How did the hardware know the software was foreign?
In: 19
The how is easy – there was a little bit of code on the disk that said what region the game was sold in. The console would only play games if the region code was the same as the console code.
The why gets into copyright law and licensing. Each country is going to have different rules for how/when media can be sold there, as well as different pricing structures based on what the local markets can afford. Just like music/movies/tv shows, video games would be sold in some markets at some prices, and in different markets at different prices (or not at all). As the owner of the IP, the video game publisher has the rights to make those decisions, and reasonably restrict folks from using out of region media.
So, as an example, the publisher may have an agreement to sell the game at Best Buy in the US for $60. Best Buy is fine with that, but only so long as no one else in the US sells the game for cheaper. The publisher then sets and agreement with a similar store in India, but agrees on a price of $40 for the game. To ensure that the agreement with Best Buy isn’t breached, the publisher says that the Indian version can’t be played on consoles in the US – only the US ($60) version can.
Latest Answers