Why USA region is called USA?

[nachuz]

I mean, is also used in Canada, Mexico and south America, not only USA
even Nintendo call it "Americas", why is called "USA" region?

 

[MadMageKefka]

I mean, is also used in Canada, Mexico and south America, not only USA
even Nintendo call it "Americas", why is called "USA" region?

...because USA is the only one of those three that matters, duh.

(Joking, if that's not obvious.)

 

[the_randomizer]

United States of America? Also weird that Canadians call us Americans when they're on the North American continent too, so...

 

[nachuz]

United States of America? Also weird that Canadians call us Americans when they're on the North American continent too, so...

Well, in Mexico and south america nobody call USA "America" or "North America", actually we say that "North America" and "South America" are the same continent

 

[Blaze Uchiha]

Well, in Mexico and south america nobody call USA "America" or "North America", actually we say that "North America" and "South America" are the same continent

that is wierd but also a very interesting fact

 

[yardie]

I mean, is also used in Canada, Mexico and south America, not only USA
even Nintendo call it "Americas", why is called "USA" region?

because Canada doesnt matter

 

[MadMageKefka]

Well, in Mexico and south america nobody call USA "America" or "North America", actually we say that "North America" and "South America" are the same continent

So by that logic, are Europe and Asia the same continent, too?

 

[nachuz]

So by that logic, are Europe and Asia the same continent, too?

No, but South America and North America are the same continent... or that's what all my teachers said me on school

 

[YOUCANTSTOPME]

Some things just don't make sense. When it comes to games, Australia is usually considered European region, even though it is nowhere near. Who knows.

 

[nachuz]

Some things just don't make sense. When it comes to games, Australia is usually considered European region, even though it is nowhere near. Who knows.

but they are diferent regions, in the case of Americas are exactly the same region, even some games doesn't come in spanish to South America and Mexico

 

[YOUCANTSTOPME]

I'm not disagreeing with you. It's silly to call it USA region when it includes much more than the USA.

 

[skawo]

You can think of it as the USA region because it contains USA, and USA is undoubtedly the most important country in it. Not that it's entirely comprised of USA.

 

[nachuz]

You can think of it as the USA region because it contains USA, and USA is undoubtedly the most important country in it. Not that it's entirely comprised of USA.

but why not call it "Americas" region

 

[PonyStation4]

United States of America? Also weird that Canadians call us Americans when they're on the North American continent too, so...

Not weird at all. Canada was a British Commonwealth before Britain gave them their independence, they didn't want to be mixed up with people not of the Commonwealth. Canadians also refer to USA as "The United States", not as "America". Americans of the United States

 

[Salazar-DE]

United States of America? Also weird that Canadians call us Americans when they're on the North American continent too, so...

As a Canadian I often refer to you guys as "Americans", and my friends do too. You can run into people who will correct that though, I've been corrected a few times but whoever corrects me always knows I'm referring to " USA-ians" whenever I say "Americans".

Even the word, American, just seems like you're referring to a USA-folk. We have Canadian to define ourselves so it kind of makes sense that way.

 

[Navonod]

As an American I refer to myself as American but the land as the United States. It depends on the person I guess.

 

[catlover007]

I guess it's because something which is left from the times when console regions where dictated by television standards(which again partially derive from properties of the electricity network, like network frequency). And in this regards almost all european countries + most common wealth states(including Australia) use PAL. At the same time Canada and Mexico use the NTSC standard, which originates in the USA.

Back in the times when consoles generated the image as the cathode ray goes along the front glass of the television, the TV norm was the main concern when bringing a console to another market. So dividing the regions through them was probably the smartest thing to do, from a technical standpoint. Also Nintendo just has it's main business on the american continent in the USA.

 

[Rune]

I guess it's because something which is left from the times when console regions where dictated by television standards(which again partially derive from properties of the electricity network, like network frequency). And in this regards almost all european countries + most common wealth states(including Australia) use PAL. At the same time Canada and Mexico use the NTSC standard, which originates in the USA.

Back in the times when consoles generated the image as the cathode ray goes along the front glass of the television, the TV norm was the main concern when bringing a console to another market. So dividing the regions through them was probably the smartest thing to do, from a technical standpoint. Also Nintendo just has it's main business on the american continent in the USA.

This the only logical answer here.
But to elaborate further, games from the older gens were always divided into regions, meaning devs had to release three different versions to accommodate everyone. EU, JP and US.
EU used the PAL standard televisions with their 50hz games, so that needed to have a version of the game that ran at 50fps. Both JP and US used the NTSC standard with 60hz, but both had to have separate versions because of the language (English and Japanese). So between the three, they could cover the whole world. "EU" (which you'd imagine stands for Europe) used PAL but since Australia also used the same, they got the "EU" games as well. Same situation with Canadians using the US games. The regions are who the devs had developed the game for, but any other country is free to use it if it meets their requirements.

 

[Futurdreamz]

Not our fault the citizens of the USA were unimaginative in their naming. But in this case, it's pretty much because the USA *IS* the market and the fact that the nearby countries require little for localization is a happy coincidence.

 

[Ritsuki]

So by that logic, are Europe and Asia the same continent, too?

Well... Actually they are lol. Geographically speaking at least. We separate them for political reasons mainly, but they're on the same plate. We call the whole thing Eurasia.