Region locking...why?

[Vyse of Arcadia]

I could understand it on older hardware. The Japanese and US SMS and Famicom/NES both had differences in sound channels. But why on modern consoles? What really is the purpose of keeping people from playing games from one region on a system from another?

I assume money has something to do with it...always does. But in that case, why are portable systems (GG, GB, GBA, DS) generally region-free?

So, lets speculate! I don't have any real theories, so how about you guys offer some up?

[Mr Smith]

So they can sell games at different prices throughout the world. Over here in Europe things are often more expensive than in the US.

I believe also pirating is cited by game companies for regional lockout, but the cynic inside me reckons it's more to do with screwing us out of a few extra pennies.

[Rusty Venture]

I believe it's for money....and to piss us off.

[Zebbe]

Region lock-outs are made to make money or to piss people off. In Alien Soldier's case, it is the latter. It was never released in the US, but the EU version is still locked from the Genesis.

[108 Stars]

Most companies are parted into different divisions. Sega Europe wants to have good sales for themselves, it doesn´t help them if people in Europe buy the US-version. That´s the main reason.
I don´t know why handheld´s have always been handled differently.

[system]

The lockouts are employed in order for publishers to sell stuff at different rates in various parts of the world and keep people from importing as a result. Europeans are usually screwed over whereas people in the NTSC territories get the lowest prices (PS3 pricing is a good example of this - where I live, the 60G model is $900).

[Rusty Venture]

I never understood why it wasn't feasible to do a worldwide release date on one day.

I also feel this way about movies and DVD's as well.

[Elusive]

I never understood why it wasn't feasible to do a worldwide release date on one day.

I also feel this way about movies and DVD's as well.

Sonic Twosday, Mortal Monday (Sonic 3hursday?) :P

[David J.]

It's to prevent cross importation.

Now why are Japanese RGB and Euro SCART have different pinouts?

[j_factor]

I think another part of it is the difference between release dates, and the fear of too many people importing the earlier release.

Part of it may have been for liability/legal reasons. As a quick example (really bad example, this is just off the top of my head, hopefully you still get the idea): Sega signed an agreement with MS for Shenmue II to be exclusive to the Xbox in North America; if there weren't any territory lockout on DC, they could've been accused of "encouraging" people to import the European DC version.

From what I've understood, handhelds have been different because of the idea that you're more likely to travel to other countries with it. Also, until very recently, handheld software was considered a minor market.

[Psy]

So they can sell games at different prices throughout the world. Over here in Europe things are often more expensive than in the US.

I believe also pirating is cited by game companies for regional lockout, but the cynic inside me reckons it's more to do with screwing us out of a few extra pennies.

Region logout increases piracy, if you are going to modify your system to by pass region lock out to play imports odd are you are also going to by pass its copyright security (it doesn't take that much more time in the shop). Every time I modified one of my systems to make it play all regions, I was asked if I wanted it to also play "backups".

[Rusty Venture]

Sonic Twosday, Mortal Monday (Sonic 3hursday?) :P

You had Mortal Monday in England?

High five!

[JUNKER]

What the heck is Mortal Monday? And yeah, I agree:How come handheld systems have no lockout, but consoles do? Makes NO FUCKING SENSE!

[Rusty Venture]

Mortal Monday was the release day for "Mortal Kombat" on home systems back in 1993.

[Sen]

Main reasons are legal/licencing issues and differences in sales taxes as far is I know. The main reason games are more expensive in Europe is because we have much higher taxes. Importing from beyond the EU is evading taxes.