Nintendo protects stores that sell their products.
As they should
Jaysonguy
Region locking is stupid. It is an outdated anti-consumer practice that doesn't protect anyone, and misses the point of a global economy. More often than not all it does is ensure that people in the U.S. can't get games released in Japan or Europe that never get released stateside, and vice versa. Most people hacking their consoles (not just the Wii) to break the region lock are doing so to obtain and play titles that were never made available in their region.
Nintendo protects stores that sell their products.
As they should
Jaysonguy
And prevent people from one country to purchase the same game in a different country because that country sells it for less. Imagine what will happen if Japanese retailers found out that they are competing against American retailers like Walmart selling Nintendo games for less and their customers are importing them from the U.S. Many Japanese retailers could not compete and will go out of business. Hence, Nintendo decided to region-code the Wii.
DVD region-coding works the same way to prevent DVDs from competing against films currently released on cinemas.
Nintendo protects stores that sell their products.
As they should
WylFret
Region locking is stupid. It is an outdated anti-consumer practice that doesn't protect anyone, and misses the point of a global economy. More often than not all it does is ensure that people in the U.S. can't get games released in Japan or Europe that never get released stateside, and vice versa. Most people hacking their consoles (not just the Wii) to break the region lock are doing so to obtain and play titles that were never made available in their region.
It protects the businesses in that region
If people buy 1 million copies overseas then that's 1 million less opportunities for stores in the region to sell the game.
It's basic economy. That global economy argument doesn't hold water, it has nothing to do with it.
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