Just recently, Nintendo announced the New Nintendo 3DS, a mid cycle refresh of its Nintendo 3DS line that updates the form factor, ergonomics, specs, and general niggles that have stuck with Nintendo’s newest handheld line since its initial launch in 2011. And with all the changes coming to the system- it’s got so many that it’s even going to get its very own exclusives games, basically- you’d think that this would be just the right time for Nintendo to start going back on one of its most controversial and outdated policies, right?

I am speaking of their policy of region locking systems. A lot of people expected that Nintendo might start reversing its stance on region locking with the New Nintendo 3DS systems (just as they first started region locking with the DSi systems), but we won’t be having any such luck as, Gamespot reports, Nintendo has confirmed that the New Nintendo 3DS line will be region locked too.

Yeah, well, okay. It’s a stupid, archaic policy, and it deserves to go, and I really hope Nintendo gets the hint and removes it with their next full systems, especially since theirs is the only hardware in the industry that is actually still region locked.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution on the PC, it seems, will be region locked. This comes a huge surprise, as games are rarely ever region locked on the PC. Eidos says retail copies of the game will be region locked, however, digitally purchased copies will be region-free.

This region locking is because of the disc size and its limitations.

“Just to be clear to everyone the region lock is just for the retail BOX copies.. ie if you physically buy a box in the UK it will have the uk region code etc, if you buy a boxed copy in russia will be locked to russia, everywhere else is covered by a rest of world region (including poland),” am Eidos admin said on the forums.

“Due to disc size limitations, the languages had to be split onto different masters (PCs dont have universal bluray drives yet so we couldnt put all on 1 disc this is why there is so much confusion)

“Also all versions have ALL languages available. So even if you buy the English UK version, you can change the language to French, German etc whenever you want.. The size of the game meant we couldnt fit all languages onto the disc so you will just download the language pack for the game that is all..”

However, an Eidos admin soon updated on the forums (NeoSquall, via VG247), that this will not be implemented in UK/Europe, and reminds us that this will only be implemented in BOX versions of the game, not digital or console releases.

“Region-locking plan UPDATE
We’re aware of some discussion regarding the planned region-locking of boxed PC versions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and after careful review we have decided not to implement this in the UK/Europe. Please note, this plan only related to PC boxed games, and not digital or console editions.”

[Kotaku]