PS3 wil be region free!!

It seems Sony is likely bring an end to the era of region coding. Michael Ephraim, head of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia, has said that the PlayStation 3 will most likely not have region encoding technology for games. He says the reason is that it will not be as necessary as it has been, now that international television standards are emerging.

Of course, all Sony's home consoles have been region locked between the USA and Japan, even though they both use the same television and power standards, so that argument seems a little strange.

"If you look at the fact that it 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)," said Ephraim.

SCEJ head Ken Kutaragi hinted at the possibility of region free gaming in July, but Ephraim's statement is the first official announcement.

Astute PALGN readers may recall that Sony Australia recently lost an expensive four year legal fight involving mod-chips. The outcome was that mod-chipping a PlayStation was declared legal since Sony had combined their possibly legal copy protection with illegal region protection. The ACCC argued that the region coding was “an artificial trade barrier that unfairly blocked consumers' access to games from other markets which are often cheaper”. As a result, the High Court ruled that while pirating discs was illegal the mod chips did not infringe Australia's copyright laws.

Now while it seems this PlayStation 3 announcement may have been directly related to Sony's loss of legal control of their protection methods, Ephraim has other ideas.

Ephraim made his first comment on the result since the ruling, describing it as 'redundant'. He claims that the ruling only applies to PlayStation 1 consoles, and that the company may begin a new case soon for PlayStation 2 consoles. They will also be lobbying the federal Government to have mod chips banned again.



This is great news Now I can order a PS3 from overseas and games 6 months before it will actully really come out here!! and yeah I can finally play NTSC games that dont come out on PAL

cool :)

im sticking with pc gaming though i think as consoles dont catch my interest much anymore

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Originally Posted by oxygenuk

cool :)

im sticking with pc gaming though i think as consoles dont catch my interest much anymore

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HOW?

Most the gaming market is in consoles. Alot of the games that come on the consoles don't make it to PC. Namly anything that isn't a FPS. Im not say console is better. Just saying that its ignorant to not have variety.

yeah, asmithz is right, this is why i bought a modchip for my ps2. because i didnt want to spend a walloping 50 dollars for game i would probably not like... There were barely any good pc games that came out, early and the middle of this year :(

problem is the PC have the better capable resources of being a better system and games look 100 times better

better consoles are easier for the young people and not having to screw around easier to program comparability and less cash to spend on a budget so most games only come out on Console and they sell more

hmm.. i dunno console games just dont appeal to me anymore. Once in a while something good comes out like san andreas but they usually come out for PC! Pair it up with a gamepad and you just got the game with better graphics. Only games that i actually liked on console were Metal Gear Solid 2,3, Final Fantasy collection and Shadow of Colossus!

yeah the only reason I have my PS2 still is for the role playing games like Final Fantasy shadow hearts etc that don't make PC

I think systems are a waste of money, Ive only played one game in the last 2 years on my ps2. Fuckin waste of money.

lol get a fucking modchip then.. :P

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Originally Posted by Adster

problem is the PC have the better capable resources of being a better system and games look 100 times better

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Yea, if you wanna spend 10x as much money ;)

Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 like Monkeee said and Halo is the only reason for a console. Unfortunately both games are on different systems (MGS3 and Halo). Now that is a waste of money. I guess the online in Halo 2 makes up for buying an Xbox... traded that in for a PS2 tho. (mostly to play MGS 3 and some exclusive games):ermm: .

yeah, ps2 has better exclusive games indeed. xbox just has the best 3rd party games...

i going to buy this!!!