A question has been nibbling at me. Where did the controversial practice begin? That I can name off the top of my head, not only is the USA NES launch the first region locked video game console, it single-handledly invented deliberate lockout in a solid state electronic device across any industry. Before the NES, compatibility issues had a myraid of other explanations like television standards or misguided architecture changes. Compare our Timex computers to their beloved British incarnations.
I would see region locking as an extension to vendor lock-in, really. Of course, accidental incompatibilities happen all the time, but there was also e.g. a Windows version (3.0 maybe?) that was intentionally made to not run on non-Microsoft DOSs (I think DR-DOS specifically). Now, this is something you could've easily expanded on - sell differently-marked DOS versions in different markets - pronto, region locked. And I think it likely that some companies did just this before Nintendo, just not on such a huge scale, or simply with less people noticing it.
That's not a lock out. That's different tv standards. There was also SECAM for France and the Soviet Union. Itt region lockout is about licensing. Different companies had the rights for a certain game in different territories. For a game published by one company in North America not to compete with the same game that's published by another company in Europe they had regional lock out. So you'd have to buy it from it's local publisher.
It's not only about rights but prices too. 40 bucks vs 65 euro for a game is still a common thing. Same with movies on DVDs and BRs.
Back on topic, I can't think of a video game system that had region lockout before the NES/Famicom. I don't think the 2600 had any region locking, and I don't think the 5200 or Fairchild Channel F were released outside the US. Same with Sega's pre-Master System consoles.
