General Category > General Discussion
February 2013 pickups, yo!
wiggy:
--- Quote from: mojoeskateco on February 06, 2013, 12:59:02 PM ---
--- Quote from: wiggy on February 06, 2013, 12:51:25 PM ---Copyright law.
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Is it because each region has different laws?
If so how is a PS3 region free and not a Wii if they have to follow the same laws? I guess they could each have different agreements with publishers.
Seriously curious as region locking sounds like a terrible business decision to me and I'm always fascinated by the business world of video games.
If Nintendo had never released Xenoblade here they still would have made something off the legit, paid for PAL copy that I have without incurring the costs of releasing a localized NA version. In this case, which I realize isn't the only case, they benefited from a no risk - reward situation.
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Copyright law is such an impossibly difficult thing to completely understand.
Every country has their own copyright laws, and some have none at all, like China (which is why they manage to rip off everything and suffer zero preoccupations for it). On top of that, a copyright held in Japan may not be enforceable here in the US. This means that the owner of said rights is afforded little to no protection from their IP being stolen/reproduced/etc.
It's definitely not so much about the hardware developers, as you noted, but rather about developers and publishers. They're the ones that stand to lose something.
I'm sure there are other reasons for region lockouts, but copyright is one thing that I know has always been a large component of it. In fact, Sega sued/nearly sued eBay about 11-12 years ago when the DC launched in order to prevent people in the US from buying and selling Japanese games. There was a good year or two that you simply could NOT import via eBay. IIRC, you STILL can't sell mod chips on eBay despite their current quasi-legality. I have a friend who's a copyright attorney and even he sometimes gives me a blank stare and scratches his head when I pick his brain about the subject. It's also an ever changing area. What was true years or even months ago may not hold true today. The web has COMPLETELY turned copyright law on its head and these poor attorneys are always scrambling to make sense of the new legislation and use it effectively. Would make me absolutely nuts :/
AO007:
--- Quote from: wiggy on February 05, 2013, 11:07:00 PM ---Logically speaking, running your spaceship into a wall should prolly kill you instantly. Half your life is something to be thankful for :P
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Yeah, maybe you're right. Other than the wall bouncing, I thought the bosses were pretty cool and, dare I say it... more memorable than SF64's bosses.
One of those games that ended up being <b>better</b> than I remember it being.
wiggy:
It holds up surprisingly well IMO as well. I play it through quite regularly. Even with the crummy frame rate, lack of texture mapping (which I actually find quite pleasant), and super low poly count, it's still a blast! Proof that graphics don't make a game or a game system successful. Hell, the PS2 was the "weakest" of the 6th generation and it was still far and away the "winner" of the bunch.
kaysow:
--- Quote from: wiggy on February 06, 2013, 01:54:45 PM ---It's definitely not so much about the hardware developers, as you noted, but rather about developers and publishers. They're the ones that stand to lose something.
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strange then that noone's used to optional region lock for the ps3 (up until atlus just did). that's good sportsmanship.
was gonna say; it's just another boring old vie for power. they want you to be good, predictable consumer so markets don't get intertwined and sales get harder to map out. but yeah, there's more to it than that. i mean in the days of PAL/NTSC it was excusable (and no handhelds i know of had region locking back then) but artificial limitations for consoles/dvds/blurays is just ridiculous. it's really sad that they locked down the 3DS, as they're already putting out titles in the US that probably won't make it here (like adventure time and the princess atlus fighter thingy)
wiggy:
I think Sony and Microsoft didn't make it a mandatory thing because there are so few games that are JP/US/EU only anymore unlike in the 90's and 00's, making the copyright thing far less of a concern. There are obviously still some, but not like the 4th and especially the 5th gen consoles.
I can't imagine Adventure Time NOT making it here. It's sooooo popular and it's obviously an IP that's licensed here. Unless there's some big dispute over distribution rights, I'd bet it'll make it here at some point.