Nintendo making Freeloader redundant?

[mr_sockochris]

if you read through the thread you will see that its people with import consoles having problems running the PAL Zelda - rather than PAL people having problems running NTSC Zelda

camps

Yes, but that's not the point he's making

[wod]

why cant u just buy an import machine if you want to buy import titles its much easier, its obivous that nintendo will add things to stop freeloader from working on various titles later on .

[Popo]

Its ironic that people will shell out multiple 20 quids on Freeloaders, but still claim importing is expensive

Hmm, I for one never said that - if Nintendo found a way to lock out imports, I would give up. There's absolutely no way I can finance getting into the whole proper import mess, as well as keep up with the plethora of games being released across all formats and finance the rest of my life.

It works with Animal Crossing, and for me, that made it all worth it. Maybe there will come a time where Nintendo will chose to face the wrath of Europeans gamers and not release a big profile title over here, and that will make me sad, but when it comes to the great balance of things, my finances are more important than the few games I may miss and a waiting period that, ultimately, I can stand.

[Ish]

You'd think a more productive approach from Nintendo would be to improve the all PAL/Europe side of things and make Freeloader redundant that way.

<soapbox>Funny how corporates encourage and talk about a free global market on the one hand (mainly to exploit cheap labour) and then try to control it on the other (mainly to price things as high as they can in various parts of the world). Pet peeve.</soapbox>

[FreeStephen_2]

why cant u just buy an import machine if you want to buy import titles its much easier, its obivous that nintendo will add things to stop freeloader from working on various titles later on .

Because in terms of sales figures buying an import machine is the same as piracy.

For every import Ikaruga bought , one less PAL one will be bought and the cause of hardcore gaming going mainstream suffers just that little bit more

[wod]

yes i can see that but until the day i dont have fecking borders on my pal games, import games will do me fine.

if nintendo want to **** about there pal region, then so be it.

if they'd listen to people then they might find out want people actually want.

[nonny]

Ah crap, and I just bought a PAL GC and Freeloader only last week... ft:

Might sell it for a US/JPN machine if this continues...

[Firsty]

STUDIES SHOW THAT FOR EVERY FREE_STEPHEN POST READ, ONE CHILD IN THE UK CRIES

[replicant]

Because in terms of sales figures buying an import machine is the same as piracy.

What a crock of ****.

[saif]

I would say that this is the thin end of the wedge. The reason it has been implemented at all is to stop imorting. They have gone to the trouble of putting it in and PAL imports to NTSC regions are not exactly major. I think, therefore, it is fair to assume that the lockout will be present in, at least the first party stuff, if not the major third party aswell.

****ed basically. Nintendo Europe hate importing and will do whatever they can to stop it.

[Firsty]

And now that I'm not trolling.
It was always obvious Nintendo would do this.
I just think it's funny that they do it with PAL Zelda.
PAL FFS. The late version.
The best way to import of course is to own the hardware from the territory you import from. Easy with today's online shops. Also great if you know peeps abroad.

[Magnakai]

rep, FreeStephen's got a point.
Nintendo Europe don't look at the sales figures, and compare them to the US ones, and add them up, they look at them for this region or this country or whatever. It is detracting from the PAL region's software and hardware sales.
However, perhaps software publishers should look at why people import. If they reduced lead times (a lot, for some games) and increased the quality of conversions, I know that a lot of people wouldn't import as much.
But then, on the other hand, you've got the people who wander into game and buy X-Men 2: Wolverine's Revenge by the bucketload, and these are the people who make the real money. And thus we realise that we don't really matter all that much, and that things won't get better.

The real reason that people like Nintendo are scared of imports, is that magazines such as NGC are running features that basically command you to import. I guess they're scared that it'll get big.

[Brats]

If importing makes PAL sales figures suffer then I can only see it as a good thing. Hopefully it will make Nintendo Europe get their arse into gear.

I thought things would get better once THQ got the sack. A trained monkey could have done a better job of planning release dates than NOE.

[tankplanker]

Do release dates really matter? If you didn't know that the game you are looking forward to came out 3/6/12 months ago in the US/JPN you wouldn't miss it?

There are more than enough of the good games (if you are lucky enough to have all 4 of the current next gen formats) to keep you going 24*7 regardless of release dates - getting on the import train just means you get there sooner.

I guess by following the US/JPN releases closely you are dooming yourself to a life of region envy...

Of course there are great games that never make it to euroland, Animal Crossing being one of the more obvious recent games to have never made it over here, and this is the reason that I import, for the games that never make it.

[davejm]

Do release dates really matter? If you didn't know that the game you are looking forward to came out 3/6/12 months ago in the US/JPN you wouldn't miss it?

When I was little, the kid next door got a bike for his birthday... even though my birthday was only 2 months away, I hated him for it. I wanted mine now.

EDIT:- whoops, misread the post. The fact is that most people that import DO know that the game they are looking forward too came out. It's kind of stating the obvious really... you can't miss something you don't know about.

There are more than enough of the good games (if you are lucky enough to have all 4 of the current next gen formats) to keep you going 24*7 regardless of release dates - getting on the import train just means you get there sooner.

I guess by following the US/JPN releases closely you are dooming yourself to a life of region envy...

Yep, there's nothing worse than waiting ages for a train to arrive.

Of course there are great games that never make it to euroland, Animal Crossing being one of the more obvious recent games to have never made it over here, and this is the reason that I import, for the games that never make it.

Yep, thats one of the reasons. I think most people that take gaming as a serious past-time want to play the new games as early as possible often at a cheaper price too.