There may not be a lot of people who are affected by this, but for a general majority, this is a major problem and it is something which is very hard to avoid, that being Region-locked games.
The major consoles does this but the handheld is clear from this, thank goodness. If you belong to a certain region, like in Australia, the chance of being able to play American games is like using a bow and arrow to hit a target from a good distance away. You won't be able to hit is unless it is by chance, how what you are doing or have been proper training in the field to know about it.
Sure there maybe region-free games, such as some of the shoddy ones and less important titles, but I'm taking about the must games for systems. I know they "will" eventually come out, but we don't want to wait 4-6 months (at least)! If it like we are in a backwards country and being penalised for living in a region with better resolution television. Honestly, rather than waiting for it to arrive, we import stuff, such as games, but thing is, region-locked due to the television format, feel sorry for those who are using SECAM television sets.
But once we start importing those games, that's one less game for that country and eventually, this may cause a crazy stir within the export and import country. Right now, it is cheaper for Aussies to start importing American games due to the exchange rates, mainly because we are paying double the price it is here than in USA (explains those Aussie piraters). Don't need to mention about the shipping and cartages, since chances are, it may not be printed and manufactured in the same country and require a double importing.
Apart from costs and the wait, there may be a game which are exclusive to a country, such as Zoids (I personally never played the game as someone had to use my eBay account just to get one). It was exclusive to USA and Australia was left out of the release schedule all together. I personally regard Australia to be the greatest place to live are we aren't constantly being greeted by gun totting hoons wanting to loot us for our wallets and a crazy president who doesn't know what to say, but hey, everyone has their preferences and wouldn't want to move to America due to the privilege of getting games earlier than Australia. We could also import the systems, but that means that we have to constantly import games, make sure our television sets can handle it and pay for importing charges, as nothing is ever free in the world.
Now, the playing field is changing due to the insurgence of High-Definition television, but it is causing everyone headaches as there is no "one" certain HD format, instead, we have a choice of 26 (at least) and this is due to increase. To those morons who can't make up their mind, just settle on one as this is causing everyone to live in the stone age of High Definition television for more than 8 years. Hell, it took less time to invent NTSC, PAL and SECAM in total, hell, they even made a wad load more cash at the time.
Honestly, a system which doesn't have a region-lock on games, which includes movies and other viewable stuff, it would really do wonders in sales and countries which tries to profiteer at least three-fold in comparison to a bigger country (such as USA), can go take doped up $100 notes, at least a mil worth and shove it up their arse!