Regional lockout

Since Blu-ray discs are cheaper in America than in Japan, American releases of Japanese anime series are often protected in that way to prevent reversal importations.

In older versions of the copy software CloneCD, the features "Amplify Weak Sectors", "Protected PC Games," and "Hide CDR Media" were disabled in the United States and Japan.

Changing the region and language settings in Windows (e.g., to Canadian English) or patches could unlock these features in the two countries.

In some cases, to avoid grey market imports or international software piracy, they are designed not to run on a computer with the wrong TV system.

The region is identified by the IP address (there is no activation possible without Internet connection), so the use of VPN or a proxy is recommended to circumvent the restriction.

The Kaspersky regions are: The desktop versions of HP Pavilion and Compaq Presario are region-locked, according the build is 91UKV6PRA1, for the A6740uk released in 2009.

[3] Regional lockouts in video games have been achieved by several methods, such as hardware/software authentication, slot pin-out change, differences in cartridge cases, IP blocking and online software patching.

The 10NES chip also doubled as a form of digital rights management to prevent loading unlicensed or bootleg games.

The Famicom does not include a 10NES chip, but is still unable to play imports unless an adapter is used, due to the different size of the media.

[6] The Nintendo Switch is region-free, therefore allowing games from any region to be played, whether through physical cartridges or digital downloads.

[15] In the case of Persona 4 Arena;[16] publisher Atlus declined to reverse its decision despite substantial outcry by some of their fanbase.

[17] The decision was made to avoid excessive importing, because all versions of the game share the same features and language support, but have differing price points and release dates in each region.

Additionally, some games separate online players per region, such as Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

For example, the EU store will not supply usable map packs for an imported U.S. copy of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

The regions include:[20][21][22] (categorised under SIEA: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guina, Guam, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, United States, Uruguay)(categorised under SIEE: Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Ukraine)(categorised under SIEJ: Japan)(categorised under SIE Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Lao People's Demoncratic Republic, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam)(categorised under SIEK: South Korea)Although PlayStation Portable has no region locking for UMD games,[24] UMD movies are locked by region.

Sony's official stance is that they discourage developers from region-locking and will only relent in special cases (as with the PS3 Persona 4 Arena).

The region variant of a game can be identified by the rating label and SKU ID on the spine of the disc case.

WesternSega Master Systems have a different shape from the Japanese cartridge connector, meaning Sega Mark III and SG-1000 games are incompatible with it.

Japanese Mega Drive systems have a piece of plastic that slides in a place of the cartridge when the power switch is turned on, thus, inserting an American or European cart will make it impossible to use on a Japanese Mega Drive (though minor modifications to the plastic locks in the systems will bypass this).

The console's main board, however, was designed with language and frequency jumper sets which originally activated features in the same ROM for different regions.

This feature was later used to enable software-based regional locks that display warning messages that prevent the game from being played.

Furthermore, third party accessories exist that can bypass the regional-lockouts of Sega Mega-CD games, inserted into the main console's cartridge slot.

Subscription-based online games often enforce a regional lock by blocking IP addresses (which can often be circumvented through an open proxy) or by requiring the user to enter a national ID number (which may be impossible to verify).

[37] Steam is also used to restrict the release of the PC port of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance to US and Europe only due to Sony having an exclusivity deal with Konami in Asia, and to restrict the Asian release of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy to Japanese-only versions of the games.

A spokesperson clarified the policy, stating that it was intended to prevent grey-market reselling, and that it only applied to the first SIM card inserted.

Previously, the CSC was generally decided based on which region the phone was meant for, and it could be changed by user input.

For example, if one buys an XAA/OYM device in the United States but one is now living in China and using a Chinese SIM, the active CSC will not be changed to CHC/OYM, because the firmware does not include CHC in the multi-CSC file.

For example, FaceTime is not available in the UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia due to government restrictions on VoIP services.

[47] In March 2024, Apple released iOS 17.4, introducing a distinct set of additional features for the European Union residents to comply with the Digital Markets Act.

Users who travel out of the EU can continue accessing alternative app marketplaces for a grace period of 30 days.