[quote name='Strell']Region locking just seems like an outmoded idea. I know the conversation comes up a lot when it comes to games, but we're essentially in a global community environment with the advent of the internet, and thus I still fail to see the reasoning behind it. My understanding is that there's legal ramifications that have to be met, and that it's just easier/less costly to avoid these by still having region locking, but it just seems like such a relic of the industry.[/QUOTE]
I would probably be more likely to purchase a console knowing that i had the option to purchase an original Japanese game and play it on my console should there be no North American releases that I like, especially since games take a long time to come out in the USA. I did that with the original DS and I was playing ouendan when everyone else was playing well.... meteos or some other game. This would give me a sort of "safety hold" in that if no games were coming out for a whole year in the USA that I wanted to play, at least I know I could go and purchase a Japanese game to tide me over until the releases started to come.
It would especially give me an incentive to purchase a console earlier rather than wait for the price drop because by the time the price drop and redesign happens the games I actually want to play have finally come out and I know because this happens with like almost every system out there, so by now I am playing the waiting game and not buying any hardware until the price drop and revision happens because the games I want to play will most likely not be out until then.
There are Japanese games I would like to purchase on the Wii, but I would have to go through a whole lot of trouble to play them, and given the amount of games and systems I have it is just not worth it, my friend makes frequent trips to Japan, so getting a legitimate copy of any game is not an issue for me, therefore even if I don't take advantage of the option, I would like to have the option to play a Japanese game should I find one I want to play that is not going to be released in the USA.