Import gaming

Import gamers are a subset of the video game player community that take part in the practice of playing video games from another region, usually from Japan where the majority of games for certain systems originate.

There is no uniform motivation among import gamers, but some common reasons for importing include:

While many games consoles do not allow games from other countries to be played on them (mainly due to voltage, localization and licensing issues), some consoles (often handheld, due to the universal nature of batteries) are not necessarily restricted to a certain locale. Some of these include:

Note: Pre-third generation consoles are not listed because at the time there was little to no importing and consequently there was little reason to introduce regional lock-out. Sometime importing difficulties may still arise (e.g. Atari 2600 games from regions the console is not from may introduce some glitches, such as missing colors).

Most handheld video game systems are region free due to most of them having a built in screen, run on batteries and being much cheaper to produce if they do not have a region lock on the system or games.

The majority of disk-based home consoles released in more than one region feature regional lockout, the main exceptions being the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer and the Sony PlayStation 3.

Modchips are a popular choice for many of these consoles as they are generally the easiest to use; however a poorly installed chip could permanently break the console. Some modern consoles, such as Xbox, cannot be used for Online play if chipped.

Boot disks are another common choice, as they are generally reliable and do not require risky installation methods. These disks are loaded as though they are local game disks, then prompt the user to swap them for an imported game, allowing it to run. A Wii "Freeloader" boot disk was launched by Codejunkies. However, the Freeloader boot disk was rendered unusable with the release of Firmware 3.3 for the Wii. Most Wii users have since turned to "hacking" their Wii instead using the "Twilight Hack", and when Nintendo patched the bug that allowed the exploit to take place in Firmware 4.0, users soon discovered another method, aptly called the "BannerBomb Hack". This, when combined with the Homebrew channel and a disk loader application, allows users to bypass region checks for Wii games. Aside from the Freeloader series, other boot disks include the Action Replay, the Utopia boot disk, Bleemcast!, and numerous other softmod disks.

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