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The Lowdown on 3DS Region Locking

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    The Lowdown on 3DS Region Locking

    Now that the 3DS has gone international, I want to know, what's the region locking like? Is it a "developer" chooses case like with Pok?mon, which somehow released totally region-free, despite having 3DS-specific features. So does anyone here know if this is the case with actual 3DS games, as in, are some region locked and some aren't? Or are they all region locked?

    #2
    Japanese SSFIV on Canadian 3DS: Not recognised.
    Canadian Ghost Recon on Japanese 3DS: Not recognised.

    I guess it'll be like this with them all, but I'll keep trying what I get and see.

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      #3
      Bummer. Have you tried one of those nintendo games, like Nintendogs + Cat or Pilotwings

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        #4
        Will try Pilotwings when I finally get it but Dogs+Cats I'm not wasting my money on.

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          #5
          Nintendo say it's up to the developer but... I'd be willing to bet that regionless games are few and far between.

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            #6
            Originally posted by abigsmurf View Post
            Nintendo say it's up to the developer but...

            Source?

            I'm still not sure whether to import or not.

            -Saving about $100 on the console and then $30 on every new game is a big difference, BUT I have to wait at least 2 weeks for it to get here.

            -JB Hi-Fi often sells new DS games for around $50 (as opposed to $70 anyway, and they also have the console for $298 (as opposed to $350), BUT here the game can stay for $50 for years, while on Amazon the prices drop quickly.

            -If I buy it from the US and it breaks under warranty or because of a manufacture error, I might have to pay to have it fixed, BUT there may be games I want from the US that don’t get released in PAL regions.

            -I’m sick of how Nintendo treats PAL regions.

            AGH! Any advice?

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              #7
              I imported. I figure its cheaper, the US isn't likely to miss out on games like we are and are more likely to get niche games and they have a much bigger selection of downloadable games. In fact, even if you go PAL, I would still import. Australia misses out on so many downloadable games due to stupidly the high classification fees. If you import a european one you can still play local games, but you'll have access to a lot more of the 3ds/dsi ware and VC stuff when it launches.

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                #8
                JP SSF4 & JP RR3D doesn't work on UK machine and UK Pilotwings, UK PES2011 & UK Nintendogs doesn't work on JP machine. So Glad i got a JP Unit for launch now

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by mekanor View Post
                  I imported. I figure its cheaper, the US isn't likely to miss out on games like we are and are more likely to get niche games and they have a much bigger selection of downloadable games. In fact, even if you go PAL, I would still import. Australia misses out on so many downloadable games due to stupidly the high classification fees. If you import a european one you can still play local games, but you'll have access to a lot more of the 3ds/dsi ware and VC stuff when it launches.

                  Huh? I can't think of any downloadable games for WiiWare that were released in Europe but not Australia. Oh, well, there's Shantae.

                  I wasn’t really asking for myself anyway, but my little brother. We decided to buy locally anyway, for the convenience, and the price for the system wasn’t a big difference, especially considering he got a bonus case and screen protectors when he bought it.

                  I’m confident that the economy isn’t going to stay this way very long, and soon importing will be just as expensive as (if not more than) buying here, when the exchange rates go back to how they used to be.

                  But I have a feeling I may regret this...
                  Last edited by Big A2; 03-04-2011, 13:12.

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                    #10
                    By all means, get a NTSC 3DS. PAL sucks, specially if you're into JRPG's.

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                      #11
                      Yeah, I love JRPGs. I think we're going to sell the PAL one on eBay and get a US one from Amazon, before we have too many games and it's too late.

                      A few more important questions:

                      1) Is the power input on North American/Japanese and PAL consoles the same (so that an Australian charger will work on a US console)?

                      2) Will a NA 3DS connect to an Australian internet connection fine? And if so, would we still be able to access, say, Pok?mon events with a NA game on a NA console but an Aussie internet connection? People from Euope with American Wiis, do you get firmware updates?

                      3) Will local play work between NA/Jap/PAL consoles/games or are they just totally locked, or does the developer decide? I suppose if worst comes to worst, me with NA console and friend with PAL console could just connect to the internet together and play through that.
                      Last edited by Big A2; 04-04-2011, 07:19.

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                        #12
                        Aussie DSi/3DS charger is fine

                        Internet is fine

                        Local street pass (and I assume multiplayer) is also fine

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                          #13
                          "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

                          You know, being Aussie import buddies and all...

                          Okay, maybe not.



                          Thanks anyway.

                          So did you just order the charger from Nintendo of Australia or what?

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                            #14
                            heh, happy to help. There are one or two other locals on here but that's about it. I guess the site does have "UK" in the title...

                            Anyhow, I already had an Australian charger from my DSi. If you've got one of those it will work fine, or you can order them from Nintendo, they're pretty expensive I think though. You can also probably buy a 3rd party one from EB or something for cheap.

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