Software region

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The Nintendo 3DS has several different software regions, which are used for the purposes of region-locking and digital content distribution. These regions are used in all systems in the Nintendo 3DS family, including the Nintendo 2DS and the New Nintendo 3DS.

There are five regions for the Nintendo 3DS family, as well as one for the iQue 3DS XL (the equivalent of the Nintendo 3DS XL in mainland China). Each region has an associated letter used to represent it, which can be found at the end of the Nintendo 3DS firmware version number. The regions do not have publicly known official names, so the names used for the regions on Bulbapedia are purely descriptive.

Most markets only retail one region of system and games, to prevent consumers accidentally purchasing games that are not compatible with their own system. However, in some locations, notably the Middle East and Southeast Asia, multiple different regions of system are retailed.

Software regions are used to prevent physical copies of games being played on systems of a different region. This means that, for example, a Japanese region copy of Pokémon X cannot be played on an American region Nintendo 3DS system. This is purely a software restriction and not a technical one, as fans have created hacks that allow region-locking to be bypassed. However, despite region-locking, Pokémon Bank is able to communicate with games of any region (even if they cannot be played on that system).

Regions are also used to restrict the list of countries that can selected from when choosing the country for the Nintendo eShop. This means that American region systems cannot select Japan as their home country. Consequently, due to the Nintendo 2DS not being released in Japan, Japan-exclusive games cannot be played on the Nintendo 2DS.

The Nintendo 3DS Theme Shop and its contents are also restricted by region. Only Japanese, American, and PAL region systems have access to the Theme Shop (other regions do not have changeable themes at all).

List of regions

Code	Name	Primary markets
J	Japanese region	Japan
U	American region	The Americas
E	PAL region	Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Russia
K	Korean region	South Korea
T	Taiwanese region	Taiwan, Hong Kong
C	Chinese region	Mainland China

Games by region

Due to region-locking, some Nintendo 3DS games cannot be played on any Nintendo 3DS systems due to not being released for that region. The Japanese, American and European regions dominate the other regions in the number of available games.

Below is a list of Nintendo 3DS Pokémon games, indicating whether they can be played on each region of Nintendo 3DS.

First release	Game	J	U	E	K	T
June 6, 2011	Pokédex 3D	✓	✓	✓
August 11, 2011	Pokémon Rumble Blast	✓	✓	✓	✓
June 23, 2012	Pokémon Dream Radar	✓	✓	✓	✓
July 14, 2012	Pokédex 3D Pro	✓	✓	✓
November 23, 2012	Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity	✓	✓	✓
October 12, 2013	Pokémon X and Y	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
December 25, 2013	Pokémon Bank	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
December 25, 2013	Poké Transporter	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
March 12, 2014	Pokémon Battle Trozei	✓	✓	✓
June 5, 2014	The Thieves and the 1000 Pokémon	✓
June 19, 2014	Pokémon Art Academy	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
September 13, 2014	Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
October 15, 2014	Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire Special Demo Version	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
November 21, 2014	Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
February 18, 2015	Pokémon Shuffle	✓	✓	✓
April 8, 2015	Pokémon Rumble World	✓	✓	✓

Distributions

Special event distributions for the Generation VI games are restricted by region for Nintendo Zone, serial code, and Nintendo Network distributions.