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?
