Yep, the title says it all. If you remember from early this year, there was much chatter on whether the Nintendo 3DS would have region codes or not. To clear up all the rumors, a worker on Nintendo’s support staff released an email stating, “There are no Region codes in DS and DS Lite, but DSi, DSi [XL], and 3DS have region codes. The region codes are installed in each game and the 3DS itself… You can’t play if the region codes are different.” An official announcement regarding this was never released by Nintendo but now she Americans have the chance to test their imported games, it has been proven true. The device acts as if the game isn’t even there.

One of Destructoid’s writer made a test like this before. His attempts to play on his Japanese 3DS, a North American version of the game Super Monkey Ball 3D… it failed. However, if you try to play imported DS games on your 3DS they should work.

It’s a big bummer for Americans because Japan is loaded with games that don’t even make it to the U.S. The only solution for American’s would be to buy a Japanese 3DS.

Source