After reading that article I still don't understand why they're region locking the game in the first place?
On a more philosophical note I find it funny how in one generation of consoles, region-free games have become necessity. Weren't pretty much all previous consoles region-locked? The PS2, GameCube, ....
"a luxury once enjoyed becomes a necessity."The reason Atlus' PR department is giving is that supposedly because of the current state of the dollar being very weak against the Japanese yen and the Euro, Atlus is hoping they can prevent buyers in the EU/JP territories from importing the much cheaper NA version, since the game will have dual-language audio and will essentially be the same across all regions (the box art and manual might be slightly different, but that's about it). I'm not quite sure how much stock I'd be willing to put into that reason though, based on what I'm hearing from gaming sites, if the angry fans make good on their threats and there's a massive boycott of P4A on the PS3 due to the region-locking, the loss in sales is pretty much going to offset whatever money Atlus of Japan might have saved by preventing the European and Japanese from importing the cheaper NA version.
ya i don't really understand the big deal, region locking isn't new and makes sense. i'm actually surprised the ps3 is region-free, i didn't realise that
Lol. I thought everyone knew the PS3 console was region free. Heck, it's one of the big selling points of the PS3, aside from free online and some pretty good console exclusives. But yeah, PS3 is region free, the Xbox 360 has always been region-locked. PSN Store titles are region-locked, though, and PS3 games, on the other hand, CAN be region-locked, but that decision is up to the publisher, and subject to Sony's approval process.
I'm still on the fence. It looks fantastic and I might actually splurge and grab it at full price. The region lock wont affect my decision to purchase it in the least. If they think it'll make them a few more bucks and cut down on a bit of importing I have no problem with that.
Well, there is a pre-order bonus soundtrack CD available for the NA version, so there's incentive right there to get it Day 1. I don't know about the other regions getting pre-order bonuses or if there will be a LE available. I kinda doubt there will be an LE version of this game, it's going to depend on each regions' respective publishers as to how the releases pan out. It's worth noting that Zen United will be the publisher for the EU publisher for P4A (normally Ghostlight is the company that usually publishes Atlus titles).
The good news is, the game is supposed to come out around the same time in NA/JP; the JP version comes out July 26, and the NA version comes out a week and a half later on August 7. Zen United says the EU version is stated to be released sometime in August, but the date listed is currently a placeholder and is likely subject to change.
While I don't agree with Atlus doing this (Atlus! Of all the game publishers in the world, I would have never thought that Atlus would have been the first to publish a region-locked game on the PS3), I wasn't planning on buying this game until it hit a bargain price anyway. Now Persona 5 would be a different story altogether...
I suspect that this was a Atlus of Japan and not a Atlus of America decision to region-lock the game, which would be understandable for Atlus JP and Zen United for trying to maximize profits by preventing imports of the NA region. The NA version will be $60 on Day 1, the EU version would be around 50 Euros (UK ~31 pounds), and the JP version to retail for 7500 yen (about ~$85, $90 shipped for importers). Problem is, the backlash that Atlus may get from this decision may cost them more than the savings they'd get from merely making it tougher to import on the PS3. This decision may (unfortunately) promote more region-locking of future titles by other publishers, which would encourage more piracy and boycotting (which is MUCH worse than stopping imports). The next generation of consoles appears to be heading in this direction anyway, at which point I'll just pretty much stop being a video gamer. My collecting days would end with this generation.
But I concur, blcklblskt; while Atlus isn't exactly EA or Capcom or Activision (and region-locking is not nearly as egregrious as Machiavellian-level DRM or on-disc DLC or perma-saves), I'm hoping that P4 Arena is an isolated incident and that Atlus doesn't plan on making a habit of this. If Persona 4 Golden or, heaven forbid, Persona 5 gets region-locked, and the games weren't dual-language audio, that would pretty much kill a purchase from me. Also, another factor to consider is that since the game is being jointly developed by Arc System Works and Atlus, I wonder just how much influence Aksys Games may have had in making this decision to region-lock, assuming they supported it in the first place.
tl;dr: I will support Atlus and buy P4 Arena, but I may or may not buy it Day 1, I might be tempted to wait until the price drops to $30 or less, assuming it goes down at all. But I won't be so kind with my wallet if Atlus does this voluntarily in future titles. That being said, this game looks really good, and could be potentially better than either Blazblue or MvC. So I'd say check it out if you like 2D fighters.
Here's Atlus' latest trailer for the game:
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