Nintendo, I'm mad at you. Really mad.

[gumby_trucker]

Ostro said:

manuel said:

anonymunchy said:
I would assume region locking is a consequence of the different laws in different countries.

That's what they say, yes, but the laws were also different in the days of the Gameboy and DS. I think that's all bullshit, especially since Sony consoles are still region free.

Uhm, they have to built in region locking. It's not like it's always there and they unlock it. So they spend time and money on implementing it. Why? Because laws restrict them. Games are not just rated differently but could also be censored or banned. You are an adult, fine. A whole lot of Nintendo's customers are not (but you don't care, right? It's all about you! :P). Nintendo is doing this to be safe from further law shit that has happened during the last decade and will become more and more because companies and even states and unions love how easily they can get money out of it. Some kid is playing a Japanese banned game in Europe? Oh, let him pay tax first, take away that game and sue Nintendo around $1m or ban their products for a while because they used a simple technology that some moron was able to patent in some weird country - it's that easy. Sony's consoles may be region free but all the DLCs are not. You have to circumvent it and they are ok with everyone having tons of different profiles on their consoles just for purchases. They do the same thing, just with digital content. And Sony still is bigger than Nintendo on a whole.

As for the other issue: Nintendo's network has always been bad. They have nice ideas but lack tech and sub-companies (just look at Sony and Microsoft, what they actually are). Nintendo is not thinking global, that's what they do wrong and it might become what makes them go down. Not bankrupt, but less important and unknown, like my favourite speaker producer.

There's a real simple way to get around that while still providing every game to every region:  Any game that has the potential to recieve an adult rating or otherwise require censorship in order to be sold to minors globally should simply be made available exclusively on eshop, unless there is also a localized version. Furthermore, it should only be possible to purchase these games with a credit card, so that prepaid cards aren't an option. Gifting could also be disabled for such games.

This guarantees that if you buy these games you are either the owner of an international credit card (which as far as I know isn't given out to minors) or someone with an international credit card made the purchase for you, meaning they had to approve of your purchase or otherwise agree to help. This would be akin to receiving the permission of a parent or guardian, which I believe is good enough to remove any responsibility from the seller. At the end of the day a minor could still get around this with help from an adult that wasn't their guardian, but it would be no different from getting someone to purchase alcohol for you if you were below the legal drinking age - in which case the seller wouldn't be at fault.