Today we have a very strange rumor to share with you about the Nintendo Switch games that would be distributed by Tencent in China.

According to reports from industry analysts and those in China, games distributed by Tencent in China could not be played on Nintendo Switch consoles sold outside China. This essentially means systems sold in North America, Europe, Japan, and elsewhere could not play official games sold in China. That said, Nintendo Switch systems sold by Tencent in China are region free, meaning it could play games distributed by Tencent as well as games imported from countries outside China.

While this might sound strange to you, there are a couple of reasons that could have led to this decision. First, Nintendo Switch games distributed by Tencent cost less in China. Instead of the usual USD59.99 price tag, first party games will retail for USD42. So this might be a measure to deter exporters. Cheesemeister speculated that this could be Tencent’s way of “punishing” customers who purchased imported systems, thus forcing them to buy a Nintendo Switch distributed by Tencent.

Either way, this doesn’t bode well as this would mean the Nintendo Switch has become partially region free.

As there’s yet to be official confirmation from Nintendo on this matter, we’ll mark this as a rumor for now.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.