Maybe we’ll know more about this tomorrow, but Nintendo has shed some light on why the 3DS will be region locked when it comes out in the next few weeks. Nintendo says that it developed three distinct versions of the system, for Japan, for the Americas, and for Europe-Australia. Different regions, different ideas about parental responsibility and what’s appropriate for children, different laws, etc.
Nintendo says that there’s a “possibility that Nintendo 3DS software sold in one region will not function properly when running on Nintendo 3DS hardware sold in another.”
Region locking is so 1990s, but what are you going to do?