About the only thing really wrong with the 3DS is that, unlike its predecessor, it’s region-locked. Though it appears not as region-locked as once thought.
Nintendo 3DS Guide: Louvre has both a downloadable and a retail version, and Nintendo has confirmed with Kotaku that the Western edition of the game – available in North America, Europe and Australasia – will work across those regions.
This might sound weird, seeing as no other 3DS title to date has been region-free, but there may be a good reason: being a guide of an art museum, and not a game, the product doesn’t have to be rated or classified.
Earlier this year, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata explained his company’s recent insistence on region-locking, saying “There are many different regions around the world, and each region has its own cultural acceptance and legal restrictions, as well as different age ratings. There are always things that we’re required to do in each different region, which may go counter to the idea that players around the world want the freedom to play whatever they want.”
If Nintendo 3DS Guide: Louvre doesn’t need a rating, then according to Nintendo’s own reasoning it doesn’t need to be locked!
Comments
13 responses to “Nintendo Releases Region-Free 3DS Title”
I don’t know whether this should make me happy or angrier.
I’m gonna go with angrier.
I believe they are just trying to be safe. Region locking on their game means they can alter the content to suit the classification system of that particular region and also the difference in language. Being Nintendo that cater mostly younger generation, language is one issue and classification is even more important.
Imagine a kid from UK bought a US game and certain words are different and also the pronunciation is different as well could impact their target market.
Many things to consider in their shoe and I don’t blame them for what they did.
Nope. That was never an issue for any of their handhelds prior to the DSi, back before digital downloads became a thing. The ONLY reason for it is to control the prices we pay for our games.
Not talking about handhelds in general. Nintendo hardware are almost all region locked. Have a look at their list of products and check it out
I’m more than familiar with their list of products. I have nearly all of them sitting in my house.
The region locking existed long before such ratings systems. And even then, it was only on consoles because of the differing hardware which was made to work on the different display systems around the world. There was no need for such differences in the handheld systems, since they brought their own display hardware and thus had no need to conform to differing standards. Therefore had no reason to not play games from another region.
For one, these ratings systems still exist for other companies that do not enforce a region lock on their games. Why is it a problem for Nintendo and not for them? And secondly, it is not Nintendo’s place AT ALL to “protect” consumers like that. Can you even hear yourself? “Oh no, what if a child reads the word ‘shrimp’ instead of ‘prawn’ and gets confused??” That is a completely bullshit, made-up issue that does not exist. At all. I am Australian, my games always use American or British English. Both of those contain cultural differences to what we have here, why aren’t Nintendo blocking these harmful games from our view? Oh right, because if they did then we wouldn’t have any games. At all.
And just because I can’t read Japanese doesn’t mean I can’t play a Japanese game. Ouendan famously became one of the biggest import hits for DS because of this. It’s up to the consumer to purchase wisely, if I make a mistake and accidentally buy some text-heavy RPG that’s only in Dutch, that is my mistake alone. And if a kid DOES decide to import a game from a different region then… actually no, in this case the outcome is worse. Once the game arrives, they can’t play it at all and have a ~$40 piece of junk sitting there. As opposed to a game that might have a few different words. And in either case I don’t know what a kid is doing purchasing these games without their parents’ knowledge.
I shouldn’t need to buy multiple versions of the same piece of hardware just in case a company decides that they don’t want to bother releasing a title in my specific region. Which, being where we are, happens all the god damn time.
Whatever runs your logic mate. Every company exists to rip off consumer that is their number 1 priority.
It is true that they exist for nintendo to charge differently for different region but if you can’t consider other scenario that it is in place right now then sorry you are short sighted.
And you sir are either trolling or plain blinkered…
It’s market control. The region locking always originated due to the hardware limitations of different regions using different frequencies – NTSC and PAL Secam. Later sets made such forms of region locking pointless since they were then able to use both frequencies.
Region locking as its known now is just a marketing tool. Nothing more and nothing less. The original excuse was “curb piracy” but it’s all about controlling pricing.
To say Ninty is in a “different position” now is utterly laughable and naive. If a game does not work or accepted in a region it gets banned and Nintendo or the local publisher doesn’t sell it. If someone imports it thats not Nintendo’s fault. Thats the importers fault for acquiring contraband material.
And finally every company exists to create services for the consumer in exchange for income. It’s just that in recent times a lot of companies have been getting away w/ treating the customer like crap. Any other business would frankly be closed and taken over by better businesses if they continually treat their customer base badly as they move on to better services.
Sorry
Complete and utter BS. It’s about market control nothing more and nothing less.
Gameboy was region free. GBC was region free. GBA was region free. PSP was region free. Heck GameGear and Lynx were region free! If this “different rating” problem was an issue Nintendo should have been neck deep in doggy doo doo from all the supposed breaches from different regions by now.
In my experience, Nintendo games are NOT Region locked, they are PLATFORM locked (NTFS Vs PAL).
There is a difference.
Okay, but in the age of HDTV (and also on handheld devices), NTFS and PAL are meaningless terms.
I think you mean NTSC, NTFS is a format for storage devices.
Are you sure about that?
I’m fairly sure Jp 3DS titles do not work on US 3DS units.. and their both NTSC
Technically they’re NTSC-U and NTSC-J (although sometimes just listed as JAP). They’re both NTSC, but it’s yet another artificial restriction.
It is. Prior to 3DS the NDS did not have region issues, it can play EU/JP/US games without any problems.
3DS is the first Nintendo handheld that I did not buy, all thanks to region lock