Question about PS3 Region-Free Status

[Salsa Party Animal]

I hope it will be region free 100% so I can import english speaking games from USA/Canada and have the option for japanese games. But I will wait to buy it as I am not spending 400 quids on importing it.

I want to see what benefits it have for older games, and what kinds of games it have only found on PS3. I think apart from RR7, MGS4, DMC4 and GT5, there is nothing for us apart from next winning eleven and ico games. But we will need to wait until September to hear more in Toyko Games Show.

[NekoFever]

there are also a few psone chips that do this, but again there are more chips for psone that play copies and not imports (requiring an extra chip for imports or a boot disc) from what i've been seeing recently while looking for them for myself.

I've seen PS1 chips that only run imports. There was an amusing anecdote on Acts of Gord about someone who actually tried to report him because his chips wouldn't boot copied games. That would have been interesting if it went to court.

They really should just drop region coding from a chipping perspective. It takes away the only real legitimate use for a mod chip and would make it a hell of a lot easier for them to get companies that make and sell them shut down.

[fahrenheit]

I can just see the press statement from Sony now -

The console and software will be region free, but we will be discouraging online import retailers not to sell to anyone with a European name or address.

Also, anyone who wishes to buy in Japan who is not Japanese will be strongly discouraged from doing so. We have authorised retailers here to execute any offenders at their own discretion.

We at Sony no longer see the profitability of using region-coding and see the way forward is to discriminate on a case by case basis. It is far cheaper to take legal action against wayward retailers than it is to mass produce mulitiple versions of the same game.

We hope that our European customers enjoy their overpriced software as much as we enjoy forcing it on them.

[randombs]

*changes name to Phil Harrison*

...

*awaits imminent (early) arrival of ps3*

[AdamJW]

This is why I'm going to wait till after the release to see which machine I'm going for. I have the opportunity to get an American console at their prices without import tax and Vat about a month after release, so in this time hopefully the issues of region free backwards compability will be all alot more clearer. It does seem to be throwing up more questions than answers at the moment.