The PS3's first region locked game

[stever]

Persona 4: Arena is going to be region locked. It's caused quite a big backlash from the fairly vocal Persona fan base, and Atlus have released quite a long press releases saying that they're surprised by the level of displeasure that's been voiced. They say the main reason is a business decision that was taken to stop people buying the game in a cheaper region and pinching sales from a different branch of Atlus or a different publisher in the case of the Euro version.

I appreciate a lot of what Atlus do and am a big supporter of their willingness to publish some of the more niche types of title, but this strikes me as an idiotic decision. They're clearly not a very savvy bunch if the reaction from their fan base has surprised them; the typical consumer of the Persona games is quite switched on and well aware of international gaming matters.

I also can't believe that the proportion of sales that would be cannibalised by importers would be that high, especially if their primary concern is Japanese people importing the US version more cheaply. The vast majority of Japanese purchasers will take the easy route, rather than waiting of the US release and then importing.

As I can't support region locking in any way, this makes it a no-buy for me

[huzzellio Profile]

To be honest I never buy anything from other regions so this doesn't bother me in the slightest.

[thelocaluk]

Can't say I have either, though I do see why the fans of Atlus games and any other publisher than brings out Japanese games to the western world would be rattled over this. TBH it's the EU fans that should be the most hacked off about this being as we don't even get as many niche titles as the US.

[kingsuperspecial Profile]

Never a fan of region locking - although I probably wouldn't buy this one, I'd like to have the opportunity to.

[USWally]

Time to get Ghostlight back on the show.

[EvilWaterman Profile]

seems fair enough to me! Typical bunch of whiny nerds who think they're owed something.