With the next phase of
PlayStation Home construction getting
underway, we now have a clear picture of the region restrictions placed on the virtual world, at least those being implemented for the expanded beta. Users are apparently being matched to servers based on their consoles' native regions (which are not configurable),
PS3 Fanboy reports. While this peculiar restriction will only affect the small percentage of PlayStation 3 owners whose consoles were imported from other regions, it counters the open access granted to PlayStation Store users, who can shop in any Store region from anywhere by setting up PSN accounts based in different regions. The
Home region restrictions also mean that make-believers won't be mingling internationally nor will they be able to sign into their Japanese PSN IDs from an American console, for example, and hop onto a Japanese server.
PS3 Fanboy points out that the obvious explanation for the lockdown is optimized advertising. There's no sense in pushing American products on a UK gamer who is bird watching on a US server. Still, we're holding onto hope for some cross-regional opportunities, like tournaments or maybe exchange programs. Who's up for a semester in the Caribbean
Home?
{ Aug 15th 2008 at 1:30PM } 
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
BigD145 @ Aug 15th 2008 1:34PM
Advertising turns me off.
baby sea tuna @ Aug 15th 2008 2:15PM
That is exactly the opposite of its intended effect!
BigD145 @ Aug 15th 2008 2:22PM
Yes, I fear it has something to do with me being intelligent. I think Sony should hit me in the face with a brick and not allow me to communicate with people in nations that have a higher IQ and higher school test scores than here in the US. Oh, wait... Damnit Sony, where's my brick?
baby sea tuna @ Aug 15th 2008 2:34PM
You could use a red-ringed 360...
John @ Aug 15th 2008 4:01PM
Those other nations have higher test score because they don't have millions of illiterate non native language speakers flooding their borders and lowering national averages.
Studies have been done that show when you remove the border jumper's kids from the equation american students score 10% higher than japanese people on those tests.
thanks for playing.
BigD145 @ Aug 15th 2008 4:11PM
Those border jumpers' kids tend to be citizens of this country. You can't just remove them from the statistics. If you don't want their parents here, then stop paying them $8+ to pick lettuce. Better yet, stop buying your produce from farms that employ those illegals. Stop paying taxes that subsidize those farms that pay their workers. Stop voting people into power that give those subsidies to farmers that pay their workers.
I won't ask you for a brick. You seem to be using it.
Vidikron (FU) @ Aug 15th 2008 5:04PM
@BigD145
I don't want to get into a political debate, but most of what you said in that last post in useless. Most people have no clue when shopping for produce (or any item) if the item was produced with the aid of illegal labor. And why should wages be lowered? That's a stupid solution. And stop paying taxes? WTF? How is your post even getting voted up? None of it makes any sense. I'm not saying I agree or disagree with anything John said, but beyond the first sentence, your repsonse is clearly flawed in so many ways.
The-E @ Aug 15th 2008 5:37PM
oh it turns me on!!!;-)
BigD145 @ Aug 15th 2008 8:41PM
Illegal immigrants go where the money is. If you don't want them, don't pay them. Make some laws to punish farmers (and any other business owner) that hire them. As it stands now, illegal immigrants farm workers make better than minimum wage. This also happens to be a higher wage than what they'd get for similar work in their own country. Stop paying them and they won't keep crossing the border. If they want to live in the US legally, they can apply for citizenship like every other immigrant. It's very simple.
BigD145 @ Aug 15th 2008 9:03PM
Let me make the original intelligence point a bit more clear. If you take the marginalized population of the US out of the factoring for average IQ and test scores, yes you get some high numbers. Of course you get high numbers. You just ignored all the low numbers. That's not what an "average" is!
Marty @ Aug 15th 2008 1:40PM
I like your hair!
j.howlett @ Aug 15th 2008 1:40PM
can we go to private places cross region? can game specific hubs be cross region? i was part of a clan that was mostly from the UK for a bit. i understand public hangouts being targeted but games do have world wide play
Vince UK @ Aug 15th 2008 3:00PM
I don't understand where this news is coming from, I'm still under the impression that, at the very least, NA and Europe will be mingling in the expanded beta.
Mr.ESC @ Aug 15th 2008 1:42PM
Well that sucks.
