Region Coding: Illegal?
 

So, over in the Games forum, a point about Region Coding came up. Not wanting to get off topic there (The discussion is modding in general, not specifically modding to avoid region coding), I figured hey, what the hell, let's just make a GC thread about it. The quote in question:

So basically, I guess just a couple quick questions:

1. Region coding is what, exactly? Isn't it just a CD/DVD/whatever that's coded to work on products produced in a specific region? For example, US/Canada is a region, Japan is a region, etc., correct?

2. If so, what's wrong about that, exactly? I'm not talking morally or anything like that, as I can see the claim that all discs (or whathaveyou) should be viewable through any DVD player (or whatnot). Specifically, why is it illegal, as was stated in the quote?

3. Is region coding really this horrible horrible devil? Why does it exist in the first place?

*Goes off to google this stuff* Figured I'd get a quick discussion going before I came back.

1. in a nutshell, it marks certain content as not playable in certain areas. So a Eruopean CD/DVD might no play on the US or Japan and vice-versa.

2. I don't know it's inner workings, but i would simply call bullshit. People make the case that somehow importing games makes the localization less likely, or unfair.

3. Just to make sure that the US team gets the US dollars for the US copy you bought from the Localized version of the JPN game you want

Region coding is where a company says fuck you to importers, and if you want to play an imported game, you have to get the version of the console for that region. I want to play Idolmaster or any of the Japanese shooters for the 360, which there is no intent to localize most or any of. Well, I can't, unless I feel like shelling out the money for a Jap 360. PSP and DS are region free, but nothing else this generation is.

It limits the consumers choices and ability to make their own purchasing decisions so the localized versions will sell better, despite the fact that the import market would barely put a dent in the sales, and that there are some people who'd buy the game again when it got localized, either for the benefit of it being in their language or to support the localized release.

There is also some reasoning about copyright issues and ratings and some such, but from what I gather it's a minimal issue at best.

He said that region coding should be illegal.

But even then he's crazy. As you know, games are rarely released at the same time worldwide. There's usually a period of a few months between release in one region and release in another. Region Coding is designed to prevent the teeming masses in one region from importing from whatever region got a game first. If it were allowed, it would significantly screw with supplies and sales in both regions, leading to skewed marketing results all around.

In short, there's no good reason not to have region coding.

Because so many Americans know Japanese and would only order and play the Japanese version of FFXIII rather then the version in the language they speak.

Not all games require significant knowledge of what's being said to play them. I was thinking almost entirely of Super Smash Bros. Brawl when I wrote that post, actually.

There's probably a meaningful population of people in Europe who speak English and don't like waiting a trillion years for games to come out.

Honestly, I don't think they should have to.

Pretty much that, yeah. I'm not super familiar with copyrights and stuff, but I think the major regions are Japan, North America, and Europe.

To the best of my knowledge it's not illegal and would almost be impossible for it to be made illegal, seeing as how that would involve international law and, well, yeah.

Basically, if there's no law governing it, the company in question can determine how they want to distribute the games.

Lot of opinions on that. I guess the main reason would be so that the companies can control product flow as well as judge things like consumer interest, cost/benefit, and all that other business stuff. But I can't really say for sure.

That last one is the only true reason why it's wrong in their eyes. Everything else is just to make them "seem" not greedy.