A long, long time ago, on an archipelago far, far away, console gaming was revived from the brink of obsolescence.
The time was the early 1980s, and the place was Japan. After Atari crashed the console market via over-saturation in the US, Nintendo managed to reinvigorate it in its home country of Japan, in the US, and around the world. With this gaming renaissance coming from a foreign country, a new issue arose; an issue that is still relevant to this day to a small, but growing, number of gamers: game importing.
Games are imported for a variety of reasons: wider selection of titles (as many games simply do not make the trip overseas for economic reasons), special freebies or collectibles included in copies of foreign releases, original language tracks, and early releases of titles (many games release in the market they are developed in first, with other regions following later). Even cost can sometimes be a factor, with some games selling cheaply in certain regions and more expensive in other regions around the world.
This practice has long since been discouraged by the game industry at large. Region locking existed even at the dawn of the gaming renaissance, implemented by Nintendo. Specific differences in cartridge design and pin arrangement were used to discourage cross-region gaming. This process was used in most cartridge systems to make the process of importing difficult. When CD media-based consoles were introduced, the region coding was embedded into the software itself – a process that continues to this day.
Console makers have often taken more litigious steps in order to slow or cease import adoption for a variety of business reasons. In 2006, Hong Kong import specialist Lik-Sang was sued out of existence (literally) by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for selling Japanese PlayStation Portable systems to European customers when the console was not yet available in Europe. The official reason for the lawsuit given by a Sony representative was:
“Ultimately, we’re trying to protect consumers from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards, due to voltage supply differences et cetera; is not – in PS3’s case – backwards compatible with either PS1 or PS2 software; will not play European Blu-Ray movies or DVDs; and will not be covered by warranty.” (Source: http://www.lik-sang.com)
The truth was far more obvious, and the lawsuit was a major victory for European retailers who had not yet received the consoles and a major loss for PSP-hungry Sony fans in Europe. Sony struck another blow against importing more recently in 2009, where supply of PS3 consoles into South Korea was temporarily halted to discourage Japanese tourists from taking advantage of a favorable exchange rate between the Yen and the Won and picking up the console at a substantial discount while traveling abroad. Despite Sony’s seemingly negative attitude towards the import community, the PlayStation 3 and PSP systems remain region-free.
This is fortunate for many Sony console owners, as for certain niche genres (such as Japanese-style RPGs like the Tales series by Namco Bandai), third parties are hesitant to release them locally due to questionable profitability. Sony also has a track record of limiting approvals of titles it deems “too niche.” There are efforts by fans to get the latest entries in the Tales series on Sony consoles (Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Graces F) properly localized, including a continuing campaign on Namco’s facebook page. However, many fans of that series have resorted to importing Japanese-language versions of the games in order to get their RPG fix. There are other games, like Grasshopper’s No More Heroes HD port that do not get US releases despite higher sales numbers in North America compared to Japan. Another blatant example of this phenomenon is the PlayStation 2 release of Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix by Square Enix remaining a Japan exclusive. The game was already dubbed into English and loaded with extra content compared to the original release, but never saw the light of day in the US or Europe. To fans wishing to play these games legitimately with minimal hassle, region-free consoles are a blessing.
Nintendo, who traditionally region-locks their home consoles but leaves their portables unlocked, has also had a few scuffles with the import community. In 2008, Nintendo released a firmware update that disabled a third-party disc that enabled cross-region play (between US/EU/JP) on the Wii console. The update was curiously timed as it was released near the USA launch window for Super Smash Bros. Brawl – a feverishly-popular title that was not planned for release in Europe for some time. The DSi console released in 2009 is the first region-locked Nintendo portable to be released – though it should be noted that the DSi region lock only applies to DSi-specific software (normal DS games from any region can be played on the console).
In Microsoft’s case, both Xbox systems were strongly region locked and due to its US-centric fanbase the import community for those consoles remains small in comparison to the others. Ironically, a few niche Japanese developers (including G.rev and Cave) signed exclusively with Microsoft to develop enhanced shoot-em-up arcade ports on the Xbox 360, despite the tepid sales of that console in the region. Nearly all of those titles were region-locked to Japan, forcing many arcade shmup fans to purchase import Xbox 360 consoles. After hearing a lot of noise from fans of their games overseas, Cave did eventually try an “experiment” in 2009: two of their latest releases, Mushihimesama Futari and Espgaluda II, would not be locked to the Japan region. Apparently the it paid off with greater sales for those titles, because a few months after Espgaluda II‘s release they announced a partnership with US localization specialist/publisher Aksys Games. Through that partnership they released one of their earlier shooters, DeathSmiles, to the US market as a fully localized product. Cave titles released in Japan after the partnership was announced (such as Ketsui, DeathSmiles II, and more) remain locked to that region.
Despite varying company attitudes on importing, the process continues to remain popular as gaming markets become more and more diverse across different platforms. It is a process that, while it can be damaging to marketing strategy of publishers, is good for the industry as a whole. Games considered “unusual” to a region and would remain unreleased can be a source of inspiration for the next generation of game developers. As the industry matures, new ideas will become the only way to sustain it. And as we are learning in a newly globalized society, there is no better source for new ideas than observing other cultures around the world. Fans of gaming are all over the world. There are opportunities for developers of niche titles to sell their titles internationally, granting them larger returns in the process. Region locking is an outdated, obsolete method of publisher profit protectionism that has no place in a modern creative industry, a fact that I hope publishers and developers begin to realize in the next console generation.
