games.slashdot.org/games/06/03/23/0021243.shtml
At last! I’ve wanted consoles to do this for years, as it’s such a hassle to mod your console for one or two games. It makes complete sense, and is a great way to lessen the need for mod chips that Sony seem to dislike so much. Great move, Sony.
Maybe Microsoft will release a patch for the 360 that will allow import games to be played on their console as well (not that there are many) at some point.
readies pitch-fork
This is one of the best ideas as far as console improvements are concerned in years IMO.Damnit!
The PSP and DS have been region free since launch so I always assumed the same would happen with the PS3 and possibly the Revolution (though Nintendo can be weird at times so perhaps not in the Rev’s case).
I thought it would be nice if someone said something postitive about the evil empire for a change 
What made you think that? Handhelds have always been region free. I have had no problems playing US cartridges on my PAL GBA, etc. What Sony is doing here is something that I haven’t seen done on consoles before. Hopefully Nintendo will follow suit with the Revolution though.
Solo, who needs region-free when you’ve got all Nintendo, Sega, + Turbo games at yer disposal?
The Revolution has already won this war.
[quote=“DivineDragon”]Solo, who needs region-free when you’ve got all Nintendo, Sega, + Turbo games at yer disposal?
The Revolution has already won this war.[/quote]
For starters, it won’t be “all” - you have to get permission from whoever holds the license, and that company may not exist anymore, or they may not wish to see their game republished, or maybe they want gamers to pay premium prices for their newer titles, rather than reminisce over their older games.
I fail to see how anyone can claim Nintendo have “won” this console war - what exactly do we know about the Revolution? What great software do we have to look forward to? Not to mention third party developer support has been rocky for around a decade, now. Since they left the Snes behind, Nintendo have been happy to promise but fail to deliver.
Forgot to add - I’m totally ecstatic about the PS3 being region free!
Uh… I hope you guys realize that Sony didn’t say that the PS3 was region-free. They said, “With this much space, one global SKU (or version of the game) could be developed for all regions across the globe.
” (from IGN.com)
You realize that even the original Xbox had this option for developers, and there are several games that make use of this on Xbox and X360…
Unless someone can find a quote stating otherwise, this is just another case of people assuming things simply because they want it to be true.
Exaclty I remember M$ saying the same thing with the X-Box and how it was all up to the developers. Bit rich that , seeing as M$ own In-House titles had region coding , and we all now what SONY did with importers onthe PSP.
I wish all console were region free, as it takes away any high ground modders had inthe 1st place . Clever way of that prick Phil getting some more headlines for the PS3 .
If it was true it would be some ofthe best news ever , but not even the 3DO was region free. Some games like Way Of The Warrior would not work thanks to it detecting if the console was PAL or NTSC
gamespot.com/news/6146475.html
[quote=“Gamespot”]Harrison also revealed that, like the PSP, all PS3 games would be playable in any region, unlike current-generation games and DVDs. “Software will be region-free, so developers can put games in the TV format of their choice,” he said. Films, however, would remain limited to their regions of origin, as with movies released on the PSP’s UMD format.
In his presentation, Harrison said that due to the high-storage capacity of the PS3’s Blu-ray Disc (BD) format, publishers would be able to release a single SKU worldwide with all localized versions on a single disc. At the Q&A, Harrison said a BD–which can hold up to 50GB–will also be able to store various video formats (PAL, NTSC, SECAM) on one disc. [/quote]
Maybe it’s just their way of desperatly trying to reach the launch date. XD “Ah forget about region encoding tools! Just get the console out there!”
[quote=“Gamespot”]
In his presentation, Harrison said that due to the high-storage capacity of the PS3’s Blu-ray Disc (BD) format, publishers would be able to release a single SKU worldwide with all localized versions on a single disc. At the Q&A, Harrison said a BD–which can hold up to 50GB–will also be able to store various video formats (PAL, NTSC, SECAM) on one disc. [/quote]
The part you quoted arcie could simply mean that if the developer choses to do so, they can include all languages and whatever other localization is done on the one disc. The part of the quote above is pretty clear and unless we get the exact way it was originally worded we don’t have anything against it…
I guess we shall just have to wait and see. The information on IGN and Gamespot does strongly suggest that the PS3 won’t have region encoding, but I suppose it’s possible that it may just be a twist of their words. Still, Gamespot is usually pretty accurate when it comes to reporting information.