Is the Nintendo 3DS region locked?

Nintendo 3DS is region-locked
Wondering if the 3DS is region-free? Wonder no more!

Sadly, it looks like the Nintendo 3DS will NOT be region-free, but instead it will be region-locked, meaning you will not be able to play games from other countries that have a different “region number” than your country does.

Although this hasn’t been confirmed for 3DS systems in the West, it was confirmed in an e-mail from Nintendo of Japan’s costumer support, which (translated by NeoGAF user farnham) read:

“The Region Codes are installed in each game and the 3DS itself. If the codes don’t match, you can’t play.”

So this means that American gamers cannot import games from Japan and play it on their system or whatnot. A bummer for importers for sure. However this isn’t a total surprise, as both the DSi and DSi XL were also region-locked.