Quote:
Originally Posted by Keroko
What legal issues would prevent a company from making a game region free? PC games aren't bothered by it, why consoles? Even economy becomes a weak argument when faced with todays global market. China might have less spending power, but why prevent those who are able to buy it from importing it?
Really, region restrictions are a relic from the old days where the difference between NTSC and PAL actually mattered to the point where games could have problems functioning. This is no longer the case, yet region locks still exist.
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Getting a game approved and rated in every country, afterwards having it go through customs and a ton of various obstacles.
Ie: you get your game rated by ESRB as Teen, but the customs/other departments may not approve of it because the game is about brainwashing and killing people in your country and promotes politics which your country may not support. An extreme case might be, lets say, a typing game intended for kids and teenagers, but the stuff you type out deal with communism and American invasion of foreign countries - do you think the US government would let such a game be published on American soil? The company might just region lock the game to Asia so their North American branch does not get sued when kids in America gets their hands onto the game and their parents become enraged.
Lets say your game is ready to ship in North America but the Asian countries such as Japan and Korea are taking their sweet time going through even single piece of dialog with a handheld dictionary. A company can just region lock the game and release the NA version ahead of time in North America.