PS3 region encoding unlikely?
by Dan Choi 
{ Nov 8th 2005 at 11:15AM }
If the managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia is to be believed, the practice of region-encoding
games will likely be abandoned for the PlayStation 3.
Michael Ephraim states: "If you look at the fact that it [i.e., the PS3] will support high-definition TV, which will
be a global standard, there's a good likelihood that it will be global region, as for example we've done with the PSP
(PlayStation Portable)."
Should the PS3 follow in the footsteps of its handheld brother, games should be available to play in any region,
bolstering Sony's case that mod chips are a tool for piracy. We'll wait for an official announcement from Ken Kutaragi
before accepting this theory, but if adopted, game importing will get a lot easier in the next generation of
consoles.
[Via Evil Avatar]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ruari @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
Yeah I read this on CVG earlier today, I hope online PS3 games from U.S can be played online on PAL console though.
acm2000 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
so not going to happen, handhelds have always been traditionally region free, consoles on the other hand, are not, on top of that we have the fact that sony japan, sony america and sony europe are all seperate "branches" of the company, and as such, they compete with each other, sony europe and sony america would winge too much about losing money.
nyc @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
Frankly I doubt the managing director of SCEA would know anything. Australia tends to be the least informed about what is going on with anything in the gaming realm (See Xbox not even being launched there this year for example).
This sounds like a marketing comment designed to appeal to Australian gamers who tend to get shafted when it comes to region encoding. I'd imagine they like hearing some promise of being free from region encoding in the near future, and Sony Australia are playing up to that by saying this comment.
Take it with a grain of salt people.
Dave @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
I think we can all agree that region protection has been a sham for years... it basically only protects Sony's ability to shaft European and Australian customers.
Jack @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
That would be cool if they did it but somehow I doubt it they had issue with importers selling psp at cheap prices so same could be said for ps3
Tatsuya @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
So funny, for each consoles released those last years, since the dreamcast if I remember well, we are told the console will not be region-encoded and each time we discover, once we bought the console, it is effectively region-encodeded. "History" is repeating itself ^_^
EdZ @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
If the PS3 is region free, I'd definitely go for it (and import it).
ZeroCorpse @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
Yeah. . . because we all speak fluent Japanese and wouldn't mind paying import prices for games we will eventually have in our own language anyway.
I've imported consoles, and a few rare games, but really- This is sort of a non-issue for about 99% of the gaming public. It's certainly not going to make any difference to the average retail shopper, and even if games are region-free, the movies WILL have region encoding, so calling the PS3 a "region free console" would be misleading, at best.
I'll probably get one, but I think by the time PS3 comes along my Xbox 360 will be firmly entrenched as the household's favorite system.
Repsode @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
ZeroCorpse, in my experience import games are often CHEAPER, than their european release,or at least equal. Wipeout pure US cost me £27 and that's including postage and customs. And many imported games don't require the understanding of Japanese to play them. And MOST IMPORTANTLY, there are a shedload of PS2 games I never got to play as they never released here, and I didn't get it chipped as the PS2 is dodgy(from a build quality viewpoint) to begin with.
You say that it's a non issue to 99% of gamers, yet you bring it up as an issue. If you're one of those 99%, why do you care?
If encoding is removed it doesn't harm anyone and could reduce the legitimacy or need of the mod chip. The industry needs to move on and Sony is in a perfect position to do it. Stuff all your HDTV and blu-ray, this is the way to move forward.
Balazs @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
But the PSP games and films are region locked. At least the games and films we can buy here in the UK are?? I don't understand this region free concept for the PSP. Which countries actually get it region free as the UK sure as hell doesn't.
raikou @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
That would save for me, because I usually by both domestic and import.
Repsode @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
Enjoy importing if you consider it, Balazs!
Repsode @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
The last few comments were wiped for certain reasons, but so were the answers to your problem Balazs , so I'll repeat them. The region number on the back of games means nothing, they all work fine in your PSP. Even if they were you could still play Jap games as they are region 2, same as us. The same goes for movies, however, since they ARE region locked, you can't use Region 1, only Uk and Jap movies work with UK machines.
Laurens Holst @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
That would be awesome!
I have a modchip for the purpose of playing import games, and I’m always worrying that say if in 10 years my PS2 breaks down and I want to buy a new one, it will be next to impossible to find one with a modchip, and I can’t play those games anymore. (e.g. Xenosaga 1 and 2; I live in Europe.)
It would be truly wonderful if the PS3 didn’t have any regional encoding (I hope for PS2 and PS1 titles, too). I wouldn’t have to get a modchip then, which saves me money, warranty, and a lot of worries over online play and having to build in the modchip (for the PS2, it was hell, it’s so small inside!).
~Grauw
GT-Steve @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM
PS2 games are not region coded as far as I know - Sony and others have to make games for each TV system - would not make a lot of sense if they made all the systems NTSC when other countries are PAL.
As for the region code on a PSP meaning nothing. Wrong, try playing a Region 1 game in peer-to-peer mode with a Region 4 game. Each game I have tried has failed. Peer-to-peer with different regions does NOT work - therefore the games are region locked to some extent.
What makes it more confusing - some games released in Australia are Region 1 (ie. Lumines) or Region 2 (ie. SW Battlefront 2, Virtua Tennis) rather than our own Region 4. Silly Sony, very silly.