NTSC-UK Import PlayStation 3 FAQ v2.0 [updated: 18/04/2007]

[Taka]

Managed to get my Japanese (Hong Kong) PS3 but am having difficulty running the Uncharted demo from the Japanese PSN store. I'm signed in on my Japanese account when I run it but it just goes to a black screen and hangs and requires a soft reset to get life back out of the console. Anybody have any ideas or insights into how I can get the demo to run? Additionally, is there any way to get blood in the full version of the game when running it on a Japanese/Hong Kong PS3?

[Strolls]

I seem to remember there was a bug with the Uncharted demo, over which there was some outcry. IIRC it looks for the language based on the console, but the demo only has the language of the demo's store. There was a bit of a fuss about this at the time, and one of the devs went in on a Sunday to fix it for the US store, then when it was released in the UK it had the same problem (on my US PS3; I never signed up for the US store). So maybe if you sign up for the Hong Kong store it'll work?

Stroller.

[UC4V]

Hi, I was wondering if someone could tell me if its still possible to create a us psn account in the uk & top up the wallet with psn vouchers-what do you need to enter in the field for credit card? also is it a bad idea to enter online games on us psn (am guessing not good idea-might have ridiculous high Ping and slow game down?)

[J0e Musashi]

It's possible, you need US vouchers though. You enter nothing in the credit card section. Online gaming would be the same as if you were using a UK account.

[UC4V]

Excellent-thanks for your help

[elaniel]

Question. I have a US PS3 that has just got the Yellow Light of Death (Big 80GB one). I'm obviously going to have to buy a slim as they don't do the US models any more in the fat models. The slim models can just use a kettle lead as well (and are multi voltage correct?)

By the way, any way to get my disc out of the console? What happens to my saves and downloadable content?

[elaniel]

To add to the FAQ (if it's still being updated) USA PS3 slim's are dual voltage as well. Just need a UK power cable.

[Geoff D]

Is VG+ still the best place to import a PS3? What type of power lead would I need?

[punio75]

Thread resurrection!

I have the opportunity to buy a japanese ps3 at a good price from someone at work. Rather than embarrassing myself by asking him some questions I'll try you guys!

What differences will I notice? Can i change the language to english? Will i be able to transfer my saves/data from my Uk machine with little problem?

[Papercut]

DVD region, blu ray region, PS1/2 disk region (if BC), O and X buttons reversed.

Otherwise, it will run the same as a PAL PS3. You would be able to do a system transfer to copy all the content across from your existing PS3, or recover a backup from one to the other (which will not restore absolutely everything, but close).

[punio75]

cheers mate.
Forgot about the o/x thing. I guess this remains for all games regardless of region.(can you change it?)
No biggie as I'm sure you get used to it.

[J0e Musashi]

It'll be O as confirm and X as cancel in the system menus. Certain games are button swapped also. The Souls games are better with X as run IMO.

[Papercut]

cheers mate.
Forgot about the o/x thing. I guess this remains for all games regardless of region.(can you change it?)
No biggie as I'm sure you get used to it.

You can't change it no, and yeah it is pretty easy to get used to.

Nearly everything gets swapped apart from a handful of hardcoded things (presumably Sony requires that you normally leave it to the system to decide which way around they should be).

Tends to be crappy PAL apps that hard code this if anything, seem to remember the Love Film app showed X/O but then actually used O/X on a ntsc-j system.

[punio75]

So you can just set the language to English on initial start up and then I'm sorted?
What about the ps store? Will it automatically pick up the uk or Japanese store?

[J0e Musashi]

If you set the system language to UK English it'll act just like a PAL unit barring the O/X controls.

It'll automatically pick whichever store your account is set for. If you have a UK account it'll go to the UK PSN etc. It's not possible to have the PSN default to a different region to where your account is based.

It'll be exactly the same as your current PAL unit barring the O/X button swap. There may be the EDY Viewer app if it's a true JPN unit, but that's the only difference, and you can't use it outside of Japan anyway.