Region-locking is common for video game consoles, and is almost universally hated by the gaming community. Nintendo is especially guilty of this sin, but president and CEO Satoru Iwata has given Nintendo fans hope for a brighter future. While region-locking will always be present on the 3DS and Wii U, the company’s next console may very well be region free.
Nintendo NX, the next piece of dedicated gaming hardware from the house of Mario, might be region free, according to Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata. However, don’t expect to see the region locks currently in place for Wii U and 3DS to disappear anytime soon. In an Q&A session with investors (as translated by NeoGAF), Iwata explained: “Removing region-locking from current game machines presents various issues, so we don’t consider that to be very realistic. However, regarding NX, given the customer feedback and proposals from the market, while nothing has been decided yet, we’re currently investigating internally what problems there would be in realizing it. You can think of that as the current situation. I understand your desire, so I’d like to look at it optimistically going forward.”
