Hey y'all!
 
So with the recent news that Catherine will be released in the US, Internet (and Giantbomb especially) went into full-time celebration. The game is being fully localized, and even some voice actors from Persona 4 will return for the job. That's all great, but us peasants in the rest of the world are still waiting for an update regarding it to be released elsewhere. A problem with Atlus, for example, is that they have no publisher set up outside of Japan and US, which pretty much puts us in hoping that an outside party will pick up the publishing rights. It's a complicated and lengthy process, and often it results into nothingness.
 
So my first thought is, "well if they have no intention of releasing it for the rest of us, why can't we just import it?". Simple; I don't own a PS3. I only own a region locked X360. So even if I payed the extra moola to import the game from the US upon its release there, I still wouldn't be able to play it on my console unless I in turn imported an american X360. It happened to Culdcept Saga and other games, which I'm still fucking pissed off about. And I'm sure it happens to americans all the time.
 
My point is, why even region lock games? I can understand why some game companies think their game won't sell as well in certain regions and don't bother releasing it there, but why rob the selected consumers the right to purchase it from a region that actually has it? Are they so hell-bent on promoting the domestic market, or what's the problem?
 
I know the simple solution would be to buy a PS3 and give region locking the middle finger. But I'm not exactly swimming in cash, and having one HD console is more than enough for me at the moment. I just want some clarification to why region locking is still something we're using in 2011, a time where people can't stop going on about "free market this, free market that".
 
TL;DR version: I hate region locking.

Hey y'all!
 
So with the recent news that Catherine will be released in the US, Internet (and Giantbomb especially) went into full-time celebration. The game is being fully localized, and even some voice actors from Persona 4 will return for the job. That's all great, but us peasants in the rest of the world are still waiting for an update regarding it to be released elsewhere. A problem with Atlus, for example, is that they have no publisher set up outside of Japan and US, which pretty much puts us in hoping that an outside party will pick up the publishing rights. It's a complicated and lengthy process, and often it results into nothingness.
 
So my first thought is, "well if they have no intention of releasing it for the rest of us, why can't we just import it?". Simple; I don't own a PS3. I only own a region locked X360. So even if I payed the extra moola to import the game from the US upon its release there, I still wouldn't be able to play it on my console unless I in turn imported an american X360. It happened to Culdcept Saga and other games, which I'm still fucking pissed off about. And I'm sure it happens to americans all the time.
 
My point is, why even region lock games? I can understand why some game companies think their game won't sell as well in certain regions and don't bother releasing it there, but why rob the selected consumers the right to purchase it from a region that actually has it? Are they so hell-bent on promoting the domestic market, or what's the problem?
 
I know the simple solution would be to buy a PS3 and give region locking the middle finger. But I'm not exactly swimming in cash, and having one HD console is more than enough for me at the moment. I just want some clarification to why region locking is still something we're using in 2011, a time where people can't stop going on about "free market this, free market that".
 
TL;DR version: I hate region locking.

Yup..but i suppose the counter argument has to do with rights for the characters and who's getting paid for what. It's usually not a 'Well it won't sell as well in this market' decision, and more of a 'we don't want to share the rights/tax/promotion fees'..at least that's how i understand it from my personal experience.
But yeah..i fucking hate it too. It was great when the ds and psp had no region lock, now 3ds has full region lock and it's at the discretion of the developer on the NGP. I love SRW, GvGNP and other random mech stuff that never gets released in the west, let alone the EU...as soon as i heard the 3ds was region locked I lost all interest in the platform. Hopefully NGP developers in Japan will realise that there is a sizable market for importers and they won't cut us off. 

" And I'm sure it happens to americans all the time.  "

I don't know what to tell ya. I bet there's a logical reason for region locking though. Googling it will probably get you your answer. 
 
If you live outside of the US or Japan though, it seems to me that a PS3 would be the obvious choice. I don't mean to be a jerk, but you probably should have realized that region locking could become an issue.

Companies like Atlus probably region lock games because without that region lock, they will never secure a publisher outside of the US. Why would a publisher pick up their game if everyone who really wanted it had already imported it? They wouldn't. No publisher would want to bring the game to Europe because most people in the game's target market already have it. Region locking ensures that people can't import, which increases the likelihood of securing a publisher for other regions, which in turn increases revenue.

I can think of three reasons:

• Price discrimination. Game prices vary quite a bit depending on what part of the world you live in, and through region locking, companies can stop people who live where games are really expensive from importing cheaper versions.
• Publisher relations. If, for example, a game by developer X is being published by company Y in Japan, and by company Z in America several months later, Z might tell X to region-lock the Japanese version. If it's region-free, a lot of Americans might import the Japanese version instead of waiting for the American one, meaning lost sales for X. When it comes to niche titles practically every single fan is prepared to import, not region-locking the original version can mean not getting a publisher for other regions at all.
• Approval. If a developer wants to release something region-free, they have to get it approved for every region in the world, something that takes time and costs money. If they don't believe there's any significant interest for their game in other regions, they're not going to bother.

Lawyers.

Consoles don't operate in a "free market".  Its why new console games are almost always sold at a maximum price of $60 in the US while they are $80-$100 in Japan and around $80 in Europe and Australia.  Console manufacturers have a heavy influence in setting software prices so much so that even Activision won't offer CoD at $75 (that's what Collector's Editions are for).  What this means is that publishers want to take part in price discrimination and given that 4 oz packages are failry cheap to ship region locking allows this (its the same for DVDs).  So why didn't Sony lock the PS3?  Most likely because they cared more about it forcing Blu-Ray as the HD standard than anything else and by allowing Blu-Ray importation they could get more traction.

Yeah, region locking sucks and I'm sad that the 3DS is going to have it. This has actually made me to consider getting a US 3DS instead of a European one. 
As long as importing is easy, I've yet to find a good reason not to do it, as I see it:  

Pros 

• Getting games released earlier in the US sooner.
• Getting games cheaper.
• Smaller games are more likely to only get a US release than they are of only getting a EU release.
• Most of the time you can det the games delivered right in your mailbox, neato!

• Not being able to play multiplayer games with my friends unless they also get US 3DS's.
• Maybe the store thing will be a hassle/not work I dunno. Not a big deal from what we've seen so far.

We don't know whetever Cathy will be region-locked or not  yet, so I wouldn't lose hope.
  @RockmanBionics said:

" Yeah, region locking sucks and I'm sad that the 3DS is going to have it. This has actually made me to consider getting a US 3DS instead of a European one. 
As long as importing is easy, I've yet to find a good reason not to do it, as I see it:  

Pros 

• Getting games released earlier in the US sooner.
• Getting games cheaper.
• Smaller games are more likely to only get a US release than they are of only getting a EU release.
• Most of the time you can det the games delivered right in your mailbox, neato!

 
Cons 

• Not being able to play multiplayer games with my friends unless they also get US 3DS's.
• Maybe the store thing will be a hassle/not work I dunno. Not a big deal from what we've seen so far.

 that's all I can think of at the moment. "

" @Jrad:@JJWeatherman:@MattyFTM:@Icemael:   All fair reasons. Suppose my only option is buying a PS3 to make sure I won't be affected by region locking again.  Wonder why Sony thought they didn't need it, but Microsoft and Nintendo did though. "

It can also be for licenced music. They may not have the rights to distribute the music outside of its native region. 

It has to do with the right's holder in other regions. For example Atlus may release Catherine here, but in Europe it'll be Square Enix, so Square wouldn't want to lose any potential profit by having you import the Atlus published version.