I understand the necessity and have no problem with companies region-locking their games, but some publishers are notorious for treating their customer base like dirt.
Case in point - Electronic Arts, whose policies are nothing short of insane: they're now language-locking their products, making it impossible to launch a game in any other tongue than the official language of the country it was bought it. Not only that, but users from non-English speaking countries get the same treatment on every service associated with said games. For instance message boards are getting segmented into separate forums with registered members being unable to post or reply outside of "their" part of the message board. When it comes to games that are heavily dependent on modding communities and the social aspect (such as The Sims or Spore) this makes huge groups of players unable to fully enjoy the game they paid their hard-earned money for. Not to mention that those of us who use video games as a way to practice their language skills and expand their vocabulary are tough out of luck.
The worst part is that they don't even feel the need to label their games to warn the customers of their incomplete functional. Yours truly already had to contact the EA customer support twice and demand that the copies of their products he bought be replaced with full, unrestricted versions. Was anyone else affected by this particular business malpractice?