I mean dedicated servers for each region sound okay but the sad part is that I see a lot of regions being excluded and the region lock means U.S owners are going to miss live events like TGS and Japanese owners are going to miss events like the E3.
Well at least is sort of free :/
FOXHOUND @ Aug 15th 2008 1:42PM
So much for visiting Antarctica HOME. :\
Marty @ Aug 15th 2008 1:43PM
Oh, and I also like the predator on the left.
"Follow me," aka "Come get in my van, I've got candy."
Tim The Enchanter @ Aug 15th 2008 3:47PM
Lol... true. I also like the random, "I'm getting my groove on" guy. Too funny.
vidGuy @ Aug 15th 2008 1:43PM
The real restriction on PlayStation Home? It won't launch until the PS3 is dead.
The-E @ Aug 15th 2008 5:41PM
ahhhhh......are you joking and having some kinda sarcastic remark?? otherwise i fear that someone so stupid could actually stay alive!!!
Sieth @ Aug 15th 2008 1:46PM
Well there entire system itself kind of annoys me. I speak japanese, and sometimes buy stuff from the japanese psn store, and sometimes I buy stuff from the english psn store. I have a japanese ps3 and a japanese psp. What really annoys me is I cant load content from the american account and the japanese account to the same psp even though it is on the same ps3. I end up deleting everything and reloading stuff really ticks me off quite a bit.
I am really not suprised they did this, but I am kind of suprised they did at least give you the optino to go to a different server. I mean I am in america right now, so I am assuming home will go hell a laggy on my system.
Heh {XBL: P4nic 4tt4ck} @ Aug 15th 2008 4:29PM
What really annoys me is what about people that know others in different countries? Half my family is in japan and I converse with them on XBL and do some gaming. But you're telling me the main feature of the PS3, Home, won't allow me to do that? Pisses me off tbh.
Vidikron (FU) @ Aug 15th 2008 4:58PM
@Heh
What makes you think you won't be able to? I'm sure you'll still have your standard friend list and be able to do private chats and such. This just appears to be saying that you won't be able to enter the public Home areas for a different region. Unless someone in the beta can confirm otherwise, this doesn't even seem to rule out the possibility that people from other regions could enter your private Home space.
Popfrogs @ Aug 15th 2008 5:57PM
@Heh, yeah, the real tragedy is that it's way simpler to just get a PS Eye and click video chat, invite them, you're golden.
But no, let's expect Home to do it in some bizarre, abstract way with goofy emo avatars.
Konchu @ Aug 15th 2008 1:49PM
Why can't they have advertisements be set per your region but still have cross region meet ups, is their a reason they need to see the same video in the background as me. Home is supposed to be a place to meet friends so what if I have a friend that happens to live across the ocean.
Now don't get me wrong I think it is best to have country dominate servers better to meet people that you can actually speak with without awkward exchanges of I don't know what you are saying. Especially if home still works like I believe they said sometime back that there may be max 65 users per server instance. But I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to go to where my friends are regardless of the region.
CyberKnight @ Aug 15th 2008 2:18PM
Because, Home is all about the advertising. They want everyone to see the same thing, so everyone can talk about what they're seeing together. That way, their branded communities will be built around the advertising. Instead of, you know, focusing on each other...
Konchu @ Aug 15th 2008 8:21PM
You may be right but its a shame none the less. Gamers don't want Coop infomercials they want a place to hang out with their friends and that is sort of what
Sony has been pushing this as. Advertisements to supplement the cost is how Sony explained they would remain free and I am fine with that as long as it serves its purpose and that is to play with friends. Limitations that keep friends separated are not a good idea. I suspect they are just hoping it only adversely affects a small number and in most cases that is probably true would even be a minimally affect on me.
Ridgecity @ Aug 15th 2008 1:53PM
Virtual Segregation? Too bad the ad business is more important before it even leaves the beta stage... So americans talk to americans and europeans onl to europeans, too fucking bad I live in the third world where a Ps3 costs a 5-month-salary price!
My home is going to be a very lonely place...
Anam @ Aug 15th 2008 2:01PM
Just out of curiosity, what country are you in?
