Spyke

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games·GamesbyShadow79

Is a potential Switch 2 OLED going to face region locking?

The existing Switch 2 had region locking in the sense of making two versions (the Japanese one is mainly language locked, meaning you can't change it to ENG plus the region settings are fixed to JPN) however from that, foreign cartidges can be read with the language changed to Japanese (if supported) since most games detect console language except if the game itself has settings within it to revert or swap langauges.

Japanese version only accepts Nintendo Accounts that have the region set to Japan upon signing in. Literally, the only difference between that and the "normal" Switch 2 is language & region plus cost (cheaper than the international one), the reason why it exists is to make it affordable for their own consumers due to the weak Yen as they are aware that foreigners will region hop buying the console in bulk if they didn't region lock it.

When it first came out, Japan only had it only obtainable via a lottery system (raffle) which is only intended for both citizens and expats with permanent residency (they would've been required to show Japanese issued ID upon collecting if they've won), so tourists can't just buy the console nor pre-order it, but that standard was dropped recently as the Switch 2 has been around for a while plus hype around it has settled down.

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I suspect the region locking will disappear again.

Trump's tariffs and favoritism to Japanese buyers I think were the two reasons motivating the change in the first instance.

While the second reason will exist and remain important as long as supplies of semiconductors are constrained by the AI bubble, the first reason was invalidated, struck down by the US Supreme Court. There are cost and efficiency benefits for Nintendo only retaining one SKU, so I think there's pressure to revert to region-free.

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All I know is I'm not getting a Switch 2 until I can homebrew it. (Just as I didn't get a Switch 1 until Fusée Gelée (the vulnerability in the Switch's secureboot process that first enabled unsigned/homebrew code to be run) was discovered and made public.) Once unsigned code is possible, disabling region locking (assuming it's enabled in the first place) would probably follow pretty quickly thereafter.

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Is a potential Switch 2 OLED going to face region locking? | Spyke