Here’s a big piece of shocking news concerning games sold by SEGA in the Asia region excluding Japan.

As we’ve reported earlier, SEGA Asia (also known as SEGA Co, Ltd) started publishing various Nintendo Switch titles in Chinese and English in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.

With the release of Shining Resonance Refrain, players have discovered they were unable to purchase DLC, download the Japanese voice pack, or even update the game. This also seems to apply with certain releases like Touhou Genso Wanderer Reloaded.

SEGA Asia says the reason why players couldn’t buy DLC or download updates is because “there is no Nintendo eShop for the Asia region”. Gamers living in Asia or those who’ve purchased a SEGA Asia game are now furious they have bought an incomplete product.

Thankfully, SEGA is intending to remedy the situation by preparing a patch, but there is still no word on how future paid DLC will be handled, given that most Asian countries do not have an official eShop.

Here’s SEGA Asia’s official statement on the matter:

Dear Customer,

Thank you so much for your continuous support and inquiry.

We are sorry for causing you trouble.

As Nintendo doesn’t support the e-Shop for “NS Shining Resonance Refrain” Asian English version,

it is not available to download the Japanese voice pack at this moment.

However, we have received lots of related inquiries, we are considering to prepare the patch to solve this situation.

We are sorry that we have troubled you.

Once again, thank you for your valuable feedback.

Best regards,

SEGA Games

Here’s a comparison showing an attempt to download an update for Shining Resonance Refrain between the official SEGA of America version and SEGA Asia version:

It seems that it would be best for gamers living in the Asia region to purchase a game published by SEGA of America, rather than SEGA Asia.

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

Update (July 30, 2018): For clarity’s sake, users with Japanese, American, or European/Australian region Nintendo Accounts are unable to download patches/DLC with the Asian English version of Shining Resonance Refrain. It’s this way because the game is locked to a non-existent Asian eShop.