I thought region lock was for price control or some other completely stupid reason.
Most practical use of region lock is to make specific versions of games for different audiences. One of the reason is just the differences in used languages (ie. UK English vs US English). Pretty stupid for the most parts, but in a way practical.
Region lock isn't really that big an option for price controlling in a large scale. Only issues are with regions that don't have their own distribution channels (or Australia), which raise costs. In the EU area for example, buying online is always cheaper (well 99% of the time), because taxes are smaller or completely reduced (VAT.).
Sure it is in a way used in the way of price control, but most difference in prices are caused by bad conversion rates used by companies. This adds up and usually the EU area takes the hit compared to the US (and Australia probably more compared to the two).
tl;dr: Region lock has its uses, but mostly it's just pure annoyance for the customer, since technical limitations aren't present anymore like in the PS1 era (50Hz/60Hz refresh rates on TV for example). An annoyance just like DRM for media content.
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Three full pages before someone speaks up about "barely any good games." And that someone is me. I will gladly and easily defend the large amount of fantastic 3DS titles currently available. The 3DS shop has tons of great affordable 3D games, tons of great DSiWare (obviously read reviews before purchasing anything,) etc.
I hope the mods don't see this as going wildly off topic. I mean, he did explicitly state in the VERY FIRST SENTENCE, "barely any good games." So I hope this post doesn't get scrubbed. I think the 3DS library is fantastic enough to defend, and it's obviously only going to get even better as time marches on.
Yes there is, at this point an hack could destroy the 3DS market as flashcards did with the NDS. If someone will release something like that, I hope it'll be in the distant future.
I'm waiting to see updated emulators and such, we should be able to get up to at least a perfect gba and possibly near perfect N64 emulator(depending on how the homebrew is applied, like soft of flash or whatever).
I have to agree with Yuyuyup though, there are tons of great games out now and more to come, including eshop games. I for one will not be using the 'hack' for them, just pretty much old and even older games that are most likely never going to see the light of day on a VC(which is more than you'd think though). I'll stick with paying for 3DS and eshop games though.
I have to agree with Yuyuyup though, there are tons of great games out now and more to come, including eshop games. I for one will not be using the 'hack' for them, just pretty much old and even older games that are most likely never going to see the light of day on a VC(which is more than you'd think though). I'll stick with paying for 3DS and eshop games though.
So sick of seeing this style of post... The DS has sold something in the 200 million range and billions of dollars in software revenue. Yeah, piracy destroyed the DS. And piracy didn't cause the massive waves of shovelware either, stupid consumers did ("Oh look, I love Hanna Montana, this should be a great game!").
Really, someone who makes a post like that, PLEASE, back it up w/ some sound logic that can argue w/ the numbers. You need to convince us that the DS, one of the most successful platforms of all time, could have seen a bazillion unit sales and the GNP of the world in software sales if piracy hadn't killed it... Because seriously, only if you believe that, that's the only way that I can see that you think the DS and the DS software market was somehow destroyed by anything.
I think piracy actually helps on the console success... Just think about the most sold consoles since the ps1, they're without exceptions the most easy to pirate of their generations.
Here in Brazil, for example, we can't afford to pay R$150 for a game! Here the most popular consoles are the Wii and the Xbox 360, people who own a PS3 in Brazil always have 5 games or less.
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Just like most here I'd like to see the homebrew capabilities of this device....I think it has the power to pull off some impressive stuff. Hell thats the other reason Im getting a Vita (cause I think the same thing about it)......thought I like the 3DS beyond being hacked and such
Let's see how many games have been played illegally and of many of them have been actually sold, let's make a ratio between the two and we'll see how much money piracy has stolen to software developers. For Nintendo that's good anyway because the console's sales are good but developers are largely penalized after that, and many sofware houses have closed (someone remembers Cing?).
@[member='RodrigoDavy']: I'm sorry if many people in your country can't afford to buy games, but this doesn't explain why try to hack at all costs. For this reason Sony still keeps alive PS2 and PSP, they are fairly cheap and so are their related games, not to mention the market of used games.
I never said software wasn't stolen and that devs weren't harmed financially because of it, but to even suggest that the DS market was DESTROYED by piracy is just ridiculous. Would software sales have been higher if flash carts didn't exist? Most likely. Did it make Nintendo and a lot of devs a ton of money? Yup. Did it get some pretty awesome titles all through out it's life? Yup. How could that possibly be described as "destroyed"?
