Region locking...why?

[Shadowknight1]

I've never liked region locking.  For many reasons.  First of which being that sometimes soundtracks for anime or games I get from Japan have DVDs that I can never watch.  But the main reason is video games.  There are a ton of games released in Japan that I would love to play, had they been released in the US.  But because the gaming systems AND the disks themselves are region-locked, that's impossible.  Even worse are when games ARE localized and released in, say, Europe but not in the US.  The biggest examples of this are the three JRPGs for the Nintendo Wii, Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower.  All three are very fantastic looking games for the Wii that Nintendo of America has continually had to say, "We have no plans to bring these games to the US."  Okay, fair enough, right?  Except that they're being released in Europe.  Well, what's the problem then?  Bring over the European versions.  But no.  "No plans."  And naturally the Wii and very likely the games themselves are region locked, or I'd be importing the European games upon release.

Does anyone here know a good reason for these companies to continue using region locking???

[Killallewoks]

Some games won't be as popular in other markets so in an attempt to save money they region lock.

[King Class Scout]

JUST...money.  although now that Americans have finally got it in their head that 'Letterbox' does NOT mean that part of the picture is missing (it had to be whacked in with a blunt object) different picture sizes and formats can be left alone; PAL format, for instance.