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DS Handheld to be Region Free

Posted by Zonk on from the one-people-under-two-screens dept.

Thanks to GamingHeadlines for the news that DS games are not going to be region restricted. "Although this news may not specifically cater to American and Japanese folks, it certainly gives us Europeans the benefit of importing our DS systems from abroad..." I certainly think it caters to US gamers. Imported Japanese games can lead to wonderful things.

2 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Very cool. by Zangief · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And the original Gameboy too...

    Maybe some people will travel with their handhelds, and buy games overseas...Don't know how big is this market, but that may be one reason for Nintendo to do this.

  2. Re:Region locked? by kingsmedley · · Score: 5, Interesting

    To the best of my knowledge, the only region locked handhelds were the TurboExpress and the Nomad. But it should be pointed out that both these units were actually handheld versions of home game consoles (TurboGrafx-16 and Genesis, respectfully), and as such inherited their regional locks.

    I've never understood why regional locks seem to be so crucial to the software models of home game consoles, and yet so undesirable in the portable market. The only reason I can see for the difference is to cater to international travellers. Are the sales to inter-region travels really that significant?

    --
    Must... think up... something... clever!