Sadly the New Nintendo 3DS is still region locked
Because they like to squash your life dreams, Nintendo has just confirmed that the New Nintendo 3DS models are still region locked.
That means unless you can read Japanese and are happy playing Japanese games importing one of the new models from Japan isn’t the wisest of ideas.
Disabling the region lock on a mid-generational update of system wouldn’t have been a crazy idea, after all they did add region locking to the DSi when that was released. All traditional DS games are and will always be region region however.
In 2013, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata was asked by IGN about region locking, he loves it but at the same time knows why we might not. “From some people’s perspective, it might seem like a kind of restriction. However, we hope people can appreciate the fact that we’re selling our products worldwide,” Iwata said.
“There are many different regions around the world, and each region has its own cultural acceptance and legal restrictions, as well as different age ratings. There are always things that we’re required to do in each different region, which may go counter to the idea that players around the world want the freedom to play whatever they want.”
Still sucks balls.
Apparently there’s someone (or some group) of people who are working on a Homebrew Channel for the 3DS with a workaround the region locks for legitimate games (pirated games won’t work with it).
For us PAL gamers who thought we’d never be able to play games like Rune Factory 4, this may be the only way we can without having to buy a different region console.
What really sucks is that Iwata’s statement there just doesn’t stand up to any sort of casual scrutiny. I’d be more forgiving of Nintendo over this if they had actual legitimate reasons, but those 3 issues are anything but.
Cultural acceptance: Justifies Nintendo or a 3rd party publisher deciding to not do a local release for a particular title, since a limited market would probably make it unprofitable. Does not justify Nintendo preventing gamers who don’t have any such problems with the title (such as ex-pats, or just people who are more open minded) from importing and playing the game on their consoles. Just because a lot of people outside of Japan might not appreciate a Taiko drumming game doesn’t mean that it should be denied to those who would appreciate it and don’t care that it’s all in Japanese.
Legal restrictions: Justifies Nintendo or a 3rd party publisher deciding to not do a local release for a particular title. But that is the limit of their legal obligation. They are not in any way legally required to prevent gamers who from importing and playing the game on their consoles. The legal consequences, if any, would be borne by the importer. It would very much be a “do this at your own risk” issue for the consumer, but that’s not Nintendo’s problem.
Different age ratings: Justifies Nintendo or a 3rd party publisher deciding to not do a local release for a particular title (if they feel an adverse rating would make the game sell less and be unprofitable); deciding to alter a local release so it can obtain a desired age rating; or deciding to hold off on release until the age rating can be obtained. But again, that is the limit of their legal obligation. They are not in any way legally required to prevent gamers who from importing and playing the game on their consoles. The legal consequences, if any, would be borne by the importer. It would very much be a “do this at your own risk” issue for the consumer, but that’s not Nintendo’s problem.