Letter from the Producer, XIX (09/27/2011)

[Delsus]

Whilst this is true many consoles are still locked in a US > EU format. You can't play US games on a EU Xbox360, I'm surprised PS3 lets you without installing a chip or modifying it in some way.

Also most games nowadays are released at the same time in both US and EU, doesn't make much sense that Dark souls isn't.

White knight chronicles 2 was released in EU 3 months earlier than US which is a lil wierd to me, and there are a few games I have seen my US friends on which I have had to wait for because its not released in EU.

Also the Wii, PSP, PS3, and i think the DS/3DS have no region locks on games, as far as I know its only the 360 that does, because there is no point in region locking consoles except to prevent imports, and people would just chip consoles to get around that.

Also modern games consoles dont require a physical chip, you just install a custom firmware if you want to play copied games etc.

[Xmbei]

White knight chronicles 2 was released in EU 3 months earlier than US which is a lil wierd to me, and there are a few games I have seen my US friends on which I have had to wait for because its not released in EU.

Also the Wii, PSP, PS3, and i think the DS/3DS have no region locks on games, as far as I know its only the 360 that does, because there is no point in region locking consoles except to prevent imports, and people would just chip consoles to get around that.

Also modern games consoles dont require a physical chip, you just install a custom firmware if you want to play copied games etc.

sadly 3ds's are region locked >.<

[Konachibi]

White knight chronicles 2 was released in EU 3 months earlier than US which is a lil wierd to me, and there are a few games I have seen my US friends on which I have had to wait for because its not released in EU.

Also the Wii, PSP, PS3, and i think the DS/3DS have no region locks on games, as far as I know its only the 360 that does, because there is no point in region locking consoles except to prevent imports, and people would just chip consoles to get around that.

Also modern games consoles dont require a physical chip, you just install a custom firmware if you want to play copied games etc.

I think some of the differences with release dates has something to do with where the company that made it is based. Games from Japan tend to be released in Japan first now, and then EU and US both get it at the same time, ones from US are released there first, then see EU and JAP release afterwards. In other cases it may be a case of marketing, some companies want to see how good their game is before it's released worldwide so they release in one area first, see how it goes, then branch it outwards if it does well. I think that's what Zen United were doing with Blazblue, testing to see if US and EU still liked classic sprite-based fighting games, and because it sold well they sent out a sequal and Arcana Heart 3 as well. Can only hope Cave have the same idea and release Deathsmiles 2 here, I loved the first one...

In a sense that's also what FFXI did as well, released in japan first, where it had a few problems, so they fixed those problems before giving it a release for US and EU.

[Delsus]

I think some of the differences with release dates has something to do with where the company that made it is based. Games from Japan tend to be released in Japan first now, and then EU and US both get it at the same time, ones from US are released there first, then see EU and JAP release afterwards. In other cases it may be a case of marketing, some companies want to see how good their game is before it's released worldwide so they release in one area first, see how it goes, then branch it outwards if it does well. I think that's what Zen United were doing with Blazblue, testing to see if US and EU still liked classic sprite-based fighting games, and because it sold well they sent out a sequal and Arcana Heart 3 as well. Can only hope Cave have the same idea and release Deathsmiles 2 here, I loved the first one...

In a sense that's also what FFXI did as well, released in japan first, where it had a few problems, so they fixed those problems before giving it a release for US and EU.

I can imgine its thier locale first, but to be fair most Japanese games are released in the US first because the japanese also use NTSC, also they only need to localise them to english whereas for the EU they need to localise them for most languages spoken.

I know I probably sound like I am contradicting myself coming up with reasons they are released earlier in US.

Also how could my sarcasm derail this thread so badly?

[Konachibi]

I can imgine its thier locale first, but to be fair most Japanese games are released in the US first because the japanese also use NTSC, also they only need to localise them to english whereas for the EU they need to localise them for most languages spoken.

I know I probably sound like I am contradicting myself coming up with reasons they are released earlier in US.

Also how could my sarcasm derail this thread so badly?

Y'know.... I'm 26 years old and not once did I ever stop to think that EU games took longer to release due to also needing french, german, italian, spanish and all those other languages...

Seriously... I'm gonna facedesk myself a few times for never even realising that.

[Delsus]

Y'know.... I'm 26 years old and not once did I ever stop to think that EU games took longer to release due to also needing french, german, italian, spanish and all those other languages...

Seriously... I'm gonna facedesk myself a few times for never even realising that.

You know it makes alot of sense a Japanese game company will think "ok lets get this translated into english to get it out in america to make money faster, then translate it to the other languages for europe because it has been such a huge success in Japan, we can lower production costs even more by putting Itallian, Spanish, French, German etc on the same disk"

Its all about money nothing else, if they can make $50 million over night by releasing in the US, rather than wait to translate the whole game into other languages, lets not forget the other languages need differant voice actors that make it take alot longer to translate.

This seems to be somthing thats close to you, the way you keep commenting, when I even said it was sarcasm.