Nintendo is considering an end to region locking

Back at the helm of his company after recovering from surgery, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has responded that the company must address one of the biggest glaring missteps of its current two consoles: region-locking. Iwata tackled the subject at a Q&A on the company’s recent financial reports, pointing the finger at decisions made to support local retailers rather than its audience abroad.

Nintendo remains the only platform holder still region locking its consoles, but there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon for would-be importers. Speaking during a Q&A session following Nintendo’s semiannual investor meeting, company president Satoru Iwata responded to inquiry as to whether there were any plans to move away from region locking. “The game business has a history of taking a very long time with localization among other things, such as having to deal with various issues of marketing in each particular country, or games that have made use of licensed content that did not apply globally, and had all kinds of circumstances, so to say, that region-locking has existed due to circumstances on the sellers’ side rather than for the sake of the customers. In the history of game consoles, that is the current situation.