region locked

[flamepanther]

The pricing is one reason. They also don't want to piss off publishers of localized versions whenever those might differ from region to region. Since a game might have different publishers across different regions, they don't want consumers undercutting the publisher with a later due date just to get the game sooner.

[CRTGAMER]

Also Amazon locked. As a U.S. customer I can't buy a PAL game thru their site.
Don't know if that is a Euro law or Amazon assuming the PAL game won't work on a U.S. system.

[Curlypaul]

@flamepanther - thats a good point, was reading earlier about tatsunoko vs capcom was originally going to be JPN only as the rights to tatsunoko characters had been licensed to different companies in US and EUR which caused them a headache.

@CRTGamer - thats just bullshit isnt it?

[avrame]

Another sideeffect/reason that I saw due to region locking was availability. Remember how chaotic it was when the PS3 was released in America? The release units were flying off the shelf, and Sony couldn't keep up in the first few months. Thus, due to it's region free capablities, alot of Japanese people were making a quick buck off us crazy Americans who'd import the system from over seas. I remember this got wildly out of hand to the point that liksang (remember them?) received a C&D order to stop reselling systems for a profit.

In that case, Sony was making a killing on console sales, but they weren't happy that their 'primary' market's consoles were not reaching their intended target.

[ZeroAX]

Also Amazon locked. As a U.S. customer I can't buy a PAL game thru their site.
Don't know if that is a Euro law or Amazon assuming the PAL game won't work on a U.S. system.

Amazon. Amazon.com Doesn't want to lose revenue from Amazon.co.uk, and vise versa. If you want new games, pm me and I'll give you a cheap online store which ships games to the US.

[MrPopo]

Also Amazon locked. As a U.S. customer I can't buy a PAL game thru their site.
Don't know if that is a Euro law or Amazon assuming the PAL game won't work on a U.S. system.

There was a marketplace seller I was able to buy BoF 3 for my PSP from.

I know from Cave's history of releases that to make a 360 game region free it has to pass muster with the Xbox standards board of every region you want the game playable in. This costs time and money. And as mentioned, if you make it region free you can alienate potential localization companies, and when a game gets localized it tends to sell more than a similar game that is region free but in a non-native language.

[alienjesus]

Also Amazon locked. As a U.S. customer I can't buy a PAL game thru their site.
Don't know if that is a Euro law or Amazon assuming the PAL game won't work on a U.S. system.

Amazon. Amazon.com Doesn't want to lose revenue from Amazon.co.uk, and vise versa.

I'd say this for sure. I tried to buy a DS game (region free) from Amazon France (which is in the same region as the UK anyway) and I couldn't.


I also read in a magazine that one of the reasons Nintendo changed the shape and design of their NES cartridges to make them region locked was due to an influx of pirate Famicom games from other parts of Asia that they didn't want cutting into their revenue in other regions too.

[the7k]

Americans can't buy from Amazon.co.uk anymore? When did this happen? I remember buying Agarest: Generations of War from them...

Anyway, region locking is mostly a matter of greed. Nothing has exemplified this more than Bandai's reaction to anime on Blu-Ray.

America and Japan share the same regional code on Blu-Ray. Due to this, they are afraid that if they released, say, Cowboy Bebop on Blu-Ray in America for the reasonable price of $35, Japanese people would import the American version rather than pay their domestic price of $100+ for two episodes. (You think I'm joking, but seriously - the prices for anime DVDs in Japan is way past the point of high-way robbery.)

[Breetai]

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

Probably has to do with the western coverage Rapelay had hahaha

Nothing to all to do with that. It had to do with the Japanese script code used being incompatible with Windows XP and earlier versions of Windows. This was a common problem with Japanese games until Vista.