Region locks could be a thing of the past by the time Nintendo's NX console comes out, suggests company president Satoru Iwata...
NewsOver the past couple of weeks, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has spent a fair bit of his time talking about why he can't talk about his company's forthcoming NX console.
Announced at the same time as Nintendo's forthcoming venture into the smart phone games arena, the NX is currently shrouded in mystery. Iwata has freely admitted that its existence was only made public to head off suggestions that his company is abandoning console production altogether.
"Presently, we cannot talk about the time period when [the NX] will go on sale or what it’s like," Iwata said at a recent investor's meeting. "Because we are calling it a 'new concept,' we are not thinking of this as a 'simple replacement' for the 3DS or the Wii U."
Iwata has, however, suggested that the NX could mark the beginning of the end for region locking.
"...regarding NX, given the customer feedback and proposals from the market, while nothing has been decided yet, we're currently investigating internally what problems there would be in realising it," Iwata said at an investor Q&A. "You can think of that as the current situation. I understand your desire, so I'd like to look at it optimistically going forward."
He did add, however, that the region lock on its current systems is set to remain in place, since removing it "presents various issues," so don't expect to be able to play imported Japanese games on your 3DS or Wii U any time soon - at least, not via officially supported means.
Iwata has also stated that Nintendo won't be making any announcements at this year's E 3. The company is expected to unveil its first mobile game fairly soon - it's out in 2015 . There's also its cross-platform replacement for Club Nintendo on the horizon and its "quality of life" project, details of which are still shrouded in vagueness.
With Nintendo continuing to avoid trade shows, it's likely that news of those forthcoming games and systems will break first on one of its Direct announcements. More on them as we get it.