And any stats that anyone can come up w/ that show the ratio of pirated copies vs legal copies would be (and always is) completely made up. Bringing up any ratio between the two would be based on bullshit data made up by someone trying to skew the picture to their point of view. So, please, just don't.
...emulation and nothing else.
its the only reason i hacked my psp, the only reason why i might one day hack my wii.
but really, i expect the 3ds to have enough power to finally have snes games not stutter or have weird graphic bugs, while also having good controls. would be happy enough with the psp, if it didnt have that sucky d-pad.
though i really dont expect much to happen anytime soon. but i hope that someone may just spill the beans at some point you know?
its the only reason i hacked my psp, the only reason why i might one day hack my wii.
but really, i expect the 3ds to have enough power to finally have snes games not stutter or have weird graphic bugs, while also having good controls. would be happy enough with the psp, if it didnt have that sucky d-pad.
though i really dont expect much to happen anytime soon. but i hope that someone may just spill the beans at some point you know?
I've held off from posting until now because I've learned these discussions never go anywhere (there's people on both sides who are universally incapable of changing their minds), but I feel the need to back something up.
Here's an example I like to link simply because it references lots of past information as well...
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/04/us-government-finally-admits-most-piracy-estimates-are-bogus.ars
Even portions of the government have called into question a lot of the numbers and "studies" that have been quoted but never actually proven to exist (mostly because they didn't like the numbers falsely being attributed to them).
I have never seen any legitimate studies (following the scientific progress, keeping actual records, giving details of how the study was conducted) that prove that piracy is nearly the problem companies claim it is. The semi-recent news of the bribery accusations against the MPAA certainly haven't helped. Do note that studies about the existence of piracy or how widespread it is aren't what's being discussed. We all know there's piracy. The question is does it have a big financial impact on the businesses in question?
These sort of claims (that piracy is killing Business X or Industry Y) have been made for years. The music industry was well-known for it, but as time goes on we still have jack shit as evidence and the industries inviolved are still there. I, for one, ignore these claims as bullshit.
Just because you believe that something must be so does not make it so.
This post may seem like a crazy over-the-top blanket statement, but I stand behind it.
Here's an example I like to link simply because it references lots of past information as well...
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/04/us-government-finally-admits-most-piracy-estimates-are-bogus.ars
Even portions of the government have called into question a lot of the numbers and "studies" that have been quoted but never actually proven to exist (mostly because they didn't like the numbers falsely being attributed to them).
I have never seen any legitimate studies (following the scientific progress, keeping actual records, giving details of how the study was conducted) that prove that piracy is nearly the problem companies claim it is. The semi-recent news of the bribery accusations against the MPAA certainly haven't helped. Do note that studies about the existence of piracy or how widespread it is aren't what's being discussed. We all know there's piracy. The question is does it have a big financial impact on the businesses in question?
These sort of claims (that piracy is killing Business X or Industry Y) have been made for years. The music industry was well-known for it, but as time goes on we still have jack shit as evidence and the industries inviolved are still there. I, for one, ignore these claims as bullshit.
Just because you believe that something must be so does not make it so.
alright... now, dont get mad, but
I have never seen any legitimate studies (following the scientific progress, keeping actual records, giving details of how the study was conducted) that prove that piracy is not nearly the problem companies claim it is.
just cause you cant prove or disprove it, neither opinion has to be right or wrong.
fact is, yes, by all we know, piracy never killed any business. truth be told, businesses sometimes managed to kill piracy.
but piracy does hurt them. it lessens the profits and by definition, that is what eventually kills a business. less profits lead to less investment which leads to bad numbers and that is a huge risk for any business. a risk they dont just want to fight, its a risk they need to fight, again, for the investors and their moneys sake.
to be honest, if i was an investor, i would want them to make up crazy numbers to rile up politics and stuff, it shows they care for my money and want it to multiply and stuff. happy investors is living business.
I have never seen any legitimate studies (following the scientific progress, keeping actual records, giving details of how the study was conducted) that prove that piracy is not nearly the problem companies claim it is.
just cause you cant prove or disprove it, neither opinion has to be right or wrong.
fact is, yes, by all we know, piracy never killed any business. truth be told, businesses sometimes managed to kill piracy.
but piracy does hurt them. it lessens the profits and by definition, that is what eventually kills a business. less profits lead to less investment which leads to bad numbers and that is a huge risk for any business. a risk they dont just want to fight, its a risk they need to fight, again, for the investors and their moneys sake.
to be honest, if i was an investor, i would want them to make up crazy numbers to rile up politics and stuff, it shows they care for my money and want it to multiply and stuff. happy investors is living business.
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