Gaming Why do 3DS games all have a code on the back?

[Janthran]

My copy of MK7 says "AMKEY10221" on the back, with no other references.
SSFIV has "ASSE210201".. I'll post more here if there's a point, but really, what are they for?
Are they the same for different copies of the same cartridge?

 

[kevan]

You found the 3DS key. Now we can hack it

Kidding I think it's just to identify regions/games etc.

 

[Sicklyboy]

My SSIV has a different key. ASSE210133

We can use this to hack the 3DS, right?

...right??

 

[Qtis]

Technically this could be something that's used for identifying unique carts. It could even be part of an online protection system. If for some reason someone manages to hack the 3DS and everyone started to use a certain key, banning that key could make the problem go away. Or possibly make it impossible for 2 people with the same code to be online at the same time.. No one knows

 

[Schmendrick]

I'm guessing the first letter is region, 2nd and 3rd are game identifiers. No idea what the rest is

 

[McHaggis]

I'm guessing the first letter is region, 2nd and 3rd are game identifiers. No idea what the rest is

The first character isn't the region, though I'm guessing the 4th is either region or country related. My UK copy of SFIV has the code ASSP210082 vs Janthran's ASSE210201 and plasma dragon's ASSE210133. All my other games have the letter P as the fourth character. Note that this is not unique to 3DS games, all my DS games have the same codes. They all begin with the letter A and have P, with the exception of two US imports which have E in place of P.

Mystery solved, it's probably just a serial number – you get one one almost all consumer electronic products.

 

[pelago]

It's probably just a batch number or something else to do with the manufacture, not anything useful.

 

[KytuzuEX]

Mine's have 5 letters in MK7 AMKEY10221