Prepare for the shock of shockers - every PS3 game from the world can be yours!
by Nix
March 22, 2006 - In a QA session following the platform keynote address at GDC 2006 this morning, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison confirmed what was heavily demanded for import gamers all over the world and yet previously thought unthinkable for a major corporation: the PS3 will be region-free for gaming.
The move was not unexpected, as SCE had previously mentioned considering the possibility of opening up the region structure for PS3 games recently (the newly-released PSP system has but does not use a region code system for games, but that’s more a standard for portable games than a new development for region-free gaming.) The system is, amongst other things, hoped to help combat piracy - many import fans “chip” their consoles with region-free mod chips to play import games, and while that desire has some legitimacy, it also opens the doors for pirates to release illegal copies of games. (Funnily enough, it’s most often easier to run illegal games on a console than it is to run legit games from other countries due to the way most mod chips work, leading to a slippery slope for importers hoping to stay legit but finding the road difficult to maneuver.) Region-free gaming also allows game publishers to release games across the globe simultaneously, either through e-distribution or on disc. The capacity of Blu-Ray had previously been mentioned to allow for multiple languages of a game to be encoded onto the same massive-capacity disc.
The one caveat of this new region-free structure is that games made for specific regions’ electrical and TV standards may have problems on your TV set. A PAL PS3 game, for instance, will have difficulty running on an NTSC TV, unless the developers have thought ahead and planned for that issue. It is currently unknown how the PS3 will cope with this problem (whether there will be a warning when you run an import about possible TV incompatibility, or if possibly there might be a no-play screen for incompatible games depending on your PS3’s TV settings.) Luckily, modern HDTV standards go a long way towards making that problem moot. Also, games made in other countries will naturally only have the text and dialog it is programmed with, so don’t put your pre-orders down so fast on all of those Japanese RPGs and Dragon Ball if you don’t know a lick of kanji, because English will only be in if the developers have planned for it. (It’s unknown if there will be any type of “patching” system for multi-language releases, although that might be possible on supported games post-release now that the PS3 is carrying its massive HDD and flash memory support.)
Sony has recently stated that its “basic” online service will be free, though it was unclear exactly what this meant. Harrison explained that anything outside of paid downloads or specialized subscriptions counts as “basic”. In other words, all of the key features of the system, like your friends list, video chatting, grabbing free updates and indeed playing online will be entirely free. There will however be a few special case games that require paid subscriptions, like MMOs.
If Sony can pull this off… then they have won… no doubt.
This is the Getaway for the PS3… in realtime. It was proven at the show yesterday. This is why Blue-Ray’s huge 50GB dual layer discs will pay off. This scene alone is probably a couple hundred MB of info. More stuff to stream at once wll be frickin’ sweet.
Yeah, that’s what we all said about GT4 but those pics were misleading. All is smoke a mirrors until it’s released so I am taking all the news about the PS3 with a grain of salt.
That pic looks amazing, no doubt, but again, I need to see it to believe it… Or at the very least, get confirmation from a credible source that has seen it in front of them.
Well that is good news if it is true. Regionalizing is one of my biggest pet peeves about the PS2. US consumers have gotten denied ALOT of great titles.
Exactly… plus with 25GB on a single sided disc Developers could put all language versions on one disc to make a global release.
The only thing is, as the last paragraph in the original post states, unless the developers plan for it, there may be issues with trying to play a Japanese game here on our TV’s.
Region free gaming will be the BIGGEST winning point. Screw format wars over Blu-ray and HDDVD; having the option to buy and play any (PS3) game on the market would be huge!
Now, the big question, would it allow a Japanese PS2 game be played on a US PS3?
Plus, does this mean that all PS3’s will be the same?
If you use GT4s photo shoot, and camera modes, when you take a still, It looks amazing and almost as good as those pictures when you upload them to the PC.
PS3 is definitely looking like it may actually be the 1st