Pokemon Black and White are Region locked

[Buoysel]

BIG news for those of us importing Pokemon Black and or White: The games are confirmed region locked.

Don't panic just yet guys, the region lock only works with DSi and DSi XL. If you have an old DS or a DS lite you will be able to play the game just fine. Also note that if you have a DSi or a DSi XL that is from the Japanese market you will also be able to play your imported game. For those of you who only have a DSi that is from the American market, you might want to look into getting a used DS lite from GameStop or something.

For those of you who don't know what region locked is, it is when a manufacturer makes a device that will not work on equipment that is sold out side of their country, for example a Pokemon Black game will not work DSi sold in the US, however it will work on a DSi that was originally sold in Japan.

Sources:

E-mail from Play Asia    

This is an important update regarding your Pokemon Black / White Japanese

Version pre-order #197#####



We got the first units of Pokemon Black / White in and confirmed, that the

games are indeed region-locked on Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DSi XL

consoles.



Please understand that we are not able to accept returns due to region

lock issues. We are sending you this email to keep you informed and to ask

you to make a decision based on this information.



First off, if you have a Nintendo DS or DS Lite Console from any region

then there is no problem



However, if you have a Non-Japanese DSi / DSi XL console then the title

doesn't not work at all on your console.  The console simply will say: 'no

game cartridge'.



Please make sure that you either have a Nintendo DS / Nintendo DS Lite

- or -

a JAPANESE DSi / DSi LL to ensure that you can play the game.



More info on this matter has been compiled here

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-00-3-dsienhanced.html



If you are currently in possession of a Non-Japanese Nintendo DSi or

Nintendo DSi XL and you want to play this title, we recommend to check our

selection of Nintendo DSi & DSi LL models here (only those marked Japanese

will play the game 100%)

http://www.play-asia.com/



If you want to cancel your order or change it, please do so as soon as

possible, as we are starting to ship them out. The majority of preorders

will be shipped on Saturday, September 18th.



You can change your order online in your account. However, the option of

changing an order will disappear once the order is being prepared for

shipping, in this case please contact our customer service for any

amendment. 

E-mail from Japan Video Games    

Dear all, thank you so much for your order for Pokemon Black / White. We've done some testing and we have found out the following information below.

 

We have made shipment for your order, but we would like to confirm with the following:

 

Compatibility:

US DS Regular - Works

US DS Lite - Works

US DSi - Does Not Work

US DSi XL - Does Not Work

JPN DS Regular - Works

JPN DS Lite - Works

JPN DSi - Works

JPN DSi XL - Works



1.  If your system is not compatible, we could provide a refund, but please do not open the game(s). We will pay for return shipping.



2.  If your system is compatible, or if you would like the game anyway and would like to purchase a compatible system with us or locally, you could let us know or simply keep the game.

 

We thank you in advance and are looking forward to your response.

[Cat333Pokémon]

I added the text of the e-mail I received from Japan Video Games, stating the same information.

[Masterge77]

CURSE YOU REGION LOCK!!!!!!!!!! CURSE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thankfully, I only have a DS Lite, and also thankfully, we only have 6 months before the games come over here.....

[Shadow]

I didn't pre-order the games, but they should've notified people about this beforehand :/

[RotomGuy]

Phew. I am SO glad I din't spend £60 on the Japanese versions.

[Ningamer]

I got this e-mail a few days ago. I was really looking forward to playing White on my DSi XL, but I guess now I can't. My DS Lite's screen is horrifically broken (Though somewhat usable), which means I'll have to either get a new DSL or borrow my brother's (Which doesn't have functioning power/charge lights and has a floppy hinge). I take good damn care of my DSes.

(By the way, the DSi XL is the sturdiest handheld I've ever had)

[ultimateshadowangel]

why didnt they say that b4 the game came out!

ugh gotta sell my dsi XL

i bought that just for pokemon b&w to :/

[Jason_Henge]

This sounds worse than it is. When the game gets translated and distributed everywhere else, this shouldn't be a problem, right? This is just a current problem for those who wanted a sneak peek of the game. (Kind of poetic justice, in a way.)

[The Tropius of Tropiuses]

Why would they make a whole new feature for the DSi only, and then they make it locked ONLY FOR DSis

[GrassPokemonFTW]

For once, me being technologically slow isn't bad! DS LITES FTW!

[MultiWishMaker]

You know what the worse part is I got my White in the mail like 4 hours ago and now I have to use my neighbors old hanging off the henges DS

[AuraKshatriya]

With Nintendo taking action to prevent information leaks via pictures from PokeBeach, Serebii, etc, and Jun`ichi Masuda not even commenting on the game`s ending to Iwata, to this. It really seems like they want to keep these games a big surprise for everyone who play them, which I suppose is commendable.