Why Not Make All Games Consoles Region Free

[mib_]

There are many more reasons to have games not be reason free:

ratings systems in each territory
import/export problems
restrictions in certain territories on games (in germany games can't show blood)
marketing/boxart/cart-disc art/instruction books

to give an example, if there were no region restrictions, many domestic (US) stores would carry all sorts of japanese games that are not intended for US audiences which may or may not contain dialog or depictions that would be controversial here. By placing restrictions on regions, game companies can make sure that they are not liable for anything like that. IIRC if a game is not rated by the ESRB, there is no obligation for the local seller to check ID regardless of the local laws.

Basically having games specific to regions is done out of necessity.

Pretty much spot on... oh and language variations of course.

The code between western, euopean and japanese versions is substantial.. that's why we have different territories. It certainly isn't the game companies or the console manufacturers that are enforcing the region encoding... it's an agreement between the different governments... and it will probably never change either. It nothing to do with money either.

[pt9087]

Yer Region Free

[Voltron]

Region Free!

That would be cool. What would be even better is if games were released in all regions at the same time. Its agonizing to see Japan get tons of great games first. These games sometimes take more than 6 months to finally get released in the U.S.

[Accordion]

try living in the uk, you think its hard waiting for USA releases... hahahaha