The 2D thread of 3DS

[Atma]

Welp, I was gonna say I would give the 3D software a chance now but announcing region locks just killed all interest in me in the system for a very, very long time.

Nintendo why you gotta do a thing?

[Snarboo]

Way to poop in the corn flakes Nintendo.

[Super Orbus]

Sad, but not unexpected. Region locking may have made sense in the 80s and early 90s, but now it seems fairly stupid. The language barriers alone are enough to keep all but a negligible percent of Japanese games inside Japan.

Mass commercialized importing from the US to Europe and other English speaking regions is probably the main thing they're trying to prevent. But a sale's a sale anyawy. In an increasingly globalized world, maybe they need to rethink their distribution structure.

[Ganelon]

Looks like I'll have to get 2 systems sometime. Or wait for a device that cracks the region encoding. That's pretty annoying.

[Wildcat]

I'm not surprised. Nintendo works under their own magical concepts of business, and while it makes sense to not region lock their stuff, they apparently want to narrow down their markets. Since they're going this route, all I have to say is that they better localize more games than they have recently for the US, or I'll be more than a little pissy. XD

[retr0gamer]

I'm really disgusted about the region locking news. I'm probably not going to buy a 3DS until it gets hacked to remove region locking. Living in Europe and having a very ecclectic taste in videogames means that almost half of the DS games I buy are imported. This means missing out on this handheld generations 999, Strange Journey, Devil Survivor, Ouendan etc. for me.

[Haz]

Fuck, fuck, FUCK. This would've been the first handheld console I was willing to actually -buy- imports for... now I'm just hoping a team of hackers blows this thing wide open. Region locking fosters piracy, and Nintendo may be getting gangrene in the foot they just shot themselves in down the road. It's also really funny how Sony now seems to be at forefront of this new region freedom trend and Nintendo has regressed (moreso) into 90's and early 00's Sony.

...however, I'm still gonna have to buy me a 3DS at or near launch, because I'm a shill like that for Nintendo's handhelds.

Jan 11, 2011 10:29:24 GMT -5 Wildcat said:

I'm not surprised. Nintendo works under their own magical concepts of business, and while it makes sense to not region lock their stuff, they apparently want to narrow down their markets. Since they're going this route, all I have to say is that they better localize more games than they have recently for the US, or I'll be more than a little pissy. XD

I agree so much here, but even then, there will be titles for the system that will -never- be released outside of Japan. That's what both saddens and angers the hell out of me at the same time.

[Warchief Onyx]

It's really sucky news, though it personally doesn't affect me much (I own a grand total of... 0 imported games on Nintendo handhelds). Just hope this means Nintendo gets a little more generous in bringing games over here than they were with the DS and Wii. After all, wasn't Ouendan not even considered for a US version until Nintendo saw the rather large import sales?

[Feynman]

Fucking useless region locking. What the hell is even the point? I have a hard time believing that the tiny, tiny percentage of people who import a game slated for US release before it leaves Japan bring sales of the US release down by any appreciable amount. I'm sure the same goes for European countries and Australia as well. And fuck, gaming must be pretty bleak in Australia (as well as lot of small countries) if you try to play without importing anything.

Also, as Onyx said, sometimes popular imports can shine a spotlight on the existence of a market for a game that would otherwise not be considered as a potential candidate for localization. Demon's Souls has enjoyed enormous popularity, but it may never have seen the light of day in western territories had it not proven to be such a hit with the import crowd.

EDIT: Fuck, the more I think about it, the more it sucks. There's a lot of good stuff localized for NA that never gets an official release even in the major EU countries. Region locking is even worse than the constant annoyance of draconian PC DRM.

[megatronbison]

Hah, this has went from a day one purchase to a "whenever I have the spare cash" purchase.
So maybe next year, or the year after that- Nintendo sure knows how to bone you price wise whatever the year!

[acidonia]

Well that means they will be no Atlus 3DS games in Europe then. Such a moronic move I hope it gets Hacked to high Hell it deserves it.

UK comsumser shows like eg Watch Dog should do warnings about Region locking because I know it will sell millions and loads will buy games on Holiday and not understand why they will not work on their 3DS.

