Region coding. Why is it done?

[Dirty Hazy]

I know it happens for DVD's, and apparently it is done on PC games. But why?

I don't see why we here in the US can't play or watch the Japanese, European releases or whatever of things.

[Error]

To piss people off it seems.



Beside that, I would think most goes to licensing and marketing issues.

[G✇JI☈A]

I don't know.

The only reason I can think of is so local retailers don't go out of business.

[Allie Kitsune]

Usually because it doesn't count as a new sale for the publisher. The content has already made the first-level sale once, to the specialty/import retailer, and therefore when you buy it, it's just a resell. It hurts the sales figure in your home region, and decreases the viability of that company's arm in your part of the world for continuing to release product.

[The Line]

$$$

More specifically

* Allows items to be released at different dates in different regions. This is most advantageous in the case of movies, where the costs of localizing and promoting a film make it prohibitively expensive to release in more than one part of the world at a time. Regional lockout theoretically prevents consumers from obtaining the item "ahead of time" by buying the item from a foreign exporter. (For example, buying the DVD of the latest foreign hit movie before the movie has even reached local cinema screens.)
* Allows price discrimination between markets, thus increasing the potential revenue from worldwide sales and/or making products affordable in markets not tolerating the prices of other regions.
* Allows the correct upstream copyright owner to receive royalties for each copy, where copyright terms or exclusive licensees differ between countries, notably as in the case of Peter Pan.
* Different countries have different laws about violence or the presentation of children in games, so some games like Fallout 2 have different content based by region, which allows the producer better control over meeting legal requirements.

[G✇JI☈A]

Nov 19, 2009 2:45:43 GMT -5 Allie Kitsune said:

Usually because it doesn't count as a new sale for the publisher. The content has already made the first-level sale once, to the specialty/import retailer, and therefore when you buy it, it's just a resell. It hurts the sales figure in your home region, and decreases the viability of that company's arm in your part of the world for continuing to release product.

Well for the Australian region I say: Stiff S***.

If Australia continue insisting on censoring and banning video games like some overruling parent. Then I will continue to buy my PS3 games (legally) from overseas.

[Ali Du Jour]

I remember reading something about preventing buyers from obtaining something before its release date, like a movie that's out in the US on DVD, but hasn't even been released in theaters in other regions. So, money.

I feel your pain because there are some TV show DVDs from England and Australia that I'd like to buy and know that they'll never be released in the US.

[Joe Neglia]

With the globalization of the internet market, you'll notice this starting to wear down a little, piece by piece over time. A lot of smaller DVD companies have already gotten rid of region coding and over time, I expect the majors will follow suit. The time of localized releases is drawing near its end.

[G✇JI☈A]

Nov 19, 2009 2:56:15 GMT -5 Ali Du Jour said:

I remember reading something about preventing buyers from obtaining something before its release date, like a movie that's out in the US on DVD, but hasn't even been released in theaters in other regions. So, money.

I feel your pain because there are some TV show DVDs from England and Australia that I'd like to buy and know that they'll never be released in the US.

A lot of DVD players can play Multi Region DVDs if you put some sort of code in.

Copy and paste this into Google search: making dvd player region free

That might help you. But check out the sites at your own risk.

[Joe Neglia]

Nov 19, 2009 3:01:26 GMT -5 G✇JI☈A said:

Nov 19, 2009 2:56:15 GMT -5 Ali Du Jour said:

I remember reading something about preventing buyers from obtaining something before its release date, like a movie that's out in the US on DVD, but hasn't even been released in theaters in other regions. So, money.

I feel your pain because there are some TV show DVDs from England and Australia that I'd like to buy and know that they'll never be released in the US.

A lot of DVD players can play Multi Region DVDs if you put some sort of code in.

Copy and paste this into Google search: making dvd player region free

That might help you. But check out the sites at your own risk.

Heck, do some research and you'll find a good number of mid-to-lower end DVD players here that don't need any adjustments at all. They come region-free already. I had an Apex a few years back that would play anything straight out of its box.

