1. Kind of. They didn't really look at what the games actually were, but the supervised with the ordering process and obviously inputted all of the personal info. I recognize this is an abnormal case though.
2. Nintendo makes a lot of money, and these people are a relatively small market. They'd probably try to avoid anything that could cause any sort of problems with parental controls. They probably want to avoid any sort of problem that could ever exist whatsoever with parent controls in order to maintain a family friendly image.
Granted I'm just playing devil's advocate at this point. I yeah'd dozens of Miiverse posts, posted a couple of my own, and tweeted about this. I think that it's definitely within Nintendo's best interest. And whoever brought up the Europe/Australia thing had a good point.
Actually, I'd advise against it. As this campaign is on a roll now, it is better to keep it at one. I would love a general Nintendo account system (Wii U and 3DS), but now is not the time. If we would start many petitions at the same time, we risk that Nintendo ignores them all.Feel free to start one.
The fuck?
So it seems like the main reason they want to region lock the 3DS is due to their Parental Controls system. How they can't handle games from different regions if the system is unrestricted. The hilarious thing about this is that they already do handle games from different regions.
I tested this out with my Australian bought 3DS (identical to European 3DS systems) and tested with a variety of European and Australian games.
We have different ratings systems, Europe uses PEGI and Australia uses the ACB. A rough equivalence of two ratings systems are (there are exceptions):
PEGI --- ACB
3 --- G
7 --- PG
12 --- M
16 --- MA15
18 --- R18
So I set my 3DS to Australia, and restricted my rating to MA15 (the highest the 3DS allows for some reason). All of the European games worked (even Resident Evil Revelations), except for Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor Overclocked. SMTDSO was not released in Australia and therefore has no local rating. Also, Shantae Risky's Revenge didn't work, as that was not rated locally either (the DSiWare shop stores ratings info). All DS games worked.
Next thing I did was set the restriction to G, the lowest. My European Animal Crossing worked, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D did, as did any other game that was rated G by the ACB. Anything that was rated higher than G, even if it was a European version of the game, didn't work. The same to games that were not rated locally.
I set the system to PG to see how it handled games which were rated differently in regions. My Australian version of Kid Icarus Uprising was rated PG, but it was rated PEGI 12 in Europe. Of course it launched fine when restricted to PG. I set the system to Europe, and PEGI 7. The game didn't work, as it was rated PEGI 12.
So the things I found out:
- Games store information on multiple ratings systems and use that for Parental Controls
- For imported games, it will take the ratings information for your local ratings board if it is available and use that for parental control use (assuming your 3DS is set to your local region).
- If there is no local ratings information, it will block the game on all ratings levels.
- DS games have no restrictions.
- DSiWare games do have restrictions, and if the game has not been rated in your region it will be blocked.
Actually, I'd advise against it. As this campaign is on a roll now, it is better to keep it at one. I would love a general Nintendo account system (Wii U and 3DS), but now is not the time. If we would start many petitions at the same time, we risk that Nintendo ignores them all.
This is spreading pretty good now, let's keep the ball rolling. Do you guys think that if we make a website/forum for this movement more people will join the cause?
I'm sure there's Nintendo Fans outside of Gaf upset by this.
Gobs of new media coverage!
9lives (Belgium)
Consolewars (Germany)
Explosion
Gamereactor (Sweden)
Games.it (Italy)
Geekosystem
Gizmodo (Spain)
HarveyLo
Neoseeker
The Nintendo Home
Nintendo Insider
nuffTech
Se7enSins
Stern (Germany)
That VideoGame Blog
Ubergizmo
Vadejuegos (Spain)
VG247
Vooks (Australia)
Nintendo has no plans to remove region locking from our systems. By taking this approach, Nintendo is able to include parental controls and ensure compliance with regional standards and rating systems.
The more news sites this gets picked up by, the better.Nice, each refresh seems to add a couple more signatures. Should hit the goal today.
They did remove that nonsensical restriction.Also, has Nintendo Europe removed the restriction on buying adult rated games from the Wii U store yet? Weren't the hours something like 11pm to 3am? What a fucking joke that was.
Nintendo is one stupidly run, fucked up company at times. You couldn't make this shit up even if you paid someone. Except of you're Microsoft with the DRM debacle.
The more news sites this gets picked up by, the better.
Nintendo's response stinks of BS as usual when it comes to these sorts of things. Why, if the case is what they say it is, we're handheld systems until DSi region free?
Also, has Nintendo Europe removed the restriction on buying adult rated games from the Wii U store yet? Weren't the hours something like 11pm to 3am? What a fucking joke that was.
Nintendo is one stupidly run, fucked up company at times. You couldn't make this shit up even if you paid someone. Except of you're Microsoft with the DRM debacle.
I finally make a Miiverse post about this and got negative responses for suggesting I won't buy Pikmin 3 if there isn't even a response to this.
https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAABAADOUV52CmkVBA
This is so true, haha.oh and:
what the hell has NOA to say nowadays anyway? they are puppets and stand even below NOE.
stern? really? coolio!
No, that's just a convenient excuse.So it seems like the main reason they want to region lock the 3DS is due to their Parental Controls system.
No, that's just a convenient excuse.
But it's nice that you conclusively proved that.
Why would it be an excuse? The business-oriented logic makes even less sense.
Rich is putting up his article on Iwata today.
EDIT: I'd also like the ability to have different region eShop accounts on my WiiU. I have a Japanese system and can't watch Netflix on it
Because they could easily block out of region games for kids and give parents the possibility to unblock them.
Kids aren't going to import anyway. The only way they get in touch with out of region games is during vacation.
That's pretty much what they are doing, just not very gracefully with parental controls. Also online shopping is a thing.
No. that is not what they are doing at all.
They are block you as an adult from playing a game you bought while traveling abroad for your handheld.
They are releasing games that are not being localized outside of Japan and preventing you from playing them.
Rich is putting up his article on Iwata today.