Gaming Why are EUR and USA seperate regions anyway?

[RikuKawai]

Both regions share languages with each other, like English and French, why do they have to be seperate regions? Especially since games tend to come out in Europe months before they release in NA. 3DS carts have plenty of space, there's no reason why they couldn't have all the languages from the EUR and USA regions on one cartridge. What makes even less sense is Pokemon X/Y, they launched simultaneously in all regions, and each one has all the languages (you can play the JP version in English, but not on a USA region 3DS), so why does it have to be region locked?!?

 

[blindseer]

Because different rating boards and censorship. USA and Canada have ESRB, and over the pond they have PEGI. That's why.

 

[RikuKawai]

Because different rating boards and censorship. USA and Canada have ESRB, and over the pond they have PEGI. That's why.

That actually makes more sense than "Please understand" -Iwata

I've seen a game that was actually ESRB T, but PEGI 17, and CERO D (17+)

 

[NicEXE]

To be able to sell at different prices and include different languages and features.

 

[DjoeN]

And a few other things, in Europe every country has its own laws regarding games, boxart and booklets.
By law, every single product sold has to have a manual in Dutch for Flanders and French for Wallonie, mostly it's in 3 or more different languages for us (Flemish (Dutch) French and German(as example)
However the game itself doesn't have to be, but it is preffered.

There was a German law in the past that said, blood can't be red, so it was green or whatever color in the game, etc...
Some boxart can't be used in one country cause of copyright in that country etc...

Ok, the walls are smaller and less higher as they used to be, but like said by blindseer, the age rating is the bigger one

I know in the USA every state can have it's own laws to, but i assume it's all the same when it comes to rating.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

Because there's also different types of Spanish, Portuguese and French between EUR and USA releases.

USA roms = Brazilian Portuguese
EUR roms = Portuguese of Portugal

USA roms = Mexican Spanish
EUR roms = Spanish of Spain (Castellano)

You get the picture, but yeah, it's stupid to still have region locks.

 

[Shady Guy Jose]

When it comes to home consoles, SD video signals are different, and that was an issue for a long time. Besides, we don't get games months before, we usually get them a LOT later than the US! Maybe you're referring to French versions in Canada, which may come out later.

 

[MarioFanatic64]

Especially since games tend to come out in Europe months before they release in NA.

You're saying that because you're in a NTSC region, so you ignore any information regarding PAL release dates unless any given title comes out before NTSC releases, which is occasional, but far from the reality that North America and Japan are actually the best places to live for video gaming in terms of availability and censorship.

Many games released in the USA have never even made their way into Europe. For example, what American gamers deem as amazing, classic games like Earthbound and Super Mario RPG, were never even released in Europe until their Virtual Console releases decades later. And the early Final Fantasy games- PAL regions never got them.

Hell, it's been seven years and I'm still waiting on Mario Super Sluggers here.

 

[Shady Guy Jose]

Because there's also different types of Spanish, Portuguese and French between EUR and USA releases.

USA roms = Brazilian Portuguese
EUR roms = Portuguese of Portugal

USA roms = Mexican Spanish
EUR roms = Spanish of Spain (Castellano)

You get the picture, but yeah, it's stupid to still have region locks.

Unfortunately, that rarely happens. Only games which are supposed to be big sellers in Portugal (PlayStation hits like FIFA, PES, GTA, and the like) get the proper translation. We're usually stuck with English versions (which is more than acceptable, even more if you take into account the fact that they usually include other languages, such as Spanish, which might be easier to understand for little kids), or horrid Brazillian localizations. Nintendo games are starting to have translations of reasonable quality too, with the exception of Pokémon, probably for legacy reasons (most of us are used to either English or Spanish versions since we were 6, and changing this after 16 years would be weird, especially when it comes to moves/items. I am assuming they would keep Pokémon names, like the Spanish and Italian translations, and not pull a French/German, which would be even worse.

 

[Foxi4]

Nintendo still has a region division because they know they can milk you more efficiently that way, this has nothing to do with rating systems. Sony, Microsoft, Valve and EA all implemented measures to adjust for ratings without resorting to region divisions. The PAL vs NTSC argument died with the rise of HD, in fact, it was a poor argument even before that since there are no issues with implementing both video modes in a game. It's especially nonsensical with handhelds that were never divided by signal type aside from a few exceptions with TV Out ports.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Nintendo still has a region division because they know they can milk you more efficiently that way, this has nothing to do with rating systems. Sony, Microsoft, Valve and EA all implemented measures to adjust for ratings without resorting to region divisions.

I don't really believe they can milk you better like this... I would attribute this more to their inability to adapt to the times.
People would be open to buy every kind of thing from any region if the eShop was region free, eg.
So sales would only go up.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

When it comes to home consoles, SD video signals are different, and that was an issue for a long time. Besides, we don't get games months before, we usually get them a LOT later than the US! Maybe you're referring to French versions in Canada, which may come out later.

This is primarily why I've dropped my interest for Kirby and the Play-Doh. Waiting 3 months to play a game like this when Japan and US already had it ages ago just no. Not my loss anyway, Splatoon's being released during the same month.

Unfortunately, that rarely happens. Only games which are supposed to be big sellers in Portugal (PlayStation hits like FIFA, PES, GTA, and the like) get the proper translation. We're usually stuck with English versions (which is more than acceptable, even more if you take into account the fact that they usually include other languages, such as Spanish, which might be easier to understand for little kids), or horrid Brazillian localizations. Nintendo games are starting to have translations of reasonable quality too, with the exception of Pokémon, probably for legacy reasons (most of us are used to either English or Spanish versions since we were 6, and changing this after 16 years would be weird, especially when it comes to moves/items. I am assuming they would keep Pokémon names, like the Spanish and Italian translations, and not pull a French/German, which would be even worse.

