Region locking. It's
been a part of gaming since it's rebirth in the late 80s at the hands of
Nintendo. The pins in the original NES
cartridges were of a different number than those in Famicom carts, so neither
could play the other's games. And
really, this has kind of boggled my mind.
Our industry has a history of region locking that...largely doesn't make
any sense if you look at it objectively.
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| Region Locking: Making you buy asinine add-ons to play your games since the 1980s |
First, what
is region locking? Well, it's basically
a system put in place, either through hardware or software, that prevents video
games from one specific region of the world, such as the US, Europe, or Japan,
from working on the same game systems from a different region. US games don't work on Japanese
consoles, European games don't work on US consoles, Japanese games don't work
on European consoles, etc. This might
have made a bit more sense when it was first envisioned, as in order to prevent
another video game market crash, Nintendo created some software lock out
procedures to make sure they had quality control of video games. They didn't want bootlegs being produced with
minimal effort and flooding the market.
This is likely how region locking became a standard feature in gaming
consoles and, to be fair, it made sense at the time. After the Atari crash, no one wanted to deal
with another market where several hundred games, many of low quality but still
sold at full price, were released every week.
However, it's twenty five years later.
I think it's time for the game industry to move on.
 |
| Ah, the NES lockout chip. Tool for building monopolies, controlling quality of games, and preventing imports...this was in the 1980s. Why have we not moved forward? |
Region
locking has understandable roots, but why has it been maintained? Honestly, I couldn't tell you. To me, it's never made much sense, other than
that's how it's always been. From a
business perspective, it actually does far more harm than good. The games industry has an unbelievably
diverse amount of tastes, genres, and preferred types of games. Trying to cater to all these needs is not in
the current game industries best interests.
AAA games require so much capital that they tend to try and appeal to the
broadest possible audience, while niche titles which can't afford a worldwide
release, thanks to translation costs or what have you, are only released in one
region. However, think about this for a
moment. If you, as a developer or a
publisher, have a game that you cannot release in another language, but there
is still interest from the gaming community, who want to play the game
regardless, does it not make more sense to have a console that can play your game,
thus giving these gamers a reason to buy your game from you? Set up a service, or work with already
existing services like PlayAsia, and sell your games directly to the consumers
who want them. You still make money,
since copies are being moved. And, if
interest is enough that you want to make a release in that language, chances
are good that even if the gamers bought the import copy, they will still buy
the new, translated copy just for convenience's sake so they can have English
menus or hear the dialogue spoken in their own language.
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| Originally scheduled for a US release, Grand Knights History remains a Japan only title. C'mon, Vanillaware! Partner with Amazon Japan or Play Asia and bring it over to us! Even untranslated, this game looks gorgeous |
This is
simple. No matter who buys your game,
you are still moving copies...however, region locking is an arbitrary limit on how
many copies of your game can ever be sold.
If, for example, a Japanese game is released for the Wii, which is still
region locked, and that game is only sold in Japan, that limits your possible
customers to the Japanese public. True,
that's several million people, but not everyone will want to buy your
game. Your market share is drastically
crippled by this action. Now, think
about what happens if region locking were removed and your game could be bought
online from Amazon without the insane shipping costs or extraneous fees. Your potential customer base goes from maybe
a few million Japanese Wii owners to several hundred million Wii owners world
wide. And no, not everyone may want to
buy your game, but if removing region locking got you one hundred thousand more
sales, wouldn't that be worth it?
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| Everyone loves the Wii, right? Not importers...this machine is near impossible to import for due to region locking. You'd have to buy a Japanese Wii |
Largely,
console makers have been waking up to this fact. Portable gaming consoles like the PSP and the
Nintendo DS are region free, allowing gamers to pick up Japanese or European DS
and PSP titles and play them, offering free publicity and sales to these niche
titles. The same could be said about the
PS3, which uses region free discs. This
is actually how Demon Souls, and by extension its sequel, Dark Souls, got a US
release. There were so many people
importing the game that From Software, the developer, took notice and gave the
title a proper US release.