Some others, yeah, you have to put a code in; others you can put a burned program disc in and the disc will tell it to turn off the region coding. A few I've heard had internal mechanisms that you simply had to open the shell and switch.

[H-Fist]

Nov 19, 2009 3:05:39 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

Nov 19, 2009 3:01:26 GMT -5 G✇JI☈A said:

A lot of DVD players can play Multi Region DVDs if you put some sort of code in.

Copy and paste this into Google search: making dvd player region free

That might help you. But check out the sites at your own risk.

Heck, do some research and you'll find a good number of mid-to-lower end DVD players here that don't need any adjustments at all. They come region-free already. I had an Apex a few years back that would play anything straight out of its box.

Some others, yeah, you have to put a code in; others you can put a burned program disc in and the disc will tell it to turn off the region coding. A few I've heard had internal mechanisms that you simply had to open the shell and switch.

Yeah, I also have had a region-free DVD player. I didn't mean to; I just didn't want to pay $60 when there was a little one for $35. The $35 one had no region coding and was FANTASTIC for four years of cinema studies where I had to sometimes track down films that weren't available in the U.S.

[Joe Neglia]

Nov 19, 2009 3:51:36 GMT -5 H-Fist said:

Nov 19, 2009 3:05:39 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

Heck, do some research and you'll find a good number of mid-to-lower end DVD players here that don't need any adjustments at all. They come region-free already. I had an Apex a few years back that would play anything straight out of its box.

Some others, yeah, you have to put a code in; others you can put a burned program disc in and the disc will tell it to turn off the region coding. A few I've heard had internal mechanisms that you simply had to open the shell and switch.

Yeah, I also have had a region-free DVD player. I didn't mean to; I just didn't want to pay $60 when there was a little one for $35. The $35 one had no region coding and was FANTASTIC for four years of cinema studies where I had to sometimes track down films that weren't available in the U.S.

Same here. Only had the money for a cheapie Apex machine, and the thing turned out to be able to play all regions as well as PAL format (region coding and PAL/NTSC compatibility are not mutually exclusive). Hell, I think I put a piece of toast in it once and the f'er played it.

[Father Dougal McGuire]

I always heard it had something to do with the difference between NTSC and PAL and the frame per second difference, but since things have gone digital, the theory has fallen thru the cracks.

[Joe Neglia]

Nov 19, 2009 4:00:29 GMT -5 Father Dougal McGuire said:

I always heard it had something to do with the difference between NTSC and PAL and the frame per second difference, but since things have gone digital, the theory has fallen thru the cracks.

yeah, has nothing to do with that. It was always - always - about maintaining control over release dates in specific regions.

[PaperStreetBrigade]

heh, when I saw this I immediately thought of my Apex DVD player which is zone free. The bad side of that is that Universal (I believe) released 10-16 DVDs that wouldn't play in a Neutral zone player. Among them were Snatch and XXX.

[Slingshot Suplay]

I want to buy Power Rangers: Season 1 on dvd, but I'd have to buy a Region 2 dvd from Germany and get a region-free dvd player in order to watch it on my tv. You're talking 50-75 dollars online for season 1.

[Welfare Willis]

Nov 19, 2009 9:12:04 GMT -5 Slingshot Suplay said:

I want to buy Power Rangers: Season 1 on dvd, but I'd have to buy a Region 2 dvd from Germany and get a region-free dvd player in order to watch it on my tv. You're talking 50-75 dollars online for season 1.

Yes, not to get political but in our current economic condition it can be a somewhat costly endeavor to purchase dvds from different regions. However for some movies, we may never see a release here or the other regions dvd is just superior to the dvd here in the states. For example I have the phantasm sphere set and movies like Amsterdamned and Battle Royale from the UK. The Brits have movies like the Hitcher (original), Army of Darkness, and Creepshow with better DVD releases.

There is a drawbacks to buy out of region though. Like when a dvd finally hits the US market that's better then the out of region dvd. The Stepfather (original) US dvd release is better then the region 3 german release I have. I cannot tell you the agony I felt buying the swiss version of the New York Ripper only to find out a correct Blu-Ray was going to be released in several months.