They aren't? Man that sucks that gamers from Portugal don't get a fair treatment like the rest, although I remember playing Little Big Planet (years ago) and the Portuguese dub was great (it was some comedian whom I can't name now).

 

[Foxi4]

I don't really believe they can milk you better like this... I would attribute this more to their inability to adapt to the times.
People would be open to buy every kind of thing from any region if the eShop was region free, eg.
So sales would only go up.

That's also an issue, but the root of the problem is equal division of revenue between NoA, NoE and NoJ which all operate like separate entities.

 

[Sliter]

because they are stupid :v that is xD
I see about the censorship and age rate stuff and I can understand that... even not seeing why a bit more of clothes can make something from "Teens" to "everyone"(remeber bravely defalt?) :v also about censorship, as I know, Australia is EUR region, but they are know for having more even censoring that what actually happened from JP to Eur :B
also because they want to lock you on their region , as they said, so you can't buy the EUR game and play it in US unless you have an eur system (technically, having an EUR/JP console and games in US is illegal accourding this ) , so do you want that doraemon or super sentai game? too bad :B(you need a gateway yay XD), but being locked at is a pain , for example, in Europe have some nintend games with portuguese language, but nintendo give a sh*t for Brazil(There even no Brazilian eshop for wiiU, and the 3DS one sucks lol worse than that maybe only IQue :/) and don't even give us this translation, even with some linguistic difference, and worse is that even with unlocking region and playing a eur game on us console, you can't use the portuguese language because it's set in a different way... unlike french and spanish and english that is set the same way õ3o
Someway I see it like a bit of racism .. I mean .. "america" region only started having spanish and french because the countries that speak these languages where sued to buy from europe in the old times, so they saw that having these langauge together would get what they where giving to europe since there was never portuguese and we even gor from them, they never cared hahha

That's also an issue, but the root of the problem is equal division of revenue between NoA, NoE and NoJ which all operate like separate entities.

well not much, some people don't care about having digital content ... imagine a region free eshop and the revenue going directly for the region it was sold
I mean .. if you buy here the " random doraemon game that never will come to west" on eshop with an eur console, your money would go to eur region ... and if someday they made to make it to eur, they could sell you an DLC with the language option

 

[migles]

Especially since games tend to come out in Europe months before they release in NA.

i really disagree.. very rarely i seen on release lists a game coming on europe first.. (i dont remember a single one that did come on europe first) and there are lots of games that never got released on europe..
sometimes is hard to find PAL\EUR versions of games..
but i like to download PAL\EUR games because they usually have more languages than the usa version, and i don't have to deal with region lock stuff\problems

3DS carts have plenty of space, there's no reason why they couldn't have all the languages from the EUR and USA regions on one cartridge

sometimes the problem is not the space on the card, games take time to be translated.. a game usually is maked on japan, gets translated to english, and later goes to europe in multi languaes (at least this was the case with old pokemon games)

 

[WiiUBricker]

Another reason is plain business. Nintendo of America doesn't make a single penny if someone from the US buys an EUR game. Nintendo of Europe doesn't make a single penny if someone from Europe buys a US game. Importing games hurts business, hence why the region-lock.

 

[Sliter]

i really disagree.. very rarely i seen on release lists a game coming on europe first.. (i dont remember a single one that did come on europe first) and there are lots of games that never got released on europe..
sometimes is hard to find PAL\EUR versions of games..
but i like to download PAL\EUR games because they usually have more languages than the usa version, and i don't have to deal with region lock stuff\problems
)

A lot of Wii games that some thought never would come to Americas, like last history, xenoblade, pandora's tower and bravely default ... I remember these ones because the fans had to beg nintendo to come lol bravely default was a funny thing because the game was launched in Japan already with a lot of language options, it took a big time to went to europe and even more (Like two years, right?) to come to Americas, and they even dared to make changes and censorship ... the work was actually done, if wasn't the region lock, no one would had to wait and with no changes

 

[cinhomartins]

To be able to sell at different prices and include different languages and features.

That's the reason. All other reasons (censorship, language, etc) can be avoided with new packaging. The region lock avoids market wars (if europeans could buy games in the US, EU retailers would stop supporting Nintendo products).

 

[migles]

A lot of Wii games that some thought never would come to Americas, like last history, xenoblade, pandora's tower and bravely default ... I remember these ones because the fans had to beg nintendo to come lol bravely default was a funny thing because the game was launched in Japan already with a lot of language options, it took a big time to went to europe and even more (Like two years, right?) to come to Americas, and they even dared to make changes and censorship ... the work was actually done, if wasn't the region lock, no one would had to wait and with no changes

you could easily solve the problem, import a wii.
thats why nintendo likes region lock, they can sell you 2 "game players" instead of just 1..
there are lots of gbatempers who got 2 or more 3ds consoles, and some of them got them just because to be able to play out of region games..

 

[Sliter]

you could easily solve the problem, import a wii.
thats why nintendo likes region lock, they can sell you 2 "game players" instead of just 1..
there are lots of gbatempers who got 2 or more 3ds consoles, and some of them got them just because to be able to play out of region games..

like they where cheap here lol but I think they just want to limit you, not that you buy more , since it not going directly to their pockets anyway