13 Wii U and 3DS developers weigh in on Nintendo’s region-locking stance

Both of Nintendo’s latest systems are region-locked. The Wii U and 3DS are not capable of playing games outside of the country that the original hardware was purchased in. Want to play a Japanese-exclusive game on your US 3DS? Sorry, but you’re out of luck.

Nintendo’s region-locking policy has been in the news as of late, culminating with official comments from CEO Satoru Iwata. Iwata most-recently hinted that the company’s restriction isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Now, how do developers feel about the situation? NotEnoughShaders caught up with thirteen different teams – including Renegade Kid, Shin’en, and Broken Rules – to find out what they think. You can find a few excerpts below, and even more right here.

“In this era of digital distribution, region locking doesn’t make much sense.  Every game should be a simultaneous worldwide release, because DIGITAL.  Right now, we have to submit our games to NOA and NOE, separately. This slows down the process and can make it difficult to achieve a simultaneous release in different territories. Being able to submit one game to Nintendo, and then have the option to release in all territories would be a big improvement on the submission system.”

“The age rating boards also need to take note from the ESRB’s example of how publishers apply for age rating. The European age rating systems is something that also slows down the process for us.” – Jools Watsham, Co-Founder & Director of Renegade Kid

“Region locking is a restriction that content publishers of old wished for. We, being a young indie studio, are not interested in restricting or controlling the access to our games. The more people can play them, the better. From our naive perspective, it is that simple.” – Martin Pichlmair, who handles the business development and marketing side of Broken Rules

“Especially for handheld machines we think it is great to have no hardware region lock. Buying retail games on holiday would be much easier this way.” – Manfred Linzner, CEO of Shin’en