Gaming Why do Nintendo lock games to spec. region ?

[malimravbg]

I'm courious what is the point of locking games to spec. region ? Why not to allow all people to play game.
More people buy games, more money for Nintendo ? Why to lock a game to limited region ?

Thanks for reply.

 

[xalphax]

its fun for them watching our pain hacking their consoles in order to play import games....

seriously: their handhelds are region free, and so should be their other systems, region coding makes no sense IMHO

 

[superrob]

Becurse in USA they use the NTFS Television system.
And in Europe the Pal Television system.
Some televisions can use both.
But some can only display PAL or NTFS.

They are diffent systems.

 

[FAST6191]

region coding is one of the few things that really irk me (censorship and a lot of religion the other two).

Still prices from Amazon or a big online shop for a top flight game.
US title $50
UK title: £40
Mainland Europe (France): €60
Japan: ? 6000
Australia: $100 Aud

A current exchange rates ( http://fxtop.com/en/ ) a US game is
£25
€37
?6200
$60 Aud

Admittedly the dollar is fairly weak at present but the point holds.

Care to speculate?

Edit @superrob I think you mean NTSC, that may have mattered during NES days but no longer: how many of you use 60Hz for games.

Of course you can always hide behind "localisation issues" (half the time they do not translate to GB English anyhow let alone a thought for those on the mainland, even if they do French, German, Italian and Spanish is all they get)

 

[malimravbg]

Still prices from Amzon for a top flight game.
US title $50
UK title: £40
Mainland Europe (France): €60
Japan: ? 6000
Australia: $100 Aud

@FAST6191, that seems to be main reason. Money and control....

Thanks for making things clear.
But, that is not so god for Nintendo...
It will make people to pirate more than they would do...People just don't like waiting for favorite game....

 

[bobrules]

I think it's due to the language difference.

 

[xalphax]

Becurse in USA they use the NTFS Television system.
And in Europe the Pal Television system.
Some televisions can use both.
But some can only display PAL or NTFS.

They are diffent systems.

every television newer than 10 yrs can display both, pal and ntsc without problems

edit: yeah, FAST6191, you are right!

they are also trying to rob us!

 

[bobrules]

Allows price differentiation between markets (localisation), thus increasing the potential revenue from worldwide sales and/or making products affordable in markets not tolerating the prices of other regions.

wikipedia.