ShareThis
Despite petitions from its fans and the policies of its competitors, Nintendo appears to remain dedicated to region locking its consoles, including the New 3DS and New 3DS XL.
For those unfamiliar with the term, region locking is the practice of make hardware and software from different regions of the globe incompatible. In other words, a region locked system from North America will not play versions of games released in Japan, Europe, or other, non-North American markets. While this was once the norm for the industry, Microsoft and Sony have both moved away from the practice. Meanwhile, Nintendo continues to cite differences in regional culture, rules, and regulations as the primary reason it continues the practice.
I personally have never seen region locking as too much of a deal breaker, largely because the turn around time for release from region to region is much quicker on average than in years past and Nintendo puts a great deal of effort into localizing its games specifically for each market. That being said, there is still the occasional game that takes forever to find its way to some markets (the North American release of Xenoblade) and I could definitely understand how the practice inconveniences expats and world travelers. Ultimately, I want what is best for the consumer, and I believe that would be moving away from region locking.
Nintendo will release the New 3DS in Japan this year and in Europe sometime in 2015. While no official statement has been made regarding the North American market, it usually gets new Nintendo hardware between the Japanese and European releases, so we will need to wait and see if that continues to be the case.
Source: Gamespot
