Quote:Earlier this month news broke that Persona 4 Arena would be region locked in North America, effectively making it the first PS3 title to be region locked since Sony added in the capability a few years back on their home console. Many people, including Europeans who were planning on importing the title due to a still TBA 2012 release date in that territory, were waiting on a statement from Atlus regarding their decision.

Full Story: Atlus Releases Statement Regarding Persona 4 Arena's Region Locking

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Shawn Collier
Software Engineer | Associate Editor

Atlus - a company that makes very off-the-wall games
Atlus - a company that listens to its fans
Atlus - a business, and one that must make business decisions in order to keep in business
Atlus - a company that responds when fans demand answers

Atlus made a bold move by region locking P4A, and fans were unhappy. I myself could care less as long as we all in the end get the same content either way. Given the explanations given in that press statement, I myself must say, I have plenty of respect for Atlus. Most companies that make moves like this would either keep us in the dark, or blame the fans.

I think to sum this statement up best is that Atlus is going to make decision that are going to be unpopular sometimes, and yes, it's going to be for the benefit of the company. But at the same time, I'm sure they will make moves that would more or less cost them in the long run as well. We must as fans take the good with the bad.

At the same time, if all they did was do everything to appease us, they would wind up like Sega, and we don't want that, now do we?

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My main issue with region locking is that several years after games have been released there can be large differences between the availability and price of games between regions. I remember prior to the release of the PS3 I was looking for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the PS1. It was cheap as chips in North America but ridiculously expensive in the PAL territories.

However since gamers as a whole seem to have become a lot more nostalgic everything gets remade or ported or released via digital media so I imagine in the future it'll be less of a problem.

I don't know what's with all the complaining, it's getting released in all regions within the space of a month so it's not like anyone's getting shafted. The alternative is having it region free but probably waiting 6-12 months for a western release.

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(July 09, 2012 09:20:01 PM)Zero Wrote:  Atlus - a company that makes very off-the-wall games
Atlus - a company that listens to its fans
Atlus - a business, and one that must make business decisions in order to keep in business
Atlus - a company that responds when fans demand answers

Atlus made a bold move by region locking P4A, and fans were unhappy. I myself could care less as long as we all in the end get the same content either way. Given the explanations given in that press statement, I myself must say, I have plenty of respect for Atlus. Most companies that make moves like this would either keep us in the dark, or blame the fans.

There's a lot of truth in there. Atlus is amazing and has done so much for their fans as well as brought unique game experiences to people. They are still a business but they still keep an ear to their customer unlike many other companies.

I was actually avoiding this article just because boycotters (especially internet ones) can often become overly passionate about their causes. To be honest I trust Atlus to make the decisions they have to for business and other reasons. Sometimes it may bite, but in the end, it's their product. People can choose to buy it or not. Based on their explanation, this situation for region locking is warranted and isolated in my honest opinion.

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