So Atlus and Arc System Works are releasing this new game called Persona 4 Arena, a fighting game based on; you guessed it; Atlus's own Persona 4.
So what's so special about it? It's going to be the first region-locked game on the PS3.
As some of you may know, the PS3 is a console that; up until now; was mostly region free. This basically means you can buy games from different regions and you are able to play these games on your console without modifying it or having to buy a console from that particular region.
So what does this mean? It's of course too early to tell, but this could be the start of a new rather unfavorable trend. Atlus says this isn't going to be the case, but whose to say another developer won't follow suit and do the same thing? There are some gamers who are, understandably, rather hostile on the issue. To many of them (particularly the European and Australian communities), importing is one of the only means of being able to play some great games that they would otherwise be unable to play.
Why did Atlus make this decision? Their apparent reason is because since this game will share all of the same features in each of the regions (including dual-audio dubs), they felt that others would simply import the Japanese version to save some money and thus Atlus USA wouldn't get as much. While it does make some sense, it still just doesn't seem to be very fair. I'm not even all that interested in the game (after all, I've not played a single Persona game ever), but it just seems to me to just be a pretty big *beep* move to force anyone interested in the game to buy their own version of the game.
Before anyone says so, I don't see this as a matter of saving a few bucks by importing. Rather, I never really saw the point of region-locking in the first place. What difference does it make if I bought something from one region or another? The companies involved are still getting your money either way. What if I liked the features of another region's release of a game better then my own region? What if this game I was interested in playing never came to my region for one reason or another or if it's simply taking too long to be localized? Don't get me wrong, I'd gladly support any games I'm interested in or whatever if they do come to my shore. But as a consumer, I'd much rather have my options open rather then having things be way more complicated then it needs to be.
So what are your opinions on this (or even just region-locking in general), BombermanBoard?
Search Forum
Member List
Chat
Control Panel
Private Messages
Register
Log in
