Nintendo DS to be Region-Free

The news importers have been waiting for...

It's the confirmation importers have been anxiously awaiting. A Nintendo spokesman confirmed recently that the Nintendo DS, the company's upcoming dual-screen handheld, will be region free.

Region free, baby.

Region encoding allows publishers to ensure that games sold in one region are not playable in another. This is part of the reason why North American and Japanese games don't work in the UK. Nintendo has historically avoided incorporating region encoding into its portable products, despite making a point of implementing it into its home consoles. Contrastingly, Nintendo has in the past taken legal action to prevent local import shops from bringing in popular titles months before their domestic release.

This recent revelation means that eager gamers unwilling to wait the extended time for software localization or for the actual hardware to arrive can import directly from either Japan or North America. Software purchased in any territory will work on a Nintendo DS purchased in any territory. One caveat is that accessory compatibility will be limited to the same region.

The Nintendo DS is scheduled for release in North America on 21 November, in Japan on 3 December, and in Europe early in 2005.

See our earlier report on the Nintendo DS, with new videos, here.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games