom etc, It's obviously a business decision. There's barely any game that comes out in the US that doesn't come out in EU/AUS anyway, region-locking would apply to Japan only games, which are rare, and rarer to find Native English speakers playing Japanese games. It's really a non issue to me.

 

[Foxi4]

What game are they charging me twice for?

Pokemon. Arguably you can't finish the game without access to both versions of it. You only get half of the Pokemon - the rest is "there" but you can't catch them, you have to trade with other people or grab the other version yourself. This is less of a problem today since we have GTS and we can trade online, but in the Game Boy days this was a problem. I myself bought two versions of Pokemon just because I was a completionist and to me a game isn't finished unless it's finished 100%.

The amount of content on Smash 3DS really doesn't make me feel like I've been screwed over by them somehow, It's worth every penny, In regards to pokemon, maybe it was a problem 15 years ago if you had no friends but nowadays, it really isn't, and it seems pety on your part to use that as an example of Nintendo "loving our money". Cutting 5 or 10 pokemon from one game doesn't force me to buy the other one, luckily enough for me there's millions of other people with the other game I can use instead, and to be fair there's like 749 pokemon or something nowadays, I'd be very impressed with them if they managed all that on one gamecart.

So your arguments are "it's okay because the game is fun" and "my criticism is valid and yours is petty". Okay.

What characters won't I get if I don't buy both Smash versions? MewTwo? Is that it? I can live without MewTwo to be honest and people that do buy a different version of the game on a different console deserve it, because I won't. I might if I had a Wii U and im pretty sure the fun and enjoyment would be worth every penny. For the record not a 'nintendo fanboy/girl' I own 2 3DS XL's (one gateway) a 360 and a PS4 ..

Good for you. My point is that you're adamantly shielding one company from criticism while it does exactly the same things as the other two.

I'd love to say you had some good points but I honestly don't think you do. I'm not here to discuss the morals of one particular company, especially one that's provided me with decades of entertainment.

What you're saying is essentially "it's okay when Nintendo does it because I'm nostalgic".

EDIT: Just so you know, I don't really care about the Mewtwo ordeal, nor do I care about on-disc DLC, I just choose to enjoy all the games.

 

[JoostinOnline]

That's like asking if it was illegal for the DS Lite DSi to drop GBA support.

 

[VinsCool]

That's like asking if it was illegal for the DS Lite to drop GBA support.

DS Lite still had GBA support

 

[gamefan5]

DS Lite still had GBA support

And he never said otherwise....

 

[Foxi4]

DS Lite still had GBA support

He meant the DS Lite's successor, the DSi... I think?

 

[VinsCool]

And he never said otherwise....

oh sorry, he sounded like ds lite really had dropped gba support

 

[Foxi4]

We should probably head back to the subject proper instead of discussing who's worse, "$ony", "Micro$oft" or "Nint€ndo", since it doesn't really matter. Those are all huge corporation that want to make profit first and foremost, everything else is a matter of your personal point of view.

That being said, this thread's probably exhausted its discussion potential on the first page already.

 

[TecXero]

Spoiler

What game are they charging me twice for?

The amount of content on Smash 3DS really doesn't make me feel like I've been screwed over by them somehow, It's worth every penny, In regards to pokemon, maybe it was a problem 15 years ago if you had no friends but nowadays, it really isn't, and it seems pety on your part to use that as an example of Nintendo "loving our money". Cutting 5 or 10 pokemon from one game doesn't force me to buy the other one, luckily enough for me there's millions of other people with the other game I can use instead, and to be fair there's like 749 pokemon or something nowadays, I'd be very impressed with them if they managed all that on one gamecart.

What characters won't I get if I don't buy both Smash versions? MewTwo? Is that it? I can live without MewTwo to be honest and people that do buy a different version of the game on a different console deserve it, because I won't. I might if I had a Wii U and im pretty sure the fun and enjoyment would be worth every penny. For the record not a 'nintendo fanboy/girl' I own 2 3DS XL's (one gateway) a 360 and a PS4 ..

I'd love to say you had some good points but I honestly don't think you do. I'm not here to discuss the morals of one particular company, especially one that's provided me with decades of entertainment.

I tend to enjoy a lot of Nintendo games as well, but you have to admit they don't always make consumer friendly decisions. I'm not saying the games are bad or the company is evil, just they could do better, just like any other company.

Japan/Europe game prices are expensive. Usually, the US copy is cheaper. If there was region free, you'd have more people buying the US copy. Lose of profits. So, there is one reason why there is region locking for the 3ds/WiiU.

