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Nintendo DSi Software Will Be Region Locked
aliquis writes with news that software made for the recently announced Nintendo DSi will be region-locked. Nintendo's reasoning is that the DSi "embeds net communication functionality within itself and we are intending to provide net services specifically tailored for each region." It's also been discovered that accounts with the DSi's online store won't be linked with the Wii store, so points for one won't work with the other. Nintendo has stated that they don't intend for digital distribution to replace retail sales. We discussed the DSi's announcement last week.
The more I hear about the DSi, the less I'm interested in it. I think I'll hang on to my DS Lite.
mod parent funny, and if the option is there, mod it ridiculous as well.
Unless someone invents a workaround.
And that's bound to happen.
If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made.
Sounds like something Sony would do. I guess once you have a near monopoly on handheld gaming devices (apart from phones) you can do what you will
SSC
Regionally tailored content I can understand, but you could:
Just do a check on the region, and have a default if you have no content tailored for that region
Region locking is especially painful when it comes to portable devices. When I travel, one of the advantages of a DS is that if I see a game I am interested in, I know I can buy it and play it regardless of where I bought my DS.
All I can say is that this greatly reduces my enthusiasm for the device as it becomes more clear that Nintendo want to keep the region restrictions that allow the crazy price variations viable. In Australia it is still cheaper to buy a console and games from the US and pay shipping than buying them from the actual storefront.
Mod GP insightful
One of the most innovative games I have for the DS, Electroplankton was import-only because the distributors though Americans wouldn't like it.
Well there goes any intention I had of upgrading. I have many import games. I also have many domestic games. I am not going to get two DSis just to play them all.
Yet another reason I cannot wait to get my hands on Pandora. My primary gaming handheld is currently a GP2X, but I am starting to outgrow it for non-gaming purposes.
I was in India a couple of months and i saw some young college engineering nerds playing "street cricket" on a Japanese Wii, the game was not polished but the neighbors were complaining that they are having fun for quite sometime. I think it is high time Nintendo opens up its software before it gets out of hand.
So Nintendo has the opportunity to finally bring their On-Line services into the competition.
Right now MS is in the lead with Sony fast on their heels/close to passing them depending on who you talk to while Nintendo keeps shooting themselves in the foot.
First friend codes, then friend codes per game, then you can't run downloads off SD cards, and the Wii is the only system this gen without a hard drive (well, that and the XBox Arcade which is also ridiculous).
Now then pull this stuff? (sigh)
Either it's the same person all the time or this athiests dialog is going to become the next Slashdot meme.
Nintendo's just too concerned with their profits to actually care about our needs. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the games they make (DK Jungle Beat, Wind Waker, every Metroid game, anything really that's 1st/2nd party), but I just hate the way their company's ran. Exhibit A: Nintendo absolutely hates piracy. They'll do whatever it takes to stop people from pirating games, such as trying to block homebrew (if you don't remember they tried to block the twilight hack, and removing the GBA slot can only mean they don't want people hacking their DSi's to pirate games) and blocking unofficial discs (that includes action replays, people). Exhibit B: Nintendo always says things are "impossible" so they can earn more money. Take, for example, the DVD incident. Nintendo said that "it would require more than a firmware upgrade to play DVD's", and that they'd sell a Wii that could play DVD's for more money. However, some hackers found out that the Wii disc drive CAN actually play DVD's and made some homebrew to get it working. Exhibit C: Their business practices are kinda mean. I mean just look at what they did with Gunpei Yokoi! Not only was it their fault the Virtual Boy was a failure but they didn't even give him a second chance. I'm glad I'm getting a PS3 soon, sony's the only company doing things right this generation.
"Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded." -Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Atheist Mom didn't remind Atheist Son to use protection when he screwed the hooker!
The enemies of Democracy are
It was a /b/ copy pasta from years and years ago. This is nowhere near new
I have never really understood region locking, and I was never able to get an answer from people on why they did it. Is it just a method of control? Forcing people to only buy their region, and to wait for release of a product in their own, (or be SOL if it never comes). That really pisses me off if so.
Can someone explain that to me if they have a better understanding of it?
At the age of global free trade, when companies can legally utilize anywhere in the world the lowest cost labour, cheapest material, biggest tax advantage - is it still legal for companies to limit consumers with region locking?
Your right in that Nintendo seems to be on a general path to region locking and Sony seems to be doing the opposite. Regardless, the DSi issue especially is a shock to many because the time to pull a switch like that would have been when the original DS was released. Changing their policies mid-game feels a bit cheap.
One thing that I want to point out is that in a few spots the region locking was differing hardware/features. Usually the actually region locking was ridiculously light otherwise. There was no game of making modchips that had to use stealth modes not to get caught.
I don't own a PSX either, but I do have one PSX-J game. I play it on an emulator because I would rather not have to buy a Japanese PSX. It'll be the same for the PS2 when I get fast enough of a computer. The PS3 was pleasant a surprise after those two. But still, Sony isn't too innocent with their PSP firmware race and blu-ray video regions. They are just the good guys right now. Are PSP movies regioned too?
In the end, most games are licensed for sale and usage in their specific regions. Until the big three stop putting that ridiculous label on everything, I will stay weary of all three. (If I was wrong somewhere in this post, someone please correct me.)
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
This is just stupid. The excuse for delivering content based on a region (or using specific servers for that region) is dumb. All they have to do is run a quick check on the current IP address and it'll tell them what region you're in (spoofing need not apply). No need to hard code any of this shit. Is Nintendo _that_ incompetant or are they trying to rip everyone off?
I actually don't think the NES and SNES were region locked per say. At least not intentionally.
