During the Q&A portion of Nintendo’s latest financial results briefing, president Satoru Iwata was asked about region-locking. Nothing was really said either way with regard to disabling it for future hardware, but Iwata did share some encouraging comments.
Here’s the complete response:
Q4: At present, your company’s hardware and games make use of region-locks, by which games purchased in one region cannot be played in another region. Are there any plans to unlock this restriction?
A4: Iwata: The game business has a history of taking a very long time with localization among other things, such as having to deal with various issues of marketing in each particular country, or games that have made use of licensed content that did not apply globally, and had all kinds of circumstances, so to say, that region-locks have existed due to circumstances on the sellers’ side rather than for the sake of the customers. In the history of game consoles, that is the current situation. As for what should be done going forward, if unlocked for the benefit of the customers, there may also be a benefit for us. Conversely, unlocking would require various problems to be solved, so while I can’t say today whether or not we intend to unlock, we realize that it is one thing that we must consider looking to the future.
This is the second time Iwata has discussed region-locking in the span of about a year. He also talked about why Nintendo implements the restriction for its systems while speaking with IGN last June. You can find those comments right here.
We still have about a month to go before the holiday shopping season, but retailers are getting started early with deals – including video game offers.
Walmart, for example, has a few deals running on November 3 that would normally be reserved for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Consumers will be able to purchase a 2DS system for only $79 this coming Monday. Head on over to Walmart.com shortly after midnight Pacific Time to participate in the sale.
2DS systems are normally priced at $129.99. However, retailers have regularly discounted the handheld to $100 in recent months.
Thanks to Jake for the tip.
Last week, the refurbished Wii U Deluxe with Nintendo Land bundle sold out on Nintendo’s website. The product has since returned however and can be ordered right here. You’ll need to fork over $200 for the bundle.
Nordic Games purchased a number of THQ IPs last year including Darksiders. Now you can add another franchise to the list: de Blob.
Nordic announced today that it successfully acquired de Blob from THQ. The company’s Reinhard Pollice said:
“de Blob is just a great and truly unique franchise. We are excited about what the future holds for this polychromatic extravaganza as the newest addition to our portfolio. We will evaluate opportunities with the existing games, as well as potential sequels.”
At least for the time being, it’s unclear how much Nordic paid to acquire the de Blob IP.
A patch for Youkai Watch 2 will be out in Japan on December 13, Level-5 has announced. The update will be available for the game’s two versions, and offers the following:
– S-rank version of Jibanyan and Koma-san
– New boss for the Youkai Busters mod
– “Honke” version nets you Super Saiyan Koma-san
– “Ganso” version nets you “Super Saiyan Jibanyan
– Both bosses are included in Youkai Watch 2: Shinuchi
The December update will also allow players of the original Youkai Watch 2 games to transfer save data to the new Shinuchi version. By connecting all three versions, you can obtain the Black Oni.
