region locked

[Lord_Santa]

this may come off as a stupid question, but I've always wondered why games are region-locked?

why is it that consoles insist, even to this very day to "lock out" each-others regions?

is there a fundamental reasonable explanation that I as a European should not be able to enjoy games from the U.S. and Japan without actually modifying my console/game; or worse yet buy a console from another region?

[ZeroAX]

this may come off as a stupid question, but I've always wondered why games are region-locked?

I mean PC-games (and that includes all personal computers AFAIK) don't have any kind of restrictions as to where in the world you live

why is it that consoles insist, even to this very day to "lock out" each-others regions?

is there a fundamental reasonable explanation that I as a European should not be able to enjoy games from the U.S. and Japan without actually modifying my console/game; or worse yet buy a console from another region?

1) PS3 and handheld consoles are region free. So we are getting there.

2) There is a considerable price difference from EU to US to Japan. Add the ever changing currency difference, and publishers could lose a lot of revenue from markets with a strong currency. At least they have started to give us lower prices. If only slightly (Sonic 4 is 15$ in US PSN store, and 13€ in the European store, so things are getting better)

3) I think it has a lot to do with local distributors. Last year there was a crack down on Greek sites which had subtitles available for download. Not movies, just movie subtitles. The legal reason for this, was that local distributors bought the exclusive rights to subtitle and distribute the movies, and the fansubs were hurting their sales.

So when it comes to video games, these companies are run by old men who don't know the first thing about how the world works since the internet was invented. So in order to secure maximum profits, and please local distributors (since they are getting extra revenue from them) in a broken business plan borrowed by the movie industry, they region lock consoles.





Also it might have had something to do with PAL and NTSC in the past, but I hardly doubt it, since both Japan and the US use NTSC but their games are region locked from one another. Plus EU TVs have been able to run at 60Hz for over a decade now.

[Hatta]

Greed.

[noiseredux]

well DVD's are region locked too. I just think it has to do with distribution rights. IE: one company has distro rights in the US, so they don't want you buying the movie from another region and losing $. Ammiright?

[Lord_Santa]

well it makes some sense

but as far as I know PC-games are not region-locked

please correct me if I'm wrong(?)

:edit

the 50/60hz was what made most sense to me =)

(greed is of course always a factor to calculate in questions like these)

[ZeroAX]

but as far as I know PC-games are not region-locked

some are. Abe's Exodus worked on all Windows 98 systems, but it wouldn't run on a Win XP machine from a different region.


Also I think hentai games only run on Japanese versions of windows

Probably has to do with the western coverage Rapelay had hahaha

[irixith]

well DVD's are region locked too. I just think it has to do with distribution rights. IE: one company has distro rights in the US, so they don't want you buying the movie from another region and losing $. Ammiright?

Bingo. It's all tied up in distribution, licensing and copyrights. You get a game boy cartridge shaped cookie.

[noiseredux]

You get a game boy cartridge shaped cookie.

[Lord_Santa]

Also I think hentai games only run on Japanese versions of windows

Knights of Xentar was my introduction to JRPG's

[Curlypaul]

Also it might have had something to do with PAL and NTSC in the past, but I hardly doubt it, since both Japan and the US use NTSC but their games are region locked from one another. Plus EU TVs have been able to run at 60Hz for over a decade now.

it would also seem that a lot of consoles are able to run at either setting just based on some hard wired jumper configuration. So if the machines are identical for all regions why the hell should they region lock them?

I read an interview with of an Nintendo employee who was asked this question, and he gave the answer that it was to do with censorship laws in the different regions. Eg Manhunt 2 was banned in the UK for several months after it was released in different regions so the region locking would prevent me from playing it. The argument seemed sensible at first but then Australia is in the PAL region and famously is very strict on censorship so that doesnt work.

Also, if that was the reason then why not lock the handheld games as well?

I think the only reason it to stop people from importing from a cheaper country and hurting their profit.

Personally I prefer to collect PAL games and the only reason I would want to import is if the game never got released here, or the japanese got a superior version, in which case I've got a headache on how best to play the damn thing.