I bought a Nintendo Switch in 2017.
On September 28, 2019, I purchased a game called “Dead Cells” in the North America region because, at that time, customers could only buy digital copies of games via the Nintendo eShop in either Japan or North America. I don’t speak Japanese, so I opted for the North America region.
On December 3, 2019, Nintendo announced an update to the eShop, enabling customers to buy digital games in the Hong Kong region starting December 17: The Nintendo eShop is scheduled to update on Tuesday, December 17th.
On March 30, 2021, to play with friends, I bought “Monster Hunter Rise.” It was my first time buying a digital game in the Hong Kong region. Since then, I have only bought games in the Hong Kong region.
On February 14, 2024, while playing Dead Cells, I noticed some stages were available as DLC, so I purchased a DLC bundle in the Hong Kong region. However, when I tried to access the DLC, I got a “Downloadable Content Cannot be Played” error and was redirected to the eShop page for Dead Cells, where it showed as not purchased.
This was strange because I had just played Dead Cells during the Lunar New Year, so I definitely owned a copy of the game since 2019. Eventually, I realized I was affected by the notorious “cross-region” issue, which applies to every e-shop selling digital copies, including Steam and PlayStation. This was my first encounter with the issue and a financial loss.
Closing Words
I don’t personally have a solution to this problem.
I can’t switch back to the North America region because some publishers only release games with Chinese language support in Asian regions. As a big player in the gaming industry, Nintendo is unlikely to change its regional policy.
The only thing I can do is prepare for the possibility that Dead Cells won’t be the last game I have to repurchase on the Nintendo eShop.