No import business

Aug 27, 2009 07:46 GMT  ·  By

SEGA of Europe has told journalists at the Bayonetta Gamescom demo that it plans for the videogame to be region locked when it is released in Japan this October. The title has been given a January 2010 date for Europe and for the United States.

Apparently, it will not be playable outside of Japan no matter whether gamers pick it up on the Xbox 360 from Microsoft or on the PlayStation 3 from Sony. If fully confirmed, the move would be pretty unusual for the Sony-made home console and would set a rather disappointing precedent for the gaming business.

Kotaku initially reported the move to region lock Bayonetta and then SEGA was contacted by VG247 about the issue. The latter offered a “No comment” line and added that the company would be addressing the issues officially when the game was out on the Japanese market on October 29.

This pretty much means that all those people who planned to import the videogame should hold off on any purchase because of the region lock move and will likely have to wait until January 2010 to play around with the heroine of Bayonetta. SEGA is saying that the move is designed to protect sales of the title on markets outside of Japan.

On one level, it makes sense to limit sales outside Japan, as this means that piracy for the title will be extremely limited. On the other hand, SEGA is shooting itself in the foot by not having Bayonetta, which is being put together by Platinum Games, ready for a simultaneous release on all the big markets.

After all, no one would have reason to import and no one would have reason to fear the region lock if the game were on store shelves everywhere on October 29. Let's hope that the reaction from fans will teach SEGA to do better next time.