Region Lock Dilemma.

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daiphyer

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#1  Edited By daiphyer

I live in Dubai, and every game here is in PAL. Basically, it's all imported from UK. I have a Xbox 360 and a Wii, and around hundred games. I am also buying a 3DS soon. 
Now, here is my dilemma. I am moving to Canada this Summer to continue education, and I am gonna take my 360, Wii and 3DS. Since all those 3 consoles are locked, what the hell should I do?  Can I buy all my games online, like from Amazon?Are all their games region-free?And how much does it cost to ship to Canada?
Things I need to point out: There is no chance of me selling this stuff. I can't sell them in this country.
I am on a budget, and won't have the money to buy another console.

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deactivated-6204297b0c601

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Canada is NTSC, so if you need PAL games you'll have to get them online.  I'm pretty sure you can buy at Amazon.co.uk and have them shipped to Canada, but I have no idea what the shipping and customs situation is.  I can't imagine it's much more expensive than importing to Dubai from the UK.

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daiphyer

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#3  Edited By daiphyer

Thanks for the answer. Guess I'll have to just buy them all online from now on.

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buft

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#4  Edited By buft
@Daiphyer: shipping to canada can be expensive, my experience is out of date because i lived there in 2002 and i had a few things shipped to me that weigh about the same as a game, DVDs and books and it would cost me around £10 to ship. thats directly through the postal service though and thats usually less than if a company ships items to you.

i done some research for you and found this page which is the shipping costs from amazon.co.uk to canada, seems pretty reasonable at around £3 -£4 per item
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#5  Edited By abdo

Some 360 games are region-free, so if you're lucky you can get a game in the shops there and it'll work on your console. Don't know about the Wii though. 


Since you're getting the 3DS soon, why not wait until you go to Canada and buy it there? It's not like there are many games that make it worth buying right now.
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Contro

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#6  Edited By Contro

Yea, Amazon UK should be your primary source.

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captainslender

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#7  Edited By captainslender

Like Dubai, Australia is a PAL region, and I almost exclusively import my games due to the outrageous mark ups here. Amazon.co.uk, while awesome for blurays and such, are picky about sending 360 games internationally, for example they won't ship Portal 2 to my address, not sure why. The sources I use are usually based in the UK or Hong Kong, and explicitly state a game's region lock (if it has one at all) or only stock region free software. Hopefully without coming off as a huge plug, these are the joints I use to import. Most offer free worldwide shipping, if not it's relatively cheap.

http://www.gamehubs.com
http://www.365games.co.uk
http://www.mariio128.com

Shopped with all of these places, never had an issue with any of them before. I obviously don't want to speak regarding the import conditions, delivery times and such but these places are my go-to for game purchases.

</shill>

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biospank

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#8  Edited By biospank

Most 3rd party and 1st party 360 games are region free, but with the wii n 3ds are locked . My advise is to just buy the consolles used on ebay that are 120w aka ntcs cuz  the uk and eu consolls are 220w. Btw I aint dure if you region is 220 like the eu folk.

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daiphyer

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#9  Edited By daiphyer

It costs around 60$ to ship anything to Dubai, so the charge of shipping to Canada won't be a problem. Seems like that's what I have to do, until I get a NTSC console altogether.
As for 3DS, I'm getting it from Amazon.com, which I presume, sells NTSC almost exclusively(Excpet for the games, which are region-free)

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Yanngc33

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#10  Edited By Yanngc33

Nintendo really shit the bed on this one :/ I've got the same situation, I live in France and I'm moving to Canada in september. I'd say wait but if you have the money buy two

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biospank

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#11  Edited By biospank
@Daiphyer:
do you have a 220v or 120v on your xbox n wii?
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daiphyer

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#12  Edited By daiphyer

220V but I can get another power cable, it's cool.

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biospank

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#13  Edited By biospank
@Daiphyer: No you need a  step up voltage converter transformer 1000 Watts that  converts AC 110V to 220V, because when you just  take "another power cable"  that is for use of 110v to an 220v xbox. It will bbq your xbox, so if I where you I would just buy a xbox from ebay and it ihas to be ntsc.
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Bocam

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#14  Edited By Bocam

With the wii you could just put custom firmware on it and that takes care of the region lock

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the_hiro_abides

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#15  Edited By the_hiro_abides

Yeah you should look at the ac adapter. The NTSC xbox I have says input: 100-127 volt.

Too bad it isn't like cell phone and laptop chargers.