The first ever Region Locked PS3 game

[nakamura]

Due to the often niche products that Atlus are involved in I think it's worth cutting them a little slack. I would rather a region locked Atlus games than another grey western shooting game.

[dvdx2]

been used to it for years - no big deal really for me

its purely a business decision to make money; dry your eyes and buy a jpn/us ps3 you casual PAL gamers ;-)

[englishbob]

Region coding is the strangest thing to still exist today IMO. A legit copy is a legit copy and a "SALE", regardless of where it comes from. Atlus are idiots, especially with a niche title.

[koopatroopa90]

Is it not just a marketing/pricing strategy aimed around price discrimination? Whilst I agree region locking is poorly implemented (particularly with blu rays at the moment, the US often gets stuff years before here for no apparent reason!) it is just the companies trying to maximise their revenue in each territory without having to worry about things like the exchange rate, as obviously wages and the cost of living varies greatly between countries so it stops arbitrage...

[englishbob]

I understand what you are saying. I feel that, could they turn back time, they would of region coded music CD's as well. I would of thought that something as fairly modern as the gaming industry would think of things on a global scale, not a territorial one though. (Nintendo's decision to region lock DS games eventually was a terrible one, especially as its a portable system!)

UK authorities hate imports because they don't pass through the BBFC's control and therefore censorship.

Region coding is only going to get worse anyway, if physical media dies in the next-next generation, then online territorial control will ramp up to abusive levels. As will the (fixed) price of your games! (I've seen EA's NHL 12 game on PSN for ?57.99, get ready!!!!!!!)

[averybluemonkey]

I do find it interesting how the PS3 is generally region free but there's almost nothing worth importing for it in my opinion while the 360 has a plethora of amazing region locked imports. Is the lack of region locking and the associated higher cost of certification the main reason why the PS3 import scene is so lacklustre compared to the 360?

[briareos_kerensky]

Bringing a game to a region different from its original requires money: rights, localization, advertisment...it makes sense that publishers try to rake as much money as possible first to cover these costs and then to make a profit.
While region locking is something noone likes, it's the price to pay for having localized games in different territories.

[J0e Musashi]

It's out in all territories anyway. What's the fuss about?

[sj33]

It is amusing that people in the larger economic world blow the horn for globalisation and neo-liberal economic policies, but when people actually dare to put this into practice by importing products, then their protectionist policies come into play and people get accused to damaging domestic publishers.

[ETC]

It's out in all territories anyway. What's the fuss about?

It will (probably) be out here about 2013 if the publisher (Pcube/Zen) keeps to their (****) track record as opposed to August in US/JPN basically it will be out here when only super hardcore are playing online or it will be so dead it may as well not have online VS

[ETC]

I do find it interesting how the PS3 is generally region free but there's almost nothing worth importing for it in my opinion while the 360 has a plethora of amazing region locked imports. Is the lack of region locking and the associated higher cost of certification the main reason why the PS3 import scene is so lacklustre compared to the 360?

Name 3 if you have no interest in bullet hell shooters? I can't think of any at all. Depends on your genre of choice I guess (as in 360J=Cave, hardcore 2D fighters and other shooters so if you like them lots worth importing, if you don't whats left? Only stuff like Idolmaster and having played the latter on 360 and PS3 it's not worth the import)

[Sketcz]

Name 3 if you have no interest in bullet hell shooters? I can't think of any at all. Depends on your genre of choice I guess (as in 360J=Cave, hardcore 2D fighters and other shooters so if you like them lots worth importing, if you don't whats left? Only stuff like Idolmaster and having played the latter on 360 and PS3 it's not worth the import)

I don't agree with Avery on the PS3 import thing (there's less worth importing across the board), but I like your challenge of naming import 360 games:

Operation Darkness - US, really good strategy game, despite what wrong reviewers may say
Alaskan Storm - US, interesting fishing sim, and honestly quite good
GalGun - JPN, wacky lightgun game
Culdscept Saga - US, board game RPG which is a bit like monopoly
Far East of Eden - JPN, a Japanese RPG so unplayable to many, but the latest in an excelent series
Sneak King - US, silly and yet totally amazing budget stealth game
Senko no Ronde Rev.X - JPN, Japan only sequel to an excellent versus fighter/shooter
Zegapain - JPN, mecha action games similar to ZOE, so I am told...

[ETC]

^^ ok I'll give you 6 of them

Galgun is getable on both I could just get a region free PS3 one with move support

And isn't Sneak King a Burger King original XBOX freebie promo?

[averybluemonkey]

Roughly 50% of the shooters aren't bullet hell. As you've said there's tons of shooters from all sorts of companies and a few decent fighters. I was of the opinion these were the two genres most importers cared about as they are English language friendly. There are however tons of strategy and RPG based games not available in here, but no I don't follow them particularly because I don't speak Japanes. If you go to Play-Asia though and click on 360 and then click on Japan region games you will see loads of them. Seriously there's loads.

You asked for 3 non bullet hell impots, so here's a few off the top of my head:

Raiden Fighters Aces
Raiden 4
Zoids Alternative
Virtual On 4
Operation Darkness
Shooting Love
Zegapain XOR (there was a second game, perhaps called NOT?)
Phantom Breaker
Spectral Force 3
Culdcept Saga
Senko No Ronde 2
Under Defeat
Machi-ing Maker 4

The idea that 360 imports are all about Cave is very wrong.

[importaku]

Nope it's 360 & i wanted it badly, damn burger king not bringing it here LOL

The ps3 has very few exclusives that are japan only that i care about, already have boku no natsuyasumi & ninokuni so thats pretty much it for my import library, theres literally nothing bar onepiece that i'd want so them region locking isn't a big thing. With 360 didn't care too much either as i bought it for western games. For nintendo im used to it so i don't by domestic anything from them just import everything.

To be honest im suprised it went this long before sony went back to their old practices, looks like mod chips are going to be legitimate reasons again to bypass region protection.