[Pokemon X] Is there a difference between Japanese game card and foreign game card?

Question

I'll try keep it simple:
1) I bought my 3DS and game card during a vacation in China; and apparently they are all from Japan
2) Recently I have received the code from a game shop. A code for Shiny Gengar
3) When I did as the instruction said, the system says that my game card doesn't allow me to receive Gengar

Q: Is the mysterious codes from one region only works for this specific region? Is there any way for me to get a Pokemon via mysterious code?

Thank you very much!

Comments

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the Shiny Gengar ended a while ago. On what date did you actually get the code?
Unless it ended at different times in different countries, the event lasted October 13 to October 26.

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I'm sure it's the distribution that ended, the Gengar code itself should still be function-able. Possibilities are that you probably mis-typed the code or you have already received the said Gengar,

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So your 3DS and X are japanese and code is american or whatever country you are right?

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@!'•-Indigo-•'!   @Fated Fathom ♠  
Yes, according to the description, it will end on November 5th. However, I did my attempt on the day before; and after that I gave the same code to my friend (who has a foreign 3DS and game card) and it worked on her's.

@ShinyFire  Indeed. The code was  from Australia.

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Yeah, I did the same thing - Gamestop clerk had some Gengar codes left, so I got one, and it worked.

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Best answer Ever: Japanese game cards are Japanese and foreign are foreign obviously :D

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Or it could be that the Game Card you got from China was a fake. Wouldn't be surprised.

Answer 1

I've tried looking for it, guess what I found.

>Codes are region locked, but I think they are locked to the location you are, not the region of your 3DS.

>In other words: Store > 3DS Region.

From here,

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>Actually there's a good chance the code won't work for you then. The codes seem to be region locked.

From here,

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>...so please don’t enter if you are not in this region and/or it wouldn’t work for you.

From here as well,

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>Unfortunately, the codes are region locked I think, so I am afraid it won't work. A UK code will not work for a US game card.

And lastly, from here.

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TL;DR There's a high chance that the codes are in fact, locked to the region from where they were bought from.

So,
Good news: It's not the game card's or the DS' fault, both are completely fine and dandy.
Bad news: The Gengar code is not gonna work :/

Hope I helped!