Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has refused to deny whether or not the company is considering bringing an end to its region-looking policy, but stopped short of offering its critics much tangible hope.

Nintendo has traditionally released consoles which can only play games bought in the same region (North America, Japan, and PAL for rest-of-the-world). Until recently its handheld systems had eschewed region-locking, but even the 3DS line has been region-locked since launch.

Addressing investors, Iwata-san spoke briefly about the policy, and did not rule out a change of direction in the future.

"The game business has a history of taking a very long time with localization among other things, such as having to deal with various issues of marketing in each particular country, or games that have made use of licensed content that did not apply globally, and had all kinds of circumstances, so to say, that region-locking has existed due to circumstances on the sellers' side rather than for the sake of the customers. In the history of game consoles, that is the current situation.

"As for what should be done going forward, if unlocked for the benefit of the customers, there may also be a benefit for us. Conversely, unlocking would require various problems to be solved, so while I can't say today whether or not we intend to unlock, we realize that it is one thing that we must consider looking to the future."

Nintendo's localisation efforts have undoubtedly improved markedly in recent years, but there is still widespread disappointment whenever a new system is announced and confirmed to be region-locked.

Does Iwata's comments offer you any hope of a region-free future? What are the most frustrating gaps in your game library due to region-locking? Let us know your thoughts below.