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{{
This page discusses region coding, region-based lockouts, and other producer-supplied controls that restrict the use of their media in certain geographical areas.
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* 8 - Mainly for distant transportation venues in international skies and waters such as airplanes and cruise ships, though many of these just use the format and player type of the nation they serve the most.
Note that the DVD region coding also applies to [[
For [[Blu
* A - The Americas and most of Asia
* B - Europe, Australia, Africa and New Zealand
* C - The former USSR, China and other parts of Asia not covered by Region A
[[Play Station 3]] game media may optionally also adhere to Blu-Ray regional lockouts or model number queries, but all released games are region-free due to pressure from gamers and the governments of nations where regional lockout is deemed illegal.
However for most consoles, natural lockouts do exist due to differing television display formats (currently based on declining analog formats, which will most likely persist into the future despite the fact that they're not relevant with digital).:
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(Note that region coding ''itself'' is illegal in some areas. The responsible bodies in Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand have investigated whether it violated free trade agreements, found that it did, and therefore all DVD players sold in those areas are required to be region-free or at least have the ability to disable the lock. This doesn't appear to extend to video game consoles, though, at least in Australia's case.)
{{examples
* It's worth noting that video game consoles have had region coding since 1984. It was introduced there by Nintendo, theoretically to reduce pirated and unlicensed games on the system. However, it also serves as a huge barrier to [[Import Gaming]], for much the same reasons as with home movies. Devices to maneuver around the region coding are also illegal, but popular to the point that such a device for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the first with such coding, still sells for a respectable amount.
** The US version of the NES has a lockout chip called the 10NES. While its main reason of existence is to ensure that only games certified by Nintendo will run, it has the side-effect of region-locking the console, since various European consoles have different (and incompatible) versions of the chip. It also ended up using extra pins that're used by co-processors that're found on many Japanese games. Also, the Japanese NES has a slightly different slot, offering less pins than the NES (so in actual fact, the NES could actually implement co-processors given the extra pins, but ended up not doing so anyway).
** The SNES actually had two plastic tabs that prevented Super Famicom cartridges from being inserted. A pair of pliers and devil-may-care attitude about warranty can fix that...
*** Wait, there are still SNES systems under warranty?
*** The Nintendo64 used tabs to region-lock as well. It's slightly more difficult to bust it's tabs, but a worthy investment.
** Interestingly, this does ''not'' apply to early portable consoles. They lack region protection, on the theory that someone with one of these should be able to pick up a game for his system no matter where in the world he goes (the lack of a TV may have played a part, see below). For this reason, portables are extremely common amongst import gamers from any country. However, with today's portable consoles, companies combat these solutions with mandatory updates required to play games released from there on out.
*** The [[Nintendo DS|DSi]] has region locking, but only for specific [[Nintendo DS|DSi]] features, such as differing online features for each region. Future games will still be region-free, with the exception of downloadable ones.
*** The [[
*** The [[Nintendo 3DS]] has introduced Region Lock on cartridge games, [[Insane Troll Logic|in hopes of combating piracy]].
** Strangely for home consoles, all PS3 games are region-free, and Xbox 360 region locking has always been at game publishers' discretion.
*** It should be noted that the [[
* In the analog age, differing TV (and electrical) standards were used as a sort of de facto regional lock-in technology. Since NTSC (typically
** It gets even more complicated. PAL, SECAM and NTSC are only ''color'' encoding standards (though they typically have a refresh rate attached, the refresh rate is actually ''optional''. That's why there's bastard systems like
** This continues into the digital age as well. DVB, ATSC, ISDB and DMB: These are the four digital systems deployed worldwide. DVB is used in Europe and most of Asia (except the handful of countries as said next), ISDB is used in South America, Japan and The Philippines, ATSC is used in North America and South Korea (the only Asian country using said system), and DMB is used in China. To further complicate matters, some countries may decide to adopt two or more systems, i.e., South Korea adopted both DMB and ATSC systems and broadcasts in both formats. And if a country decided to change system due to changes in political ties/technological progression, woe be upon the citizens of the country in question. To top it all off, HD images can be 24, 25 or 30 frames per second. Many early HDTVs, as well as cheaper monitors, will refuse to recognize 25 fps sources. Heck, even many new TV sets sold in the United States refuses to recognize 25 fps input.
* The Internet is becoming the new battle ground for all this nonsense; companies who are uploading shows to watch online will more likely than not make it a nightmare to watch their stuff if you're not in their region. Some of this makes sense ([[The BBC]] will be legally murdered if they release their stuff outside the United Kingdom), some are just annoying (yeah, no one has the rights to ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' in the United Kingdom, Toei) and others fly in the face of all common sense.
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*** Although Hulu is trying to expand beyond the United States. Let's hope they're successful.
**** Up until today, Germany is the only one other country outside the US that Hulu would stream to...
*** Youtube allows videos to be region locked by uploaders if they so wished.
** [[The BBC]] iPlayer and CatchUpTV is this to the rest of the world. In the case of the BBC it is funded by a license that every UK household has to pay in order to legally watch broadcast television. So the reason for restriciting it to the UK is justified. i.e you haven't paid to see it.
*** There is a bit of a loophole though. You're only required to have a TV license to watch broadcast television, or live streams from the BBC such as sporting events. Anyone in the UK can still legally access everything on iPlayer without paying for a TV license as long as they don't own a TV and avoid the live streams.
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* Videos on [[The Hub]] are region-locked to only the US as well, to the ire of fans of many cartoons based around Hasbro's franchises but are unlucky enough to live in places where the shows are not available through legal means for whatever reason.
* Many MMOs have a variation of this that prevent you from playing the game if it detects that you are playing on an internet connection outside of its region.
** Depends on the company and the MMO. An example of this is Nexon and [[Maple Story]], in which the version North America plays is the "Global" version, which can be played by any country or region that doesn't have a company that localized it. However, when it said area ''does'' get their own version, they eventually receive an
*** The boneheaded part of the filter tho: those who can play global can also choose to sign up with some regional versions of the game, but those who can '''not''' sign up for global can only play the game in their own region. For example, someone in Australia (should be playing on the Global server proper) can sign up for both Global and the South-East Asian (SEA) version of the game (assuming he/she has the capability to install both clients side-by-side). On the other hand, someone in Malaysia is region-locked to playing only the SEA version of the game. This is because the SEA version does not request for identification aside from an address which can be easily faked.
** Korean websites and MMO hosts are required by law to scrutinize every user who registers to them. This is generally done by requiring the user to input his real name and Korean resident registration number, and submit a copy of his ID card or other legal document. As a "side effect", people not from Korea are unable to register to their sites.
* Certain online stores only accept certain credit cards from within their own country, effectively restricting business to domestic sales only.
** Amazon region locks the Unbox service, Android App Store and [[
** While the apps themselves aren't region coded (but is DRM locked), Apple's App Store is somewhat irrationally segregated as well. Heard of a cool app? Chances are you can't download it because it's not available in the App Store of the country you're in. Irrational because sometimes an app from a developer may not be available on sale while other apps from the same developer are, and sometimes, an app featuring characters from a TV show will not be available even if said TV show is in fact airing in the country. Yes, there is a form to request Apple to make said apps available, but if the developers refuses for any reason, it still won't be. Either way, you're shafted.
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[[Category:Home Video Tropes]]
[[Category:Videogame Culture]]
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