Region locked games on consoles that aren't (thought of as) region locked

Video Games
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What are some examples of games that are region locked on consoles that are not typically thought of as region locked?

Some examples:

  • While the PS3 is mostly region free, the North American release of Persona 4 Arena is region locked. This is because it came out when it was still exclusive to arcade in Japan.

  • The DS is region free, but Pokémon Black & White and its sequels are DSi enhanced, and the DSi is region locked. This makes them uniquely able to be played on an out of region console on a DS but not on a DSi.

  • You can play games from any region on Switch, but many games are locked to a specific language or a specific region’s DLC. This causes a lot of issues for people with Splatoon 2, because many people received an out-of-region copy from online retailers, and DLC and languages are locked to specific regions. Splatoon 3 has a universal binary and doesn’t have this issue.

Can you think of any other games that are “region locked” on consoles that are generally thought of as region free?

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A strange aside, the save games for Vanishing Point are the same across regional versions of the game. Which caught me by surprise.

Not sure how common or not this is.

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This one caught me off guard when I got my DSi from America. Basically meant I couldn’t play any DSi enhanced games on it, like Solatorobo which came out late in the generation. Was stuck playing that one on 3DS with middling image quality.

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not sure if this counts (or is even true), but for years i’d hear that importing first party dreamcast guns from japan wouldn’t work on the US system, and i could swear i’d heard the same about certain sticks for turbografx/PCE. i do not know how you’d region lock peripherals, but it’s something i’d meant to look into!

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There are some snes controllers that do this also.
I remember way back in the 90s a bunch of use trying to play a 4 player game on NBA Jam or something but the game kept putting up a message saying one of the controllers wasn’t official (which it wasn’t). We were so surprised.

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Yeah, I’ve heard the compatibility issue is between US/JP controllers and PAL controllers.

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I believe PAL NES/SNES controllers ended up ‘region locked’ by adding a diode on the controller lines inside the console, which was to comply with some European countries’ laws on electromagnetic interference. PAL controllers work worldwide however.

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I think Japanese DC light guns will work on Japanese versions of those games, even on a North American Dreamcast.

They’re locked to the region of the game itself if I’m not mistaken.

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