Where Politics And Video Games Collide

Unfortunately, I can't say I didn't see something like this coming. I've been wondering for a very long time why various companies seem to both go out of thier way to restrict games being played in certian regions regardless of the increasing global economy, and why the various companies are so stubborn at maintaining the lockouts of the past when it would clearly be more profitable to at least allow consumer acess to the past titles if nothing else, ESPECIALLY with the semi-recent loss in Australia for Sony that prompted the Region Free PS3 thing in the first place.

I could be wrong, but I've come to the conclusion that the reason they are so stubborn (particularly with the past titles) is probably due to contracts with the developers. It is they (and not solely the console selling companies, although thier greed enters in to it) who get paid liscensing fees after all. All systems save portable ones (due to the pretext that they were partially designed to take with you on planes) to my knowledge, have some sort of lockout or another (I don't think it became truly deliberate until the PSX generation though, but like I said, I could be wrong). With RPG's becoming more popular and various Japanese titles becoming more widely known in the US, people would definately want what they know they "lost" in the US (Seiken Densetsu 3, and Dragon Warriors 5 and 6 are classic examples). Not to mention how annoying it has to be for the EU people to have to wait as long as they do (especially for those who can speak and read english already). All that in mind, it is logical to at least provide the means to play it (it doesn't neccicarily have to be translated either) on virtual console or whatever. It's not like SRW, where copywrite issues would get in the way. It is either that or have to resort to one kind of Piracy (chipping, in the case of semi-modern games) or another (Emulation, for the oldest games) to get acess to these games. So with all that being said, even with thier seeming obliviousness to logic at times, it seems logical that they would at least allow acess to such materials without national restriction, so why do they still not do it when the chipset is fundamentally similar, just one chip activating a "country code" flag upon bootup. The only answer I can think of when it would be a profit and way of seizing a market for a company, is a contractual obligation tieing thier hands down.