Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Wii U to be region locked

Famitsu reported that the Wii U is region locked. This must not come as a surprise as most consoles are having the same "feature". Only Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 had put the region lock into the publishers hands. This means that in most cases, you can buy a game from anywhere in the world and play it on your console, unless the publisher has decided not to let you do that with their game(s).

Those  European and Asian gamers who wish to get their console early by importing the US model will have to also import games from the US.  It also means that if you are an avid Japanese games player, and want that Japanese exclusive game, you'll also have to buy the Japanese console as well.

picture taken from gameoverviews.com


Region Lock has nothing to do with hardware or format as every console with region locks has been bypassed by hackers. Not that I support piracy, I always believe that the best way to fight it is by offering a better service than what hackers can manage to "Unlock".

So, what are your feelings about region lock? Is it a good way of protecting regional licensing and market, or just another way of restraining the players to have the most out of their console?

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