As a Nintendo fan... I'd agree.

Sony is a great company, but Nintendo has all the games I like, so it's hard to switch.

That's understandable from a business standpoint, but I'm the customes and I feel cheated.

It's the same hardware worldwide. Why artificially limit playback functionality?

Nintendo is trying really hard to lose me as a fan it seems. :/

Laws change and companies have very different infrastructures. It might be easier for Sony to keep their console region free due to their other home electronic devices. I have no idea though, mere speculation.

I agree, a company should provide working products and services, but it is entirely unreasonable to expect everything to be fully operational all the time. It may not have been the best idea to release PokeBank during the holiday season though as server load would already be increased. (perhaps something positive can be seen in the server overload)

Actually good point and I have no idea if he tried that...he only got an older "Monster Hunter 3" pack version (that came out march/april I think? )and I  don't think he got any newer games (he and his wife are cheap skates!)...

He did phone nintendo support and they told him to exchange the machine which he did do, but now with his new consolehe's getting another error code...but at least it's a different error code!

On a lighter note I was having trouble accessing the eshop last night but now I can, so as they say, every cloud and all that...

I'm not happy either. I just spent some Christmas money on a $50 eShop card, so I can finally get around to Ace Attorney 5.

Well, guess I have some more time to 100% Zelda then.

I'm not expecting 100% uptime. But not being able to connect for a whole day, and then closing down the whole service for good until the next morning is kind of ridiculous and certainly not acceptable.

I agree with you but you should read my full post as to why.

I think there is a in between solution to satisfy local markets. Region lock the games that are released locally in all regions and all other games don't lock them.

Or better yet distrivute marketing funds from your HQ to local markets (if what that helpline guy told me was true)

I would be fine with that, but it's not likely to happen.

I understand your point of course. But still, I'm strictly talking as a customer here. As a customer, region locking has nothing positive. Only negatives.

Everybody talks about globalization, but I can't even buy a game or a DVD when I visit another country, because it won't work in my hardware. While the companies have their reasons, it just bugs me as a paying customer.

I agree as a customer we do suffer. All companies really need to work on a solution to globalisation.

The funny thing is in Australia all DVD players must be region free. Yet BLuRay players are region locked and so are games lol.