SmokestormX @ Aug 15th 2008 1:54PM
This makes no sense. Who thought that would be a good idea?
deaftly @ Aug 15th 2008 2:22PM
You must be new to Sony's business decisions
Eggy @ Aug 15th 2008 4:43PM
Seeing as you won't be paying a penny, they need to get their money from somewhere. Don't like it, don't use it.
Paulmichael @ Aug 15th 2008 1:54PM
Oh noes! Guess that means my fake account, where I live in some random building in Tokyo I think, will be no good even if I do get 招待...
Ridgecity @ Aug 15th 2008 2:00PM
Actually, you probably are a ghost in the machine in some japanese kid's Ps3... He freaks out everytime you popup since he knows that building was demolished 5 years ago, and someone from that place is logging in...
tc @ Aug 15th 2008 2:01PM
hope no one has friends outside their region!
meist3r @ Aug 15th 2008 2:04PM
I'd go a step further and say: Hope nobody wants to see what people from other cultures do.
meist3r @ Aug 15th 2008 2:03PM
This isn't even out and yet they already make stupid mistakes. What good is a social platform in a global web in which you purchase virtual crap to show off if you can only show that to the idiots in your neigborhood? I want to see crazy ass Japanese Home apartements. I can't? OK I don't need this service.
baby sea tuna @ Aug 15th 2008 2:36PM
Be reasonable, nobody *needs* this service.
meist3r @ Aug 15th 2008 2:50PM
I think you, good sir, need a lesson in reasonability. Nobody "needs" toilet paper either. It's a choice we made to not smear our pants. I'm just saying, if this was called "(Stay@) Home" I would have got it but this is just again one of these half-assed attempts to establish a new type of advertisement market and they only separate it into pieces so they can sell it more effectively and I neither need nor want this kind of bullshit. I understand there are some restrictions what MMO servers can and can't do but for the makers of the self-proclaimed most powerful system on the market they are not really impressing me thus far. I can crunch cancer molecules and look for ET with the damn thing but not go over to Yoshihiros house and look at his Geisha collection? That's just lame.
j.howlett @ Aug 15th 2008 4:36PM
nobody needs pants. i was pretty sure though that if you knew someone you could go to their private space and vice versa, but you couldn't go to public places like bowling are the theater if you weren't in the same region. this news confused me a little but it appears that you can't switch regions because its tied to hardware
JoeTheBlow @ Aug 15th 2008 2:03PM
Goodie.
I have no wish to talk to you yanks anyway until Bush is forcefully removed from office.
FOXHOUND @ Aug 15th 2008 2:14PM
I'd say don't group him in with us, but considering the supposed "majority" vote not only got him in, but re-elected... well...
tc @ Aug 15th 2008 2:15PM
hahaha, why the flame bait?
What country are you from that has such perfect politicians? Are you represented by the amazing Gordon Brown or (like me) the gorgeous Brian Cowen or some other equally pleasant person?
Or maybe you're just represented by your own actions?
Duke @ Aug 15th 2008 2:16PM
Do you really need to make jackass comments like that. I didn't know Home was a political platform.
Neon Jebus @ Aug 15th 2008 2:48PM
Sure it is Duke, why just the other day I was having a debate over Xbox Live about the global economy, the upcoming election, and the current situation with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the current rift in the Episcopal Church. :)
Martin @ Aug 15th 2008 4:57PM
I'm from America and I'm saying the same thing.
tehvoid @ Aug 15th 2008 2:05PM
Just hope that Home is not an obligatory way to enter online games or utilities...
This 2nd life ripp-off kind of scare me... All the place are really creepy!
tehvoid @ Aug 15th 2008 2:11PM
And I don't really understand the advertising problem. Just code the ads panels to show diferently according to the region... It shouldn't that difficult come on!
baby sea tuna @ Aug 15th 2008 2:20PM
Seriously, the porn advertisers figured this out years ago.
"Do you want to meet sexy single girls from __________? (insert your zip code here)"
CJLopez @ Aug 15th 2008 2:12PM
There goes my hope of learning on the go japanese....
Really, couldn't they just look at the user IP and put the dedicated adavertisement based on his region?????
No, they'd rather do this region locked
I never liked this idea of home, now I like it even less
baby sea tuna @ Aug 15th 2008 2:14PM
Well, there go my hopes of finding an online mail-order bride.