Foreign 3DS in America

[seouless]

Does anybody here who lives in America own a foreign 3DS (ie a Japanese/Korean/European 3DS)?

I wanted to buy the limited edition Animal Crossing 3DS from Korea because it comes with the game pre-installed and I didn't want to have to buy the DS and the game separate. I wasn't planning on connecting it to the internet since my router can only host one DS.

Anyways, someone told me that even if I didn't want to connect it, the Korean DS wouldn't work at all in America. I know the game is region locked, and I can't play a KR version of AC on my American DS, but I didn't know/don't see why I can't play the Korean DS with a Korean version of AC in America? Is the 3DS itself also region locked?

I could have sworn that I've met other people who've owned a Japanese DS with Japanese games and lived in America.

Can anyone give me information on this?

 

[ACking]

You CAN play foreign systems in America, but like you said, games are region locked to their region system.

 

[Improv]

You certainly can play foreign systems in America, my best friend irl owns a Japanese one and plays it nearly every day. Just he can only play Japanese games on it.

 

[seouless]

You CAN play foreign systems in America, but like you said, games are region locked to their region system.

You certainly can play foreign systems in America, my best friend irl owns a Japanese one and plays it nearly every day. Just he can only play Japanese games on it.

Thank you guys for the information!

I was pretty damn sure that you could, really have no idea what that girl was talking about.. ><



EDIT: Ordered my Korean DS aslfjslf. I'm so excited!

 

[ACking]

I have a Japanese 3DS and I love it, I currently live in NA.

 

[jolokia]

Just to add to the knowledgebase here, Nintendo straight-up misinform you if you ask them about this. I live in the UK and when I called the Nintendo helpline they said a Japanese machine wouldn't be able to connect to the internet or do any web stuff. Well, I got one anyway, and oh hey, would you look at that, it connected to my router straight out of the box and immediately started downloading Japanese exclusive free-gift software off the e-store. It is 100% functional and doesn't care where in the world it "really" is.

 

[DJStarstryker]

Umm... if you're getting a Korean 3DS, you will probably need a power converter for it to work properly. South Korea's 220V. US runs on 120V. The 3DS may not get enough power to run. The same is true if you want to run a European 3DS in the US.

Japan and US converted stuff works because it's close enough. The only problem I have with my US electronics in Japan is for certain things. Like my US microwave takes longer to heat stuff up. My US dryer takes longer to dry clothes. This generally just affects stuff with a motor or clocks. Computers and video game consoles generally aren't affected because their power brick/charger can support it just fine. That's not a problem for the volts side of thing though, more for the Hz side of things. Tokyo runs on 50Hz and the US is on 60Hz. The minor voltage difference (100 vs 110) causes no problems at all.

Edit: Something else I thought of - If you already have a US 3DS and if the Korean 3DS' spot to plug in the charger is the same size/shape, you should be able to just use the US 3DS plug to charge the Korean 3DS without the power converter. You ultimately just need something that can convert the electric energy into the 3DS' battery. It's actually the power plug that handles that for electronics and computers, and why the 3DS plug has that box-like part of it.

 

[jolokia]

^ I use a UK charger for my Japanese 3DS, works fine. The systems are all the same worldwide, it's just the external bit that's different.

 

[DJStarstryker]

^ I use a UK charger for my Japanese 3DS, works fine. The systems are all the same worldwide, it's just the external bit that's different.

Yeah, for video game consoles, that is true. But I'm just saying they can't expect to plug the Korean plug into the wall and expect it to work.

 

[BlueSkittleWolf]

I own a Japanese 3DS in Australia..For some reason it acts a lot faster than an Australian 3DS- it's also safer as it has more security. x3

 

[Sheba]

I am from Germany and decided to get a US 3DS. It works awesomely fine, I just had to get a European charger since the US socket is different from the German one.