Nintendo Might Make the NX Region-Free

So, there are very few reasons to enjoy Region Lock. Sure, from a company’s standpoint, it makes sense; it helps deter smuggling and piracy, and it keeps a tighter grip on your control of the product. But from the customer’s standpoint, it’s often inconvenient, and it makes travel much more painful than it really should be.

Nintendo is one of the few companies in the hardware business of games that still insists on region-locking it’s devices, such as the Wii U and the 3DS. While it’s fairly simple to get around that on the 3DS with a copy of cube ninja (somehow?), it’s still greatly inconvenient for gamers and there has been a lot of pressure from Nintendo by their consumers to reverse their position.

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t bet on Nintendo removing the region-lock from it’s current hardware. But there might be hope yet for the NX. During a recent investors meeting, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was asked about the possibility of removing region lock from current consoles… and he had this to say:

“My understanding is that it is not realistic on the existing video game systems because unlocking them after they are already on the market poses a number of hurdles. On the other hand, regarding NX, we understand that many consumers hold such opinions and such suggestions exist in the market, and although we have nothing concrete at the moment, we are internally analyzing what hurdles exist to lifting region locks. That is the situation right now. We acknowledge your request, and I personally want to give it positive consideration.”

So the NX might be free of the Region Lock? Appealing. It’s a shame they won’t do anything to fix it for their current consoles, but, right now we should probably just take what we can get.