Rumor: 3DS Won't Support Imports

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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Rumor: 3DS Won't Support Imports



An email believed to have come from Nintendo says you won't be able to play games from other countries on your 3DS.

Nintendo has announced that the 3DS will be available in Japan on February 26th, 2011, with a forthcoming release in other countries. For those of you who were considering jumping the gun and importing the handheld from the island nation and then buying games as they come out in your country, I have some bad news for you. An email alleged to have been sent by Nintendo support staff claims that both the 3DS and its game cartridges will have region codes on them, and if the codes do not match, the game will be unplayable. Nintendo handhelds used to have such region-locking but the company abandoned the practice for the DS and DS Lite only to bring it back for the DSi, DSi XL and now, apparently the 3DS.

"There are no Region codes in DS and DS Lite, but DSi, DSi [XL], and 3DS have region codes. The region codes are installed in each game and the 3DS itself," the email reportedly read. "You can't play if the region codes are different."

And just in case you need the situation spelled out for you, the email makes it clear as vodka: "For example, if you play a Korean 3DS game with a Japanese 3DS system (or vice versa,) you won't be able to play at all."

Keep in mind that the source of this email is unconfirmed and Nintendo has yet to officially state whether the 3DS will have such restrictions. Tiny Cartridge speculates that, if it proves true, the region-locking would satisfy publishers' needs to target specific audiences. One company might ink a deal to publish a game in a region like North America, while another company might handle publishing duties in, say, Australia, and locking software to regions will make this possible.

While the publishing deals that are region specific is certainly a big reason for such a plan for the 3DS, my bet is the rampant piracy of DS titles played a big role in Nintendo's decision to lock the 3DS. Region-locking won't end piracy, by any stretch, as I'm sure the codes can be hacked, but it sure doesn't hurt to make pirates jump through more code hoops.

Source: Tiny Cartridge [http://tinycartridge.com/post/2697905436/report-nintendo-3ds-region-locked]

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Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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Fine with me. I don't import games.

Except maybe Hotel Dusk 2...Need to do that soon.
 

Korten12

Now I want ma...!
Aug 26, 2009
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Ugh, why is the power button placed there? Honestly, where they put that, and the analog stick, I don't think I will be getting it.
 

Chrono212

Fluttershy has a mean K:DR
May 19, 2009
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But the region freeness was one of the reasons I wanted to get a 3DS :'(

Darn money and it's corrupting ways!
 

JediMB

New member
Oct 25, 2008
3,094
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Greg Tito said:
Nintendo handhelds used to have such region-locking but the company abandoned the practice for the DS and DS Lite
Lies. The Game Boy line was region free.
 

Jack and Calumon

Digimon are cool.
Dec 29, 2008
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I am upset. Certain games are too hard to come by if you don't act. I had to import TWEWY to get it. Same with Dragon Ball: Origins. While I enjoyed TWEWY more, I am still glad I got both and would be upset if I couldn't get them.

Calumon: But, Dragon Ball was awesome! D:
 

Recron

Professional Procrastinator
Jun 10, 2010
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if this is true then that kinda sucks I hate waiting for certain games like the pokemon and kirby games to come out here in the uk(seriously there was a year Gap between the US and UK release date of KSSU) so I usually import them but its no deal breaker.

"There are no Region codes in DS and DS Lite, but DSi, DSi [XL], and 3DS have region codes. The region codes are installed in each game and the 3DS itself," the email reportedly read. "You can't play if the region codes are different."
Really? my DSi and DSi XL can play imports just fine well at least imports from America.
 

D Moness

Left the building
Sep 16, 2010
1,146
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Chrono212 said:
But the region freeness was one of the reasons I wanted to get a 3DS :'(

Darn money and it's corrupting ways!
Same, i have a large stack of import ds games (american and japanese)
I mean many games do not even get released outside japan (even when they announce they will be).

edit : what is region bound on the dsi is the store. I do not mind if that is region bound as long as the games aren't.
 

manythings

New member
Nov 7, 2009
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Cuy said:
Wasn't this confirmed several MONTHS ago? Because people have been saying it when discussing the 3DS all over the internet for quite some time now. Don't have any source on it being old news, but still, anyone else know if I'm right in saying that?
Nintendo people or people who want to pretend they are in the know?

OT: Rampant piracy in the face of them releasing games that cost about 5 cents to make but sell for ?40. The bastards make money hand over fist, there is no doubt they will do anything to squeeze as much as they can out of the consumer. It wasn't that long ago they said it was going to cost X but since it seems to be popular we're charging a lot more... really it's your own fault for giving us good press.
 

Plinglebob

Team Stupid-Face
Nov 11, 2008
1,815
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JediMB said:
Greg Tito said:
Nintendo handhelds used to have such region-locking but the company abandoned the practice for the DS and DS Lite
Lies. The Game Boy line was region free.
What he said. I remember getting my hands on the US Pokemon release months before it was available in the UK. While I'm against region locking, I can understand Nintendo doing what it can to avoid piracy. Won't stop it though.
 

darkszero

New member
Apr 1, 2010
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What? Now people have one more reason to try to pirate the 3DS! Many people may want to hack their console just so they can disable the region lock. The "Gecko OS" for the Wii is an example.
 

Mr.Mattress

Level 2 Lumberjack
Jul 17, 2009
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I don't care. I only buy games that were localized in the United States.I have never ever ever bought a game elsewhere.
 

Tahmoh

New member
Sep 1, 2008
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Well the price was already a good put off for me so the fact they're removing region free games completly unsells it...tough luck nintendo i would have bought one if it were half the price and had region free games like the ds, but you had to get greedy so you've lost a customer(then again im pretty sure nintendo europe would have unsold it for me even if it had the things i wanted with their "we hate you" attitude).
 

drbarno

New member
Nov 18, 2009
1,273
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eh, I don't usually buy imports, except maybe with the yu-gi-oh world championship ones, from america. I don't get why I never see any british releases of the damn things.
 

MetaKnight19

New member
Jul 8, 2009
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This is why I kept my DS Lite. I hardly ever import games, but on the off-chance I do I'll have something to play it on.