@Cloudenvy said:

Well, they're just not getting my money then. Done deal.

I just don't understand this mindset.

they're not getting my money either!

it's because I don't have any money to give them

@BigChief said:

Must suck to be Atlus USA right now. A decision that was seemingly out of their hands earning them a bunch of negativity in the lead up to what seems like one of their biggest titles. Ouch.

Like usual though, they've dealt with the situation as well as can be expected. The reaction came late, but that's understandable because of P4A and KoF13 being at Evo, but at least when it came it was transparent and understandable. It sucks for the people in Europe, but the dollar's a shitshow against the yen right now, and protecting the importing from the US over to Japan makes sense.

It was nice of Atlus USA to be so transparent with the whole deal, but now I'd be curious to hear the whole thing from the Japanese companies that are apparently the real guys behind this decision. Did Arc System Works have a say in this? Was this decision enforced by Index? Are they noticing the insane fan backlash or are they all too happy ignoring everything outside of Japan? This is stuff I'd like to know.

Also wonder if Japanese fans are going as crazy as we are over here.

And (supposedly) none of this would have happened if there wasn't dual language audio! Man, I never asked for this.

Actually I'm a little surprised at how forthright they were about why it's happening. I mean, we didn't hear the specifics, but I was expecting a "We can't get into the reasons behind this decision," and that would be the end of it.

@BigChief: I think they just realized that this fan reaction was a bit higher up on the level of magnitude than "petty"—saying "It should be added that we were completely unprepared for the force with which the community communicated their disapproval"— and it could cause some genuine harm to the company's perception, so they had to be as clear as they could.

Now I'm still wondering how Atlus is the first company to have region locked a PS3 game. Japanese companies consistently region lock Xbox 360 games (which I believe is an optional decision, right?) yet they've never touched the PS3 version until now? Was it really because no one wanted to be the first company to make the jump or did something change? I quoted that Yoshida image before of him saying it's always been a publisher's choice, but that seems a bit sketchy.

Theoretically nothing is preventing them from making the US version locked out of JP consoles but not EU ones right?

@Qblivion said:

Theoretically nothing is preventing them from making the US version locked out of JP consoles but not EU ones right?

Can region locking be that precise? In any case, yeah, based on their reasoning the only region lock that's been explained is NA to Japanese consoles, but they've decided to region lock everything for a reason that's hard to guess. Maybe it's to prevent region discrimination? I don't know.

@FluxWaveZ said:

And (supposedly) none of this would have happened if there wasn't dual language audio! Man, I never asked for this.

So basically, all of this can be blamed on @Bocam and @Cloudenvy

this is what yui horie does to videogames

@mutha3 said:

@FluxWaveZ said:

And (supposedly) none of this would have happened if there wasn't dual language audio! Man, I never asked for this.

So basically, all of this can be blamed on @Bocam and @Cloudenvy

this is what yui horie does to videogames

I now know the dangers of wanting to save money.

@FluxWaveZ said:

It was nice of Atlus USA to be so transparent with the whole deal, but now I'd be curious to hear the whole thing from the Japanese companies that are apparently the real guys behind this decision. Did Arc System Works have a say in this? Was this decision enforced by Index? Are they noticing the insane fan backlash or are they all too happy ignoring everything outside of Japan? This is stuff I'd like to know.

Also wonder if Japanese fans are going as crazy as we are over here.

And (supposedly) none of this would have happened if there wasn't dual language audio! Man, I never asked for this.

From what I've read on some Japanese gaming sites. They're like this is just Atlus as usual (Atlus JP has a habit of making their games expensive as fuck. IE: The PSP version of Persona 2 EP is $80). The only time Japanese fans got mad at Atlus was when Atlus made Amazon Japan pull the Persona 4 blu-rays because Amazon was pricing them too low. Atlus JP didn't give a fuck what their fans thought.

@Bocam: Wow, that makes Atlus Japan sound like the evil opposite of Atlus USA. That's really unfortunate.

Actually, Japanese fans seem pretty mad about it here.

@FluxWaveZ said:

@Bocam: Wow, that makes Atlus Japan sound like the evil opposite of Atlus USA. That's really unfortunate.

Actually, Japanese fans seem pretty mad about it here.

I love how some comments are just 外人さん可哀想(´・ω・`) or これは外人イジメwww. They really care about us Gaijin. Though It seems like they think this also blocks global internet play (which is wrong). So they're happy about not having to deal with lag.

Well then they lost a sale, by the time it hits Europe I'll have lost interest or feel too behind to pick it up. Good job region locking dicktits.

Oddly enough, after thinking about it, I'm still more upset about the recast VOs than the region locking, but that's probably because I live in the US and don't import.

Oh dear, a video game thats region locked but its getting a global release. What on earth are you people NOT fucking pissed about?

Lame excuse to region lock it.

As much as I disagree with region-locking, at the same time their actions are understandable. They're responding to the market, they aren't trying to piss on their fans. That doesn't make it right, but it does mean that they aren't acting out of malice, ignorance or indifference.

And I don't think Atlus USA deserves much scorn here, it was likely out of their hands and they've done a lot for their fans over the years.

I'm all for profit protection that could lead to more money for SMTIV's budget. Mwhahahahahaha

@Petiew said:

@Hailinel: I'm not sure where Cloudenvy is from, but I think it's a fair thing to do. I live in the UK, Atlus has no branch here and doesn't care about it at all. The publishers that often pick up Atlus games are slow and unreliable. Often titles are not announced until a long time later leaving us wondering if they will ever come out( Such as Catherine) or are not released at all (Strange Journey). Atlus doesn't care about the Uk, and the publishers do not inform us adequately or release games in a timely manner. The fact that Atlus then region lock every version of the game is sort of a kick in the teeth to us. If someone doesn't want to support poor practice then e-mailing the companies and not buying the game or buying used is an understandeable mindset. Why does the NA release contain Japanese text anyway? Voices I can understand, but if they wanted to prevent reverse importation not including the text would have been a good start. The only game I own with changeable text is Star Ocean 4, which was relased much later on the PS3.

Zen United in particular is quite slow and horrible. Then they go and not even release the DLC stuff, ever. Or by the time they do it's pretty useless or everyone's lost interest.

@Atramentous: People are mostly just pissed about having to possibly wait a long time to play it. Imagine if you're European and hoping to get your hands on the game in a few weeks, but now it's in the hands of the same jackoffs who needed almost a full year to localize Blazblue. It's effectively a potential year long delay for them now.