Persona 4 Arena, Region Locking and the opposite of entitlement

On the weekend we learned that Persona 4 Arena - a fighting game based on the popular JRPG - would be region locked - one of the first such titles ever available on the PlayStation 3. Publishers have always been able to region lock their games on the PS3, but Sony seemed pretty firmly against it - and so it hasn't really been done before.

Atlus - the company responsible for Persona 4 Arena - have decided to region lock their upcoming game however and while fans were and are upset at the decision, they released a press release over the weekend explaining the reasons behind the decision.




We can all agree that such transparency from a publisher is a welcome change from the normal dead air we usually get when a publisher does something that fans disagree with. Their reasoning is sound too - P4A will have both English and Japanese audio and text options no matter what region and both will come out at around the same time. Atlus are naturally concerned that Japanese fans who want the game will simply import it. As a publisher and a business, they don't want to cannibalise sales from their Japanese market or artificially inflate the US market.

That doesn't do us much favours here in Australia however. Atlus games in PAL regions are not published by Atlus, with P4A being handled by Zen United. Zen United have said they are hoping to have the game out as soon as possible following the US and Japanese releases, but so far they have locked it down to 2012. Add the time to get the game out to Australian stores and who knows when we'll get it.

Australian release dates have shrunk from the 'several years later' we used to have to suffer through for the most part, but the most important reason for that is because otherwise most people would pirate it or import it. Region-locking, by taking away the ability to import, makes piracy a much simpler solution - after all, hacking your machine makes it possible for you to either import or pirate (in most cases) - and piracy is a lot cheaper.

Another problem has reared its head again with all of this however - and I don't have a pithy word for it, so let's just call it the opposite of entitlement. After Atlus released their statement explaining their reasoning for region locking, a lot of people world-wide were still unhappy. Atlus claimed it wasn't a slippery slope and claimed it was a one off event - but how on Earth could they say that? Were they just not planning on releasing any games in Japan and US near the same date? Atlus couldn't speak for other publishers either, who would watch gamer's reaction and possibly follow suit.

There were others however, who were criticising those upset by Atlus' decision - and it isn't a new phenomenon. 'Atlus is a company' they'd say 'why should they cop a loss just to make you happy?' These people defended Atlus' decision as a sound business proposal and couldn't understand why others were getting upset. Entitlement was thrown around fairly liberally - just another bunch of gamers thinking they deserved to be treated like kings.




You have no doubt seen it in other instances too - it's trotted out by hardcore fans of brands like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony almost any time they do something people don't like. 'They are a business and it's their job to make money.' - a true statement, but it misses a fundamental point.

I don't care.

I'm not a Nintendo shareholder, I am not an employee of Atlus. While on some broad level I want them to continue to succeed so they will keep making games I enjoy, it is not my responsibility to keep them afloat. If they go bankrupt tomorrow I will be sad for the people who lost their jobs, but I'll not fret over the importing I did or any other actions that sent them down that path.

If their business model doesn't make enough money, they should change their business model. Saying 'they are a business' doesn't in any way make me feel better about what they are doing and it doesn't excuse their actions. They are a business and I am a customer - it’s their job to make me happy, not the other way around.

The fact is, as a customer there is usually not a lot we can do to oppose a decision we don’t like - but we can vote with our wallets and we can voice our concern. Businesses and customers have their little back and forth, with businesses doing something and customers pushing back. Taking that away gives the businesses all the power - and in this day and age, don’t you think they have enough?