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| An Asia only release of Demons Souls got an American release because people were importing it like crazy. That's the thing! Make it easier for us to get copies, translated or not, and we will give you money! It was so popular it even got a sequel, Dark Souls |
However,
there are still pockets of resistance that...really don't make any sense. The Nintendo 3DS uses region locking on it's online
services, so you cannot buy Japanese games on the Eshop unless you have a
Japanese 3DS. This is easily one of the
stupidest decisions you could make about the 3DS. For starters, there is no overhead with
digital games. No manuals, cases, or
discs need to be made. If an American
gamer wants a Japanese game on the Eshop, that is basically free money that you
are saying you don't want. Likewise, the
PSN and Xbox Live put similar restrictions on buying digital content from Japan or Europe. The question I have to keep asking is
why?! Those products are not subject to
refund, so quality control shouldn't be an issue, they are delivered over the
internet, so there is not an issue of production, it is basically free
money! And as recent as 2013, the Xbox
One at it's announcement said that it would have region locking. Why would you do that?! You still get royalties off the games sold,
so why would you limit your market like that?!
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| A step in the right direction, but why would you restrict digital content, Nintendo? That's even EASIER than cartridges to just give a free pass to on region locking! |
Video games
are a global market now and no longer just defined by region. Game and console developers need to recognize
this fact and embrace it. Embrace the
idea that you can sell a game in a foreign language to people not native to
that country. It will improve your sales
so so much. Look, the simple fact is
that right now, importing is something of a niche market. You know why?
Because the steps needed to be an importer are a lot of trouble. With the NES you need a converter to play
Famicom games. With the SNES you have to
make changes to your console. With the
Playstation or PS2 you need mod chips and with each of these consoles,
sometimes this doesn't work and you need a Japanese or European console to play
those games on it. It's a lot of
hassle. That's why you don't see the
kind of sales I'm saying you COULD have.
But selling games is just like squashing piracy. If you provide a better service, customers will
beat a path to your door. If you make it
as easy as buying a foreign game online, or even in a store, and just plopping
it into a gamer's machine with no hassle, you will see a huge increase in your
sales.
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| So long as this screen remains, you will be flushing hundreds of thousands of sales down the toilet, game industry |
I think
this may be one of the last great hurdles for the game industry to get
over. They got over censorship, they
managed to deal with digital distribution, they've even gotten to the point
where they no longer need to directly compete with one another, as Nintendo's
Wii and Wii U pursue a different market from the PS3 or the Xbox 360. Now, they need to get over this last hurdle
and not fear letting foreign games outside the borders of their home countries. Just like some US gamers will be entranced by
Umihara Kawase, some Japanese gamers will jump at the chance to play Spyro the
Dragon in its original English. Region
locking is an all around bad idea, games industry. You keep playing the pauper and saying that
pirates or used games are killing you...when really, you've shot yourself in
the foot for years thanks to region locking.
You want more sales? Remove
region locking and watch as the numbers start to climb.
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| Americans aren't the only ones removing region locking would benefit. Some western properties are just as popular overseas as eastern properties are in the west. Food for thought, guys |
The fact
is, in this day and age, after all that the game industry has been through, I
should not have to say this. But I
do. There is a huge market for import
games that is being ignored by the game industry at large. The only way many of us get Japanese or
European or Brazilian titles these days is through Steam. Games like Recettear or Class of Heroes are
Japanese games the US
wouldn't touch, but a few savy developers translated them and brought them over
for Steam players to enjoy and they have reaped the rewards of their
efforts. Personally, when I was in Japan I bought five Japanese language DS games
brand new because they weren't for sale in the US and I wish I'd bought more. Let me make this clear, games industry. Stop region locking. You hurt not only us, but yourself when you
do so.
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