[shelverton]

Sad news indeed

Anyway, Minish Cap is in fact my second favourite Zelda ever, even if it was too short. ALttP is #1 though, always. Wind Waker felt fresh when it was released and I still like it a lot. I would love to see it on 3DS, if the damn thing can handle it, that is.

I prefer to not think about Spirit Tracks or Phantom Hourglass at all. Killed the franchise for me, they did. Skyward Sword looks like it will play like OoT and Twilight Princess (which I liked more than OoT), but I fear it's gonna have A LOT in common with the DS games somehow... Gimmicky, soulless, shallow and not EPIC like Zelda should be. But who knows...

EDIT: Completely forgot about Link's Awakening. THAT is my second favourite, making Minish Cap my third favourite. I think Nintendo should remake Link's Awakening for 3DS, but without the touch screen BS. Well, maybe some touching could enhance the gameplay, but they should stay faaar away from the PH/ST engine...

[Super Orbus]

Jan 11, 2011 14:41:11 GMT -5 Feynman said:

I have a hard time believing that the tiny, tiny percentage of people who import a game slated for US release before it leaves Japan bring sales of the US release down by any appreciable amount. I'm sure the same goes for European countries and Australia as well.

I think you're probably right about Japanese games, but for Europe and Australia, I wouldn't be so sure. I've never lived either place, so I could be wrong, but I get the impression there's a fair amount of importing going on. There'd almost have to be considering how they both regularly get passed over for localization of so many things.

The rationale I've always heard for region locking is that they don't want cheaply priced games from one market (say Asia) being brought over en masse and dumped in a more expensive market (say, the US or Europe). This would undercut the US and/or European division's sales and the company's overall profits, since they can charge more in countries where people are more affluent.

However, there have been plenty of non-region-locked systems at this point, and they all seem to be doing just fine as far as I can tell. Nintendo execs may be privy to information we're not though.

My personal feeling is that there are a lot of other things that could be done to discourage dumping between regions without requiring straight-up region locking. Differentiating packaging, possibly some kind of warning popup if you boot a different region's software, leaning on distributors and big retail chains not to sell imported games. They could make it inconvenient to import, which would keep the masses from doing it, without making it so inconvenient that enthusiasts have to run out and buy multiple consoles.

But then again, if we have to buy multiple consoles, that's a sales win for them.

[X-pert74]

What the fuck Nintendo? Not that this is surprising at all (considering the DSi being region-locked, and how common it is for Nintendo-published games to never leave Japan), but it's still fucking bullshit. I'm hacking my 3DS ASAP

[kitten]

Wowie kazowie, don't you guys think you're overreacting? I mean, shit, some of you are taking it a bit far. I can understand PAL region fury at this decision, given that they're almost certainly going to be missing out on quite a few things, but everyone here has had to deal with this crap on home consoles forever.

What do you guys think you're going to be missing out on to suddenly make this not worth purchasing? How is this the straw breaking the camel's back for some of you? I can understand some PAL regioners - particularly RPG fans - having this be enough to reconsider a purchase, but several of you are NTSC. Everyone here owns region-locked consoles, anyway, so it can't be some moral crusade.

Sure, yeah, this sucks. I agree with that. But this reaction to it just seems way over the top. Would you guys have not bought a DS with region-lock on it? I look at the DS's NTSC library and I see dozens of critically acclaimed games, cult hits and just generally interesting titles. Most of you here bought one in the first year or two, before the DS had even the library that the 3DS already has announced for early or launch release.

Someone explain to me why this is worth flipping shit over any more than it was when any other console with region-lock came out. I own over 75 games across my Nintendo handhelds, and not one of them are from another region... And I've seen many region-exclusive handheld collections completely blowing mine away. Each Nintendo handheld has had a strong line-up of games, and I think the 3DS is going to continue this tradition of high quality. The 3DS already has an announced line-up almost objectively better than any other near-launch line-up for a Nintendo handheld, too.

I think you all need to take a step back and cool down a little. This announcement should have been expected after what happened with the DSi, and it should be really far from a dealbreaker to anyone who has enjoyed past Nintendo handhelds. Once again, I'm absolutely not saying that this is an excusable method of action from Nintendo, that we should sit down and take it or that it's something not worth getting a little ticked over, but I don't think this is nearly the ordeal some of you are acting like it is.