With a lot of hype over the Nintendo 3DS it is very disappointing to hear that the device is now confirmed to be region locked in a similar way to DVD regioning.

Brands like to spin all kinds of reasons for region locking but everyone knows that there is only one true reason - price control. And so, while the rest of the world battles through changes required by globalisation, the electronics consumer industry continues to force region specific pricing.

From the source article at Destructoid:

As you'll see in the above video, a North American copy of Super Monkey Ball 3D will not even register in my Japanese 3DS' menu. An empty slot is shown, just as if nothing was inserted. Popping it out and replacing it with a Japanese game, you'll see the game's icon come up, no problem. I think it's pretty safe to assume that things will work the same for US 3DS systems and Japanese games. Nintendo has this system locked down!

Fuuuuuuuuuuuucking lame

I'm overseas and the price on games here is nutty (xbox games are $50) fucking hoped to pick up a 3DS but not sure now, unless I always buy NTSC-J games

So does this mean my R4 likely wont work in a 3DS if I buy one here?

This was confirmed a while ago (back in Jan I think) by Nintendo themselves.

There are supposedly only 3 distinct regions though Japanese, American and European. Games retailed in Australia will be in the European region, so we can still import games from Europe/UK just fine.

It is sad but after the R4 situation you can understand why they did it.

I don't get it? How is this a reason?

The R4 cartridge is a flash cart you can load ROMs on, etc. How does regioning have anything to do with that?

It is sad but after the R4 situation you can understand why they did it.

That's irrelevant, we're talking about region locking.

So does this mean my R4 likely wont work in a 3DS if I buy one here?

There are some that work, but I would suggest not using it. the 3DS records all carts you put in the system and sends the logs to Nintendo. You'll probably end up being blocked from the store and online network.

Sauce:
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/03/nintendo-is-so-not-screwing-around-with-3ds-piracy/

Hrm now that I re-read what I said that doesn't make sense lol. I still wouldn't run an R4 anyway because of what midda said. I only ever imported I think 2 games out of the 12 or so for DS I own so it doesn't really effect me. I think 1 of the reasons why they did this, at least from what i've read places, that the DSi type features were region specific and wouldn't work in other countries? Something like that. Also isn't the DSi region locked too? I've only tried pokemon silver and white in my XL.

The whole region locking system is a farce. I'm thinking of just buying a 3DS and all my games from PlayAsia. Cheap shipping, save $60 on the console, games are like half the price. I don't mind having to wait a week or two for my games if I'm saving that kind of scratch. Is the online stuff region locked?