Region locking is, in this writer’s opinion, an archaic, outdated piece of bullsh*t that only still exists because, whilst developers and publishers and manufacturers want to go into the 21st century, they only want to go into their 21st century. One where they can nickel and dime you at every opportunity with everything thanks to the Internet and the act of importing (which has never been cheaper or easier) is curbed as hard as possible; something that’s practically impossible in this day and age no matter how hard you try.
Unfortunately, today, one company showed that it’s not planning on moving into the real 21st century. That company is Nintendo who announced today that their upcoming Wii U console will, in fact, be region locked. This means that if you were to buy a Wii U in North America but wanted to buy a game from Japan and play it on that console… you can’t. It simply won’t work, end of story.
Nintendo confirmed the news to CVG this morning, though it’s hardly surprising. They’ve always region-locked their consoles from the NES to the Wii and, most recently, moved it over to their handheld consoles with the 3DS. So, whilst it’s not surprising, really, it is still disappointing. Region locking in today’s connected landscape is, as I previously stated, an outdated mechanism. One that actually fuels the very pirates it seeks to try and stop. When is the games industry going to come up with a way to stop the pirates it complains about so much without screwing over their actual customers? Seriously, I want to know.
