Many have complained about Nintendo’s habit of region locking their consoles/handhelds. Most of us have just accepted it as a way of life. Honestly, I do not mind too much. The reasons are fairly legitimate, such as the difference in pricing from one region to another, staggered release dates for the regions, as well as regional sensitivity to the gaming content. I do admit, though, that it does get frustrating when a game is released in Japan, but not in North America.
A group of hackers have made progress in navigating around the 3DS security systems. The above image is a sample of a notification screen the hackers have released. Some are concerned that this hacking could clear a path for piracy of games. Jools Watsham had the follwoing to say:
“Piracy on the Nintendo DS crippled the DS retail market, especially in Europe. … If piracy gets bad on the 3DS, we will have no choice but to stop supporting the platform with new games. …
The good news is that Nintendo has the ability to put up a good fight against pirates due to 3DS system updates and such. Let’s hope this is enough to stop piracy.”
1 Up’s Jeremy Parrish voiced similar concerns:
“The underlying intent of hacking a machine like this is to open the door for piracy. … The advent of 3DS software piracy seems likely to be the worst possible thing that could happen to the system, especially in the U.S.
I can’t help but worry that the only thing helping to prop up the 3DS’s meager U.S. software sales so far has been the fact that you have to buy them to play them. Take away that limitation, and will we see the 3DS market implode the same way the DS market did? It’s hard to imagine otherwise”
What are your thoughts on the subject? Obviously, Infendo not myself condone piracy of any kind, but is by passing the region locking a form of piracy? What about the potential for homebrew games?
I do not know how to feel about it.
I changed my mind. If they can open the ambassador games for us unlucky ones I say hack it. My wife wants one download but cant have it. If nintendo is going to be stupid then they will have to face the consequences. I do not think this is a system that everybody will want to hack.
Nintendo isn't helping either, here in South America is impossible to buy on the eshop, so we have to recur to this. I'm Okay buying retail games (I prefer that) but I'm completely unable to buy virtual console games, that sucks
I despise the region lock. As a PAL 3DS owner I am going to be denied Etrian Osyssey 4 in February. I'm a huge fan of that series yet I cannot legitimately pay and play it!
I will insta-hack my 3DS the very day the region lock is broken and then BUY EO4.
And I assume many more USA RPG's as well.
My thoughts on it…I'm not surprised anything can be hacked now a days.
I say, let the hacking commence, but just for the annoying region locking.
Yes, games get pirated all the time. Games also get stolen from retail stores all the time. Yes, it hurts sales. But it's not going to hurt 3DS sales by any large margin.
I hate the stupid region locks! To override it is NOT a form of piracy! It's like Braveheart would put it: Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedooooooooooooooom!!!
Region locking sucks. I hope it soon becomes well known how everyone can do it. But I don't want to see piracy of software.
At this rate, with more and more people wanting to hack the 3ds, I can say that it will be only a matter of time that Japan will stop localizing their games to us as a whole. There isnt much that the Japanese companies can do about Piracy outside there country (other than complain about it to the feds) So they would most likely just stop releasing their games outside their own country. Which would mean no more JRPGs an that would be "NO BUENO, SENIOR~".
The only good thing I can say is that, most softwear companies have their own messures to stop piracy- by coding the games to crash when it get's hacked. But even then, I dont think that would be enough to stop this. Soon, it will be SOPA all over again….
I'd only hack my 3DS to get rid of that region-lock problem and import games previously not available before. Had previously dabbled a bit in getting workarounds on my Wii to work with non-NTSC games that I really wanted to play like the Japanese version of TvC before it made it's way to North America.
yaaa I'm in for piracy it weeds out the week and the great games thrives.
there's been a time or too that I have pirated a game (and thank god I did)it saved my some money but in the same breath it made me go broke… when fallout 3 first launched i did not know what the hell all the fuss was about… some one at best buy said just go to (___) and get it from there, and I did and now I'm a Bethsoft fanboy and bought and own every thing from them as of to date… the one game I Booted from (___) made bethsoft A good chunk of change from me and I will be getting fry cry 3 to boot… in this day and age when money is hard to come by its a waist of money to throw it away on crappy games
P.S. If you want my money make a great game
I'm all for no region lock. However, I'm sure the piracy scene will start running rampant. That part, I think is distasteful and a horrible thing to do.
Though, If I can import a copy of Project Mirai 3ds and play it on my US 3ds? Definitely.
Buy games people.. don't leave the dev. high and dry for selfish reasons. :/
I care about one thing and one thing only: Getting past that region lock.
I'm currently living in Europe and I want to be able to play the games I see at stores instead of costly importing (I'm from Canada).
Nintendo asked for this to happen if you ask me. Surprised it took this long.
If Nintendo lifts the region-lock then I wont bother hacking my 3Ds. If they dont… then I'll have no choice. Between getting games and not getting games I'll take getting games.
I'm actually trying to give Nintendo my money and they keep refusing it…
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