That's generally not a major concern. Some companies do worry about that and do somethings about it, but I can't imagine it's significant enough for Nintendo to care. Remember, the large majority of people still go to local stores to buy their games, so it would just be a minority that would attempt doing something like that.

Could also be because the DS was region-free and they probably felt they got burnt badly with the millions of flash-carts around playing any region rom etc, It's obviously a business decision. There's barely any game that comes out in the US that doesn't come out in EU/AUS anyway, region-locking would apply to Japan only games, which are rare, and rarer to find Native English speakers playing Japanese games. It's really a non issue to me.

Homebrew and cheating devices allow for easy circumvention of region locking. I can't imagine Nintendo thought that region locking would help combat piracy.

 

[Foxi4]

Some companies do worry about that and do somethings about it, but I can't imagine it's significant enough for Nintendo to care.

Their official reasoning is that "[t]here are many different regions around the world, and each region has its own cultural acceptance and legal restrictions, as well as different age ratings. (...) which may go counter to the idea that players around the world want the freedom to play whatever they want." to quote Mr.Iwata himself. In other words, he says that the games are region locked for consumer protection because you might "get offended". Certainly didn't stop them with the Game Boy, Virtual Boy, Game Boy Colour, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance SP, DS and DS Lite, but what do I know?

As far as I can tell, the real reason is to evenly spread profits across the three branches (NoA, NoE and NoJ) of the company rather than restructure and centralize, which makes far more sense. NoE doesn't want NoA to "steal" their sales etc. etc. - it's just outdated business thinking.

 

[TecXero]

Their official reasoning is that "[t]here are many different regions around the world, and each region has its own cultural acceptance and legal restrictions, as well as different age ratings. (...) which may go counter to the idea that players around the world want the freedom to play whatever they want." to quote Mr.Iwata himself. In other words, he says that the games are region locked for consumer protection because you might "get offended". Certainly didn't stop them with the Game Boy, Virtual Boy, Game Boy Colour, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance SP, DS and DS Lite, but what do I know?

Yeah, that "reason" seems to be quite a leap in logic to me, so I don't buy it. The only logical conclusion I can come to is exploiting those that import, but that doesn't seem that profitable. The consoles/handhelds are sold at a loss at first (later they get the manufacturing cost low enough to profit) and they have to develop the region locking, so I can't imagine it's very profitable.

EDIT:

As far as I can tell, the real reason is to evenly spread profits across the three branches (NoA, NoE and NoJ) of the company rather than restructure and centralize, which makes far more sense. NoE doesn't want NoA to "steal" their sales etc. etc. - it's just outdated business thinking.

I hadn't thought of that. That makes far more sense than anything I thought of.

 

[Foxi4]

Yeah, that "reason" seems to be quite a leap in logic to me, so I don't buy it. The only logical conclusion I can come to is exploiting those that import, but that doesn't seem that profitable. The consoles/handhelds are sold at a loss at first (later they get the manufacturing cost low enough to profit) and they have to develop the region locking, so I can't imagine it's very profitable.

See edit above. It's not so much a matter of exploiting anyone, it's a matter of one branch of the company looking worse than another on the yearly report.

 

[TecXero]

See edit above. It's not so much a matter of exploiting anyone, it's a matter of one branch of the company looking worse than another on the yearly report.

I edited my post as soon as I saw you edit. xP

 

[Foxi4]

I edited my post as soon as I saw you edit. xP

One of my many Internet offenses - I keep posting stuff and immediately editing it. ;O;

 

[TecXero]

One of my many Internet offenses - I keep posting stuff and immediately editing it. ;O;

I wouldn't worry about it. There's been plenty of times I've edited posts due to grammatical errors or horrible mistakes. xD

 

[trumpet-205]

As far as I can tell, the real reason is to evenly spread profits across the three branches (NoA, NoE and NoJ) of the company rather than restructure and centralize, which makes far more sense. NoE doesn't want NoA to "steal" their sales etc. etc. - it's just outdated business thinking.

It's funny considering that when Iwata took over Nintendo he pretty much reduced NoA and NoE to the role of PR and distribution. Now, most of Nintendo's operation is conslidated to NoJ.

 

[JoostinOnline]

He meant the DS Lite's successor, the DSi... I think?

I did, but let's go with the theory where I didn't say something stupid.

 

[eriol33]

no it is not, nintendo systems are their properties and they can do whatever they want, although honestly from market perspective, it's just stupid.

nintendo however will survive with this, because they own mario.