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Nintendo 3DS: Wireless Local Multiplayer Is Region Locked For Nintendo 3DS Games

Even though you can communicate with other Nintendo 3DS systems throughout the world via Street Pass you’re unable to wirelessly share game data with a system from a different region. One of the guys over at Siliconeria tried to set up a wireless battle in Star Fox 64 3D between his American 3DS and his Japanese 3DS and the two units just would not connect with each other.

66 thoughts on “Nintendo 3DS: Wireless Local Multiplayer Is Region Locked For Nintendo 3DS Games”

  1. LIES! I did an RE: 3D duo mode with a friend of mine the other day. He had a European version, and I had the American. So yeah, that’s sad Nintendo.

        1. Ill buy the vita if the entertainment options are cool, like HD movies and such, but i don’t really see me playing uncharted on it, as cool as it is, its not the same in 8 inches.

          1. there is no point to having a ps3 in ur hands nintendo know the portable has got to do something you can only do in ur hand for example the ds zelda games and with 3ds the 3d w/o glasses is perfect because you can constantly adjust to see it

          2. Really just movies and entertainment, and its not 8 inches its 5, but atleast is 5 in instead of 3.53 in. Its a portable for a reason.

            1. oh ya lol, i got confused with the wii-u controller which is 7.5 sorry my mind got jumbled. after posting that i thought wait a minute wtf am i thinking?

              we need rights to edit or something lol.

      1. Come on guys why are you being so mean to the vita. Plus some of your comments dont make much sense too.

        “psvita is only about graphics. nintendo is about fun.” thats pretty stereotypical. you do know some ppl dont like nintendo, right?

        “there is no point to having a ps3 in ur hands ” if you mean by graphics then yes there is. visuals improve gameplay, and graphics only get better not worse.

        “nintendo know the portable has got to do something you can only do in ur hand” also do sony, why you think they added a second anolog, motion control, and touchscreen/touchpad duo. to have more control over your games, its not only ninty.

        “i don’t really see me playing uncharted on it, as cool as it is, its not the same in 8 inches” thats like saying i dont see playing ocarina 3d on a 3.53 in screen. plus uncharted vita is a new story not remake.

        1. but ocarina of time had crappy graphix on the 64 (compared to now of course) lol, it never came in HD, idk what im missing, and anyways, uncharted got popular cuz of its “movie style” scenes, i don’t get BOSE surround sound out of a vita. the 3DS does not have it either, but the graphix are not HD, so i dont expect it too.

            1. no dude, I game on every platform, I love playing games simple as that, (sept on xbox, i have no use for xbox since im a pc gamer aswell) I like all games as long as they are made well.

              I wasn’t taking it seriously, just stating my point on why I would get a vita and why not.

        2. Vita is just a portable PS3

          Anyone that isn’t a diehard sony/ps fan would make 0 sense choosing it over the PS3 unless they travel around nonstop.
          It’s gonna be like the PSP anyway, short watered down spin offs of the greats on the home console.

          1. I didn’t realize the PS3 had a back touch on the controller, or touch at all for that matter. that makes it a very different experience from than the PS3. So it makes at least 1 sense to me, maybe even 2 sense.

            It’s sad that when ever anyone mentions a competing platform, everyone tries to show how bad the other is, warranted or not. Just buy what you enjoy and leave your criticisms to fanboy specific sites (such as this is a Nintendo specific news site, so criticisms of Nintendo consoles are more warranted.)

  2. umm i don’t see how that’s a huge problem, its not like WiFi was region locked, that would be stupid, just local play, and i don’t have many foreign friends that visit enough to make that an issue.

  3. Don’t see how this is such a big deal, though. I don’t see why you’d need to play wireless Multi-Player with someone from a different region. It’s not like StreetPass doesn’t work or anything.

    1. Hmm lets see. Say you have a friend visiting from a foreign country. You both have a 3DS and boy are you excited to play some Smash Bros. 3DS with him/her. You power up the system and are so pumped to battle your good pal. But alas! you can’t play because the systems are region locked. What a shame.

      1. What are… friends? And anyway, as far as I know all European and Austrailian 3DS’s should be able to do download play with each other.

      1. Agreed. This really doesn’t effect anyone except people who REGULARLY travel to other countries to visit/work with other people that they know who also have 3DS’…. I’m gonna go way out on a limb here and say that that percentage of ppl is very, very slim…

          1. Region locking may have reasons that i don’t know, but all i know is that hacking will happen as long as there are hackers and price-tags, and the internet.

            Region locking has little to do with it im sure.

            (unless a hacking groups sole purpose is to do away with region locking, but i think there in it for free games instead)

  4. Who gives a ? They are on another continent! Are your Japese friends coming over? Probably not…

    WiFi and Local play are entirely different

      1. I think he meant things like region locking entire games, like xenoblade, but in all honesty, Price-tags encourage piracy more than anything else lol.

  5. Guys, not sure how many people have realised this yet, this does not apply to wi-fi or local play where everyone has a chip. This only applies to download play,where one person downloads part of the game to their system to play a multiplayer game. Wi-fi and local multiplayer work fine regardless of region.

  6. i dont see how this a huge deal, you know unless you bought a 3ds outside of your region. wich not many do anyways and if so sucks for you IF this is an issue , of not then why does anybody care?

  7. i don’t know how many people have already realised this but this does not affect wi-fi or local play, only download play where only one person has a chip. Wi-fi and local play, where everyone has a chip, works fine despite the region.

  8. I know I’m in the minority of people who have a Japanese husband who also plays DS games with me. That being said, it’s really disappointing that the 3DS, a device that we’ve both been saving up for, won’t let us play together.

  9. Nintendo, we love you but why do you keep doing this to us? First it’s region locked, then it gets a price drop and now I can’t even play wireless with my friends in Japan OTL

    1. You can play WiFi with friends in japan, but if a japan friend comes over for the weekend u cant LAN, that’s what the article says.

  10. this is weird i heard it was only for the download play, which would be normal considering the games are region locked

    if the whole local multi is locked then :(

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