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Post by retr0gamer on Jan 12, 2011 11:05:36 GMT -5
Well with MS going some way to giving us a few region free games and Sony giving us region free gaming on both systems this is a massive backwards step by Nintendo. All handheld systems have been region free since the Gameboy and it makes no sense to remove it for the 3DS. It's motivated only by greed. Nintendo thinks people will undercut them by buying cheaper in other regions but only a small minority actually import games, namely hardcore gamers that want to sample some of the more obscure titles. However Nintendo really don't care about this consumer base anymore. I know we had to deal with it in previous generations but it doesn't mean we liked it then either. It was even worse for european gamers before the current generation knowing that we were getting vastly inferior ports of NTSC games.
I'm a european gamer so this will effect me a whole lot more. I'll put it this way, two of my favourite games of this generation of hardware are Ouendan and Demon's Souls and both games would have stayed in japan if it was for region locking. If there was region locking on the DS I'd be missing out of Devil Survivor, 999, Ys Seven and Strange Journey. I love Atlus and their games but they have no distribution channels in PAL regions meaning you have to wait a year or more for square enix or other smaller publishers to bring their games out here. Usually their games just don't make it to europe.
If I am getting a 3DS I'll have to import a US model. Atlus seem to be focusing on 3DS and I'm not missing out. However it's not the solution to the problem. Europe has a few small publishers that specialise in bringing obscurities to europe meaning that europe gets a few exclusives that are well worth playing like Last Window and sometimes nintendo will test a game in europe that eventually never makes it to the US, such as with Another Code Wii. We'll probably end up on what will be the DS's Ouendan or other Japanese only DS games.
I just don't see what Nintendo thinks they are gaining by region locking the system. It's not providing any extra security from hacking, in fact it's like a red flag to hackers to rip the system wide open. The machine is portable so some people like to buy games while on holidays. So far there hasn't been any mass importing from cheaper regions and if there was the threat of nintendo pulling stock from stores is enough to see it not happen.
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Post by Snarboo on Jan 12, 2011 11:52:50 GMT -5
The reason I care is because I don't want to see a repeat of the Wii with the 3DS. I doubt that will happen since the costs are lower and it's portable, making it a magnet for casual and big developers alike, but this move doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.
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Post by Ganelon on Jan 12, 2011 12:30:30 GMT -5
What's wrong with the Wii? It takes like 15 minutes to install Homebrew Channel and use GeckoOS to play JP games. Here's hoping 3DS is cracked as easily.
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Post by hidetoshidecide on Jan 13, 2011 15:46:57 GMT -5
I can deal with the region locking. What worries me are all of the reports that you have to hold the 3DS just so for the 3D effect to work- and for the screen image to not be blurry.
Worse, this thing is supposed to have a maximum of 3-5 hours of battery life. That's probably with the screen brightness on the lowest setting, which I find to be unusable. So we could be talking about battery life that is significantly less than 3-5 hours. Bit of a problem!
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Post by thethird on Jan 13, 2011 16:06:31 GMT -5
really? I heard that it was a minimum of 3-5 hours of battery life, with that having brightness set at maximum and 3D on, since that is apparently the same stat as the DSi at max brightness. s'what I've read from rumblings on some forums so it might not be valid but I mean 3-5 hours max is insanely low and depressing and I like optimism.
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Post by hidetoshidecide on Jan 13, 2011 16:31:36 GMT -5
really? I heard that it was a minimum of 3-5 hours of battery life, with that having brightness set at maximum and 3D on, since that is apparently the same stat as the DSi at max brightness. s'what I've read from rumblings on some forums so it might not be valid but I mean 3-5 hours max is insanely low and depressing and I like optimism. I was assuming minimum because that is how companies like Nintendo usually present stats like this- they give you best case scenarios, essentially. What I've seen so far is 3-5 hours in 3D mode- I assume with the screen brightness all the way down. If so, having the brightness set at a reasonable level is going to reduce the battery life even further. |
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Post by X-pert74 on Jan 13, 2011 16:36:14 GMT -5
Yeah, I've also heard that 3-5 hours comes in only with maximum brightness. That still sucks though.
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Post by muteKi on Jan 13, 2011 17:30:36 GMT -5
As long as it has more settings than the original DS's ON and OFF for the backlight, I shouldn't be too bothered. Usually the backlight on that thing's brighter than I need it to be anyway.
Even then, can't expect miracles. There's a huge change in processor power compared to the original DS, and not so much one in the battery tech -- isn't this about what the batter life for the PSP is? Quite frankly I'm just glad to get more than 2 hours.
It's probably comparable to the DS when actually playing DS games, I'd imagine.
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Post by hidetoshidecide on Jan 13, 2011 18:10:24 GMT -5
Even then, can't expect miracles. There's a huge change in processor power compared to the original DS, and not so much one in the battery tech -- isn't this about what the batter life for the PSP is? Quite frankly I'm just glad to get more than 2 hours. Yeah, I'd say I 3-5 hours on max brightness is about what I get out of my 3000. My point is that I would be highly surprised if you actually get 3-5 hours out of the 3DS with anything like normal usage. You all that are saying that the 3-5 hours comes on max brightness with 3D on are, in essence, assuming that Nintendo is giving out the worst possible numbers. It's in their best interest to do the opposite. |
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Post by retr0gamer on Jan 14, 2011 13:35:08 GMT -5
Well traditionally Nintendo have always given out realistic figures for their consoles. I remember the PS2 fanboys on other forums working themselves up because the big three released the processing power figures for their consoles and the PS2 figures were about 10 greater than the Gamecube which was obviously more powerful. Turned out that Sony released theoretical no. of triangles figures and other values while Nintendo released figures they'd worked out from demos.
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Post by hidetoshidecide on Jan 14, 2011 14:48:03 GMT -5
If you can get 3-5 hours with the brightness on the lowest level, that would be a realistic number in the strictest sense of the word. I'm not accusing them of lying, just of being a bit deliberately overoptimistic.
Someone upthread mentioned that battery tech hasn't improved all that much: well, I have a DSi XL, and 4-5 hours is about what you get out of it on max brightness. Crank it down a level, and you can get another hour or so. That's with a much less powerful system.
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Post by acidonia on Jan 18, 2011 16:22:36 GMT -5
www.vg247.com/2011/01/18/nintendo-confirms-3ds-region-lock/So you put Region Locking into it just because of age ratings I do not belive that is the reason why you did at all Nintendo. If this was the case how come PSP and PS3 have worldwide age rating locks then but are still region free. Most take no notice of the age rating system's that much any way I mean the way PEGI rates certain games makes no sence for one.
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Post by retr0gamer on Jan 19, 2011 10:32:54 GMT -5
Yeah makes loads of sense considering there's no region locking between european countries which all have their own classification boards. We know what the reason is and it's not the think of the children one nintendo are giving. Love the excuse how they are worried that the games might not work of different region hardware.
No european price point either, it will be 'decided by the retailers'. Doesn't sound good, like 'don't blame us that it's nearly twice the price as in the US the retailers set the price!'.
HMV UK has just set the price after the conference at the criminal price of £230 ($367)
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Post by thethird on Jan 19, 2011 11:27:41 GMT -5
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Post by Ike on Jan 19, 2011 11:33:13 GMT -5
Didn't the Wii launch at 250 too? This thing is (supposedly) more powerful than a Wii, and it's got all that power crammed into a handheld, so that seems like a pretty reasonable price to me. Shit, if Sony's got the balls to peddle the piece of shit Go at $250...
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