import games

[Mik's Arcade]

Hi all -

 

I thought there might be a sticky on this topic and perhaps I didn't do well searching the forum.

 

Just bought a Switch yesterday. 

 

I've been buying imports from Play-Asia maybe since before some of you were even born.....lol. It's been a while since I've been into importing, but I know there are tons of great Switch imports.

 

So, my questions is, if I buy games for the Switch off Play-Asia, how will it go about getting updates and DLC?   Am I going to have to constantly switch my profile to a different region that accesses those servers or Marketplaces?   I used to just buy this stuff pre-online and digital days so i never had to deal with these issues.

 

thanks

[Steven Pendleton]

Amazon Japan's probably way cheaper than Play-Asia now, as Amazon ships internationally as of several years ago. Amazon still has things that can't be shipped internationally, like that new Gleylancer reprint, but that's for Mega Drive.

 

Anyway, it doesn't matter what your region is for patches, but for DLC it sometimes matters but sometimes doesn't. I have Japanese Smash, but my DLC is from the USA. Some games let you do this; I'd be surprised if all of them are not games with one ROM or whatever for the entire world, in which case there is basically only one version of the game and therefore it doesn't care what version you have. Are you confused yet? lol

[Mik's Arcade]

2 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Amazon Japan's probably way cheaper than Play-Asia now, as Amazon ships internationally as of several years ago. Amazon still has things that can't be shipped internationally, like that new Gleylancer reprint, but that's for Mega Drive.

 

Anyway, it doesn't matter what your region is for patches, but for DLC it sometimes matters but sometimes doesn't. I have Japanese Smash, but my DLC is from the USA. Some games let you do this; I'd be surprised if all of them are not games with one ROM or whatever for the entire world, in which case there is basically only one version of the game and therefore it doesn't care what version you have. Are you confused yet? lol

yes, I'm confused, as it seems there is no simple answer.

 

I'll try buying shopping on Amazon Japan, so that is a great tip!

 

it seems like as much as region free gaming is very much a thing now, some regions are more friendly/ready to handle it than others.

 

It looks like I will just have to take each game on a case by case basis and research it.    

[Matt_B]

If you're going to import cartridges, you should probably also set up a Japanese eShop account, as eShops in other regions won't necessarily give you access to the DLC for Japanese games. You'd also get access to Japanese download exclusive games that way too. It's pretty easy:

 

https://www.gamesradar.com/3-easy-steps-to-setup-your-nintendo-switch-for-imports-with-a-japanese-eshop-account/

 

I've also got North American and European eShop accounts, because the Australian one misses out on some of the games that they get too.

[DavidD]

Two things:

 

1) Updates won't be a problem. You can download updates for software regardless of the region on your account.

2) You can change the region of your account with no consequence. This is handy if you need to download specific titles/DLC from other regions.  You have to have a balance of 0 to change regions, but you can do it fairly easily. I do this when redeeming eShop codes from other regions.

 

The DLC thing sort of depends on the game...