This isn’t good news for those who like to import different games for their favorite portable handheld. Especially considering the fact that nearly every Nintendo handheld since the original Gameboy hasn’t been region locked, it would be very unfortunate if this rumor turned out to be true. According to Korean website RuliWeb they had inquired Nintendo in Japan about a possible region lock. The Japanese representative responded with to them with the following:
“There are no region codes in DS and DS Lite, but DSi, DSi [XL], and 3DS have region codes. The region codes are installed in each game and the 3DS itself … you can’t play if the region codes are different.”
This isn’t really a big deal to most consumers but there is a relatively large number of consumers that like to import games from Japan that won’t see a release in the US, or even Australia where not even some US games are released. This means that you wouldn’t be able to play a Korean 3DS game on a US 3DS and the vice versa. These currently are only rumors however but we have contacted Nintendo to see if they would elaborate on this rumor.
