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rumor

Nintendo 3DS Could Be Region Locked

by Ben Reeves on Jan 11, 2011 at 12:10 PM

Looks like Nintendo’s new 3DS won’t have a universal translator. If you were hoping to import a Japanese 3DS to play U.S. titles, you might be out of luck. Nintendo’s new handheld might indeed be region locked.

1up picked up on a news story that started with an email from Nintendo JP Support. A NeoGAF user by the name of farnham claims to have translated the email to read, “There are no Region codes in DS and DSlite, but DSI, DSILL, 3DS has region codes. The Region Codes are installed in each games and the 3DS itself. If the codes don’t match you can’t play if the region codes are different. For example if you play a Korean 3DS game with a Japanese 3DS system (or vice versa) you wont be able to play at all.”

It sure was nice to be able to play Japanese games on our old U.S. DSlite. How often do you import titles from overseas?