The hardware between the FC and the NES was very different. The cartriges had a different amount of pins, meaning games had to literally be ported. The lock out chip (famous for creating the blinking power light and yellow screen) wasn't made to create separate regions, it was created to keep cheap/pirated games off of the market. The last revision of the NES removed the lock out chip functionality from the console itself.
If you noticed the totally different designs between the SNES and the SFC, this was because Nintendo was pretty damn sure a system with the SFC design wouldn't sell in the US. With the cool image that the Genesis was letting off, I don't think they would have been wrong with how toyish the SFC looked and it's multi-colored controllers. This was also after the NES, which revived the game market. The NES originally had a much slicker design for the US market but it sold horrible. Nintendo didn't want to repeat the same mistake that way either. Thus, Nintendo released a new, boxy system with boxy cartridges that was fairly large and used muted colors much like the NES, but fairly different from the FC and the SFC. The boxy, large designs were also employed in the cartridge shapes.
Another words, the cartridges being different sizes was not for region locking. If they were trying to create regioned cartridges, Japanese cartridges would not simply fit in and work in a SNES.
The first Nintendo system to have actual intentional region locking was the N64. Up until that time, I don't think any one had ever thought of doing that. It just wasn't in people's minds. Thankfully, there was a popular system that came out before the N64 known as the PSX that had shown Nintendo there was another way. ;-)
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
Replace "christian" with "Iwata" and this pretty much nail my views on this region locking crap, comming from Australia where we always get ripped off on a platform independant level.
Make SELinux enforcing again!
...of accepting the region locking if and only if it's for content specifically tailored for smaller regions.
Cause I for one would not like to receive offers to participate in an ARG with the DSi as the crux if it's taking place in New York City while I live in Los Angeles.
It would make me sad. Like all the email announcements I get about the events happening at the Nintendo World Store in, guess where, NEW YORK!
I'd hate to sound so US-centric with this post but it does affect me. The US has what, four main time zones? Nintendo would be idiotic to consider it as one region for the purpose of bonus content tailored to the "region".
Well not between the US and Japan anyway. I mean it just used a couple of plastic tabs to keep you from plugging the cartridges in. Remove the tabs and you can play any Japanese or US game. (My N64 is a Japanese one and yes I played tons of US games on it.)
My first experience with region locking was with the PS/2 (purchased in Japan and unable to run games from anywhere else). Never again. Never.
What a stupid idea. Stupid!
I can't buy my wife most video players for sale in the US for the same reason.
Rules 1 and 2.
I will stay weary of all three.
I was weary a long time ago. Maybe it's time to go to bed. Perhaps you meant "wary"?
(If I was wrong somewhere in this post, someone please correct me.)
No problem.
-Your friendly local spelling and grammar nazi
Enjoy your new puzzle!
91degrees will not be buying a DSi.
A feature that makes the hardware not run certain applications is of no use to me.
One would think they'd try to make it better than the DS!
Right now I feel like times are changing back again. With low-cost netbooks on the rise, SSDs and OSes burnt on to Bioses we're going to see more of this stuff creeping out into the computing world. It's the only way MS can attempt to enforce their Windows Family lockin. By providing inflexible hardware with some locks bolted on to them. I feel like the 80s are coming back, with Atari, Comodore and Archimedes stepping back into the ring.
Oh well, time to switch to the Pandorra for handheld gaming then.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
moral of the story: Atheists love to party!
Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
There is NO justification for region lockout. None.
Say you develop a video game based on a book. Copyright in the book has expired in your region, but the copyright still subsists in another major market. You do not want to be sued in the other market for copyright infringement. So you region-lock your product to reduce your exposure to copyright lawsuits.
Case in point: Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. Barrie wrote the novel Peter and Wendy in 1911 and willed the copyright to Great Ormond Street Hospital. The United States copyright expired in the 1960s under the Copyright Act of 1909's publication plus 56 years regime. But under the life plus 70 years regime in effect in Europe, the copyright subsisted until 2008, and GOSH demanded royalties for any copies distributed in Europe.
Games don't have a "cinema" release
They used to during the 16-bit era, when it was called an "arcade" release. A lot of games would come out on SNK's NeoGeo, Capcom's CPS, Midway's T Unit, etc. first and then six months later on the more popular consoles such as Sega Genesis and Super NES.
Yes, Catholic priests hump choir boys in ALL regions.
(That said, most poo-poo heads who use the "athiest" misspelling are of the Jack Chick brand of Protestant hate-choir anyway and dislike Catholics almost more than us non-slavesouls.)
Dear Nintendo - I live in England. I have a great fondness for Japanese games. I am also interested in playing games that come out in the US that will never be released in Europe because of translation/licensing issues. I happily pay stupid prices to import games, and I have absolutely zero interest in pirating them. (I pay *really* stupid prices to import PC games from Japan, as anyone else with my habits can sympathise. DS titles are easier.)
Frustrations with region-locking are a reason I don't own a 'big' console, and there's no way I'm buying a DSi if it's going to be like this.
I was a completely easy sell if they hadn't muffed it, but if that's the way it is, I have an awful lot more non-locked games to play.
I've gotcher 'Women In Gaming' RIGHT HERE!
I'm a tech geek, always interested in new gadgets,it's a shame that new nintendo will be locked but at the same time it will be a good opportunity to buy different nintendo consoles at cheaper price online. How? Well for all the tech geeks that are constantly travelling and that have so many gadgets, its good idea to swap online your things for nintendo consoles, region locked ones of course depending on the country your in. But don't trade it for money, swap it for something that you might have that might be of interest to another person. I've found this really good site where I've been swapping stuff. Check this site www.ourswaps.com It's great!!Post replies to see if you found nintendos from specific region, ideal for those travelers that need to have their gadgets all the time