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Posted By Yousif A. about 7 months, 3 weeks ago
Wii U Will be Region-Locked,
Not for U.
It turns out the Wii U will be region-locked. Who knew?
Today Nintendo confirmed to CVG that their new home console will only play discs from the machine’s home region, meaning imports are out the window (for now). This comes as no big surprise, as most consoles, and certainly all Nintendo consoles, have been region-locked in the past. Recently Nintendo even region-locked their handhelds, with every DS after the DSi only playing local region titles. This leaves Sony the only bastion of import gaming with both the PS3 and PS Vita lacking regional restrictions.
Region-locking may seem like a cruel practice, but serves a purpose that many forget. Putting aside the legalities of age restricted good varying from one country to another, the main reason for region locking is to gather accurate sales data and make sure publishers don’t suffer from imports damaging sales. The reason developers and publishers need sales data is obvious and can affect if future releases even reach foreign shores, or even get made! Import sales damage is a bit more complicated.
Taking the example of Persona 4 Arena, European gamers are unfortunately left without this apparent beauty of a game with Atlus’ choice to region lock the game on both PS3 and Xbox. Now, while Persona 4 is great, the market over here for Atlus games could still be called “niche,” and these are usually the circles that would import the game. I know I did with Catherine. In Europe, it will be Zen United publishing P4A, a small company that previously published BlazBlue for European audiences. For Zen United, this is a big release and to have sales drop off due to gamers having imported the game could be disastrous.
So, while Nintendo may look like they are locking the machine just despite gamers all over the world, they are really doing something nice. That said, nice one Sony! Keep them consoles region free!
Source: CVG
*sigh* fuck you Nintendo.. just.. fuck you
My opinion on region-locking is very mixed. I understand why someone would region-lock an individual game, to bolster the local releases’s sales to get more accurate figures of where to localize and publish their games in the future based on the sales figures in that region, because when you import from another country because you can’t wait for your country’s release, I’m pretty sure it only counts towards the sales in the country of origin. I’m sure a lot of regions get the short end of the stick compared to others, like Europe in getting JRPG localizations in most cases. However, you gotta figure that the more of you import, the LESS likely you are to get more localizations of the kind of games you import. Granted, if the company was never planning on releasing said games your way, I say no harm, no foul, import away!
Console region-locking however is a VERY confused practice to me… I see region-locking as a decision that game development teams should make to monitor how well their games sell in different regions and get more accurate input on where their localization focuses for certain types of games should be. But how does a CONSOLE benefit from region-locking? If anything, I think it’d drive sales of the console down, especially in the case of Nintendo because they often LOVE to screw me, an American, out of the only fascinating games they release (the Mother Series and Project Rainfall Titles, for instance). I’m sorry, but I’ve long stopped caring for the titles they release first-party.
I haven’t played a Mario game since Mario 64 and I don’t feel like I’m missing out much, same for Star Fox, haven’t touched Metroid since the Metroid Prime gamecube games and from my understanding, using Other M as a basis, I might not be quick to want to catch up, and those are about the only titles ever guaranteed for an international release by Nintendo, the first-party stuff. And god forbid they EVER localize an RPG other than Poke’mon… The best titles for a Nintendo system has always been the third-party stuff, which is why it perplexed me with the Wii that they would put such a clamp down on third-party releases stateside. Obviously, the Wii-U looks much more open to third-party releases, but knowing Nintendo’s immediate past, region-locking is not a good sign that they fully understand the crap they put their consumers through.
I still want a Wii-U, but this region-locking decision is a bit suspect, specifically because it is Nintendo..
BOOOOOOOO! *Throws rotten tomato* Boooooooo! >:(
Region lock is a thing of the past, it shouldn’t exist.
The other, better option would be to have gaming companies focus on a global release market. Have them work with the local publishers to allow them to work on the game while its still in development. There’s little reason why gamers should have to wait months or a year for a game to be released locally. If the local publisher can’t produce the title in a reasonable timeframe, then the option should always be kept open to acquire the game by other means. Why can’t console developers make it work like that when PC developers already do?
Ah the “Region locking is a good thing!” defense which can only be spoken straight faced by the most die-hard publisher apologist.
I’m sure the side effect of region locking forcing people to buy a Japanese/US/UK/etc console in addition to their native country so they can import games is totally accidental. I mean, what kind of company would want to try and force people to buy two of something instead of one.
But hey, have at it Nintendo, its not like pirates/hackers/what-have-you are quick to find work arounds for this sort of stuff and people will happily buy a second console and a game at an inflated price because someone decided not to localize it and there’s certainly no free options…oh wait.
I bet the developers of Pandora’s Tower are super happy that never got a US release and there was no nasty importing hurting their non-existent sales. There defiantly was no interest in that game in the states. Or Mother 3.
I don’t care how you look at it, Region Locking is a bad idea, and Nintendo should have learned their lesson when Operation Rainfall happened.
Region-locking is not the bad thing; poor marketing is the bad thing.
In Sony’s case, not region-locking is a way of covering for Sony Corp Entertainment America. Sony heavily favors Japan, ergo SCEA sucks toilet-seat. Region-locking would basically be suicide for the hardcore American/ European markets.
Nintendo of America, however, doesn’t suck. In fact, they rather carefully spun the Wii U price press conference with the Nintendo of America conference in mind. Things are still unsure for Europe, but region-locking doesn’t look to be particularly painful here.
Don’t see how the press thing was good for Nintendo of America no price on tablet controller no replacement tablets for the US market but yes for the Japanese market so if you happen to break your tablet controller if you want a new one that will cost you 200+ to import one from Japan.
doesn’t surprise me, Nintendo loves regional lockout these days.
I really want Persona 4 arena but I don’t want to give money to those charlatans at Zen United. Fuck you Zen United I hope you go out of business.
As for the Wii U being region locked, that makes me a very sad bunny. I love Japanese games and I knowing I can’t import them if they don’t get released kills me. I just hope homebrew can come up with a way to bypass it. I don’t want to pirate Nintendo, I just want to play Japanese games, so remove a reason to hack the Wii U by patching the region lock out.
Remember, Zen United unfortunately have to translate the game into every EU language before they can release a UK version, despite the English version of the game being ready. EU games have to ship all at once to save costs.
On the plus side, Zen United’s special edition for Blazblue was awesome. We might get some international version goodies!
They stated they would be leaving the game in English to speed up releasing it. Which makes no sense. What is delaying it. Pegi has already rated it, is Sony being really slow on approving it? I just want Persona 4 Arena damn it!
I kinda wish they would just release games in English in Europe, most European gamers can understand it. Though I cant’ speak for the whole of Europe I know quite a few people across Europe who prefer playing their games in English.
I agree, delays are annoying considering it’s already done, but they can’t just release it in a English and tell the rest of the EU to “learn English or suck it”. Knowing people that speak English on the mainland that are gamers probably does not account for a realistic percentage!
Additionally, its got nothing to do with Sony. The game is coming out in 360 as well.
and here i thought Nintendo was doing things right for once on the Wii U. oh well..
I can understand why companies region lock, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it either.