How To Get Around Region Locked Games On A Nintendo Switch

Region locking is something that has plagued physical media for years. Buying a region-locked console means you're locked into specific games from your region. For example, Nintendo consoles were only able to play region-specific games all the way through the Wii U and 3DS eras. Nintendo ditched this restriction with the Switch, and you can play games from all over the world on the same console.

There are a few steps you have to take before you can actually do it, but it's easy enough for anybody to do. When it's all done, you'll be able to start downloading something from another region's eShop. The only thing you have to do is change your Nintendo account's region, and it's going to take a few minutes at the most.

1. Go to "System Settings."
2. Select "System" and then select "Region."
3. Change your region to the desired region. 

Once those steps are complete, your Switch is officially set for a different region. Not a whole lot changes on the surface, but there are now a few things your Switch can do now that it couldn't earlier. Don't forget to change your region back if you want to play the games you had downloaded before. Just like a game from Japan won't work if you're on a North American account, the same goes for North American games on Japanese accounts.

Changing your region to another is a way to play other games, and it's the most likely reason people are doing it in the first place. There are games that are released in Japan that have never been released in North America — in fact, there have been entire gaming consoles that were never released outside of Japan. A big name that's still never been localized is "Dragon Quest X," although hope remains it can still happen. By switching your region, you can just go onto the eShop and buy games that fit this criteria. You could even get lucky and find ones with English translations, so it's like you're playing a local game.

If you're importing a game from another region, you won't have to actually change your region. The Switch console itself isn't region-locked, so popping in a physical cartridge will just work fine — with one exception being games from China. Importing from Play-Asia is a popular option for many people, and you'll be able to see from the site if the game you're choosing to import has an English translation or not. Doing this is a nice way to cut out the middle man of having to change your region manually, but it does mean you'll have to wait for a game to arrive versus downloading it right away.