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Virtual Console - Regioning - Why?
Magus`
The fun has been DOUBLED!Registered User regular
The fun has been DOUBLED!Registered User regular
Can anyone come up with a good reason why Nintendo is preventing us from downloading games that only came out in other parts of the world? Yes, I realize that for most people it would be useless as they don't want to play games that aren't in their native tongue. However, many games don't require a lot of reading and can easily be played with no knowledge of what is being said.
Could they not just have a very easy to see disclaimer that states that the game(s) in question is(are) not in English/Japanese/etc. and let us go from there? If anything, this would get them more money, right?
If I'm missing a huge obvious reason, let me know.
Could they not just have a very easy to see disclaimer that states that the game(s) in question is(are) not in English/Japanese/etc. and let us go from there? If anything, this would get them more money, right?
If I'm missing a huge obvious reason, let me know.
Magus` on
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Good enough as one reason?
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Now, that's just not fair.
Everyone hates Europe. Even Europe hates Europe.
If anything, it would be harder. That would be more times for who owns the rights for what to become jumbled up into a weird legal mess.
They could easily give us both options. They can fucking eat me if they think I'm paying money for a shoddy PAL port with slow down and black borders.
A) Legal minefield. Different versions of game have different distributors, and distribution contracts are still intact. In fact, some games go so far that they have seperate distributor for different countries within region. You can just imagine what kind of legal hell solving these contracts would be.
C) Censorship. Little Hans from Germany buys "Hitler no Fukatsu" from Japanese VC. Shitstorm would be huge, and Nintendo as a distributor would be once again held legally responsible.
D) Money. It is easier to squeeze money from region if you control where they can buy titles.
E) Though certain people believe that world's circulates around them, most people wouldn't be happy if their games would be different / faster / harder / easier than they remember.
These are exactly same reasons why Microsoft has started to restrict Xbox Live accounts and why Sony's store is officially limited to your own region.
猿も木から落ちる
Bob, why do you have to go and do that?
We should all be like Fonzy and just be cool.
On topic, the regioning thing is kind of odd although the licensing issues make sense. It would be nice if we could have everything Japan is getting at the same time though.
Distribution? PR? Oh yeah, adding in of black borders and slowdown because you're too fucking lazy to fix it.
Besides, this is the virtual console, you don't need regional based digital distribution, it's pointless.
Time and time again, I've always felt screwed when japan gets an awesome game like tetris grandmaster ace and we get THQ's sucky tetris evolution. I can't buy Tetris grandmaster ace due to regioning. I feel frustrated that I can't get a hold of what I really want because THQ makes a crappy tetris version of it in the states.
The legality and localization are just excuses in my opinion.
The only Japan-only games I'd really like to see on the VC are owned by Nintendo and Sega anyway, and one of them was briefly available on Sega Channel.
I think Nintendo is more worried about pissing off all non-English speakers in Europe because they didn't translate something from the US. Also, who knows how well their emulation handles an NTSC game on a PAL TV.
If they made an "import shop" where it would be understood that (a) the games aren't in your language and (b) the games aren't rated by the local content rating group, that'd make me very happy ... but I have a feeling the headaches they'd get not only from pissed off customers who don't know better and the headaches they would get having to get international IP rights scare them away.
But then again, I'm not actually up to date with the VC.
But maybe it's because I'm in Belgium, and no game ever came out in my native langue.
If you don't speak English or French by the time you outgrow the cradle, you're left behind on the doorstep of a nunnery - so for some of us it's a non-issue.
But clearing up licensing issues in other regions, etc, DOES add costs, and the fact that most consumers don't want to play games in languages that they can't read, would make nintendo weary of those costs, because they may not be able to recoup them
I wouldn't be suprised if we eventually saw some games coming out in non-native regions, but even then I imagine that they'd be localized first.
Da.
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