why do we still have region locks?

[Wintermoot]

it,s the year 2011 people are importing and exporting goods so why do we still prevent people from playing games they LEGITIMATELY IMPORTED on the systems they were designed for?
I get it with older games with the PAL/NTSC formats but my sisters US imported WII works fine on our PAL region TV set and the hardware isn't that different from any other WII in the country.

it also get,s weirder with the 3DS you could easily play your imported copy of a Japanese game on your US DS so why can,t you do the same with 3DS games?

I might get translation and cultural differences but people that port stuff generally don,t care about that.
PS
I forgot to add remember DVD,s and PC games aren't technically region locked I buy some of my games from the US and Germany (same with DVD,s) and have no problem running them on my European OS.

PPS
also remember that some games NEVER get to be released outside of JP like .hack//Fragment.

 

[DasDestroyer]

The same reason we always had them - greed. Prices vary from one place to another, so to prevent people from buying stuff cheaper than they should, they make the games region-locked.

 

[Aurgelmir]

The same reason we always had them - greed. Prices vary from one place to another, so to prevent people from buying stuff cheaper than they should, they make the games region-locked.

This and the fact that this let the distributors release the games at different times.

It takes time to translate for Europe, so with a region block they can release the game in the US and then release in Europe a few months later.

 

[DracoSuave]

Region locks are a complex issue, but it often has to do with licensing.

Say there's this sweet Japanese show I want to watch. Call it 'Super Soldier Saturnus' or something like that. Or S3. Yeah.

Now, let's say S3 is produced by NamcoBandai. Show becomes a hit in Japan, so it gets noticed for potential localization by, say, Disney. Disney acquires the North American distribution rights, so any north american release is strictly their legal purview.

Now, let's say there's a company 'Japanese Awesome X' and what they do is import Japanese media. They legally buy it in Japan... however they then transport it here, and now they run into a legal problem; They legally own those copies, but the right to distribute those copies is not theirs... those rights were sold to Disney. Bandai doesn't have the right to give them permission to sell in the US!

Because of this, the company that made the DVD standard included a region locking clause to enforce the interests of companies that distribute in foriegn markets. Now, while Japan to US is indeed a lucrative market, the international distribution of US media is SO. MUCH. BIGGER.

The companies that tend to distribute in japan... Sony, JapanVictor, Toshiba, etc... are also the companies that happen to make new media formats for entertainment media. So they do so to protect their own distribution interests.

 

[Peter Storer]

The problem as far as I am concerned is that it punishes legitimate purchasers more than owners of pirated versions.

And its getting worse.

I recently moved from Australia to Canada, bringing a large number of DVDs with me. My wife came over before I did, and bought a TV. When I got here I bought a multi-region DVD player. This is when we discovered that not just players, but a lot of TVs are now region coded, so even with a multi-region DVD player I can't play my legitimatly purchased Australian DVDs. Had I bought region free pirated discs for 1/10th the cost, I would have no problems.

My solution is to have the TV for region 1 discs, and a decent sized computer monitor next to it linked to the dvd player for all other region discs.

 

[Wintermoot]

The same reason we always had them - greed. Prices vary from one place to another, so to prevent people from buying stuff cheaper than they should, they make the games region-locked.

This and the fact that this let the distributors release the games at different times.

It takes time to translate for Europe, so with a region block they can release the game in the US and then release in Europe a few months later.

like I said people that port don,t care about the game only being in another language.