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Nintendo CEO: Next Console May Be Region-Free
posted on by Daryl Lee Hale
Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata revealed in a Q&A session on his company's official website that the company is considering making its next console, currently codenamed NX, region-free. The Q&A happened earlier this week during the financial results briefing for the fiscal year ending in March 2015.
Iwata said the company is "internally analyzing what hurdles exist to lifting region locks" to determine if being region-free is viable for the NX. In response to the feedback about removing region locks, Iwata said he wants to give the request "positive consideration," though the company has "nothing concrete at the moment."
Iwata also acknowledged requests to remove the region locks on current systems, the Nintendo Wii U and 3DS, stating that it would be unrealistic, as "unlocking them after they are already on the market poses a number of hurdles."
In a previous financial results briefing in November, Iwata said that the company would consider removing the region locks. He attributed their implementation to "a history of localization taking an extremely long time, a variety of marketing constraints and circumstances in each country, and the fact that the license needed to sell games have not always been granted globally."
More details about the NX are set to be released next year.
[Via Siliconera]
