The Xbox One will require a game's software to match the region for the console's hardware in order to function properly. Citing legal requirements across the various global markets, a Microsoft spokesman told Digital Trends that this step is a necessary and important function for the Xbox One.
"Similar to the movie and music industry, games must meet country-specific regulatory guidelines before they are cleared for sale...We will continue to work with our partners to follow these guidelines with Xbox One."
The Xbox 360 had a similar feature put in place by Microsoft, but included more lax region encoding. Microsoft left it to developers and publishers if they wish to feature region encoding or not, so that gamers from other countries could import that game. Nintendo has a similar region blocking system put in place as the Xbox One, and Sony has yet to announce any plans on the subject. However, the PlayStation 3 allows disks from other countries to work on the system for the most part, with Persona 4 Arena being the first game to enforce region locking.
Region locks are a fairly standard method to dealing with piracy and customers importing games from countries for far less than they normally would pay. Anyone who has traveled to a foreign country and made a purchase of discount movies or electronics, only for them to not work once they got back can tell you how effective they are. However, it does prevent certain games from making appearances overseas, as many great games have come out in their home markets, only to not be released elsewhere. Region locking prevents these fantastic video games from being released worldwide and gaining the popularity they deserve.
The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are due at some point this year, with a holiday release most likely for both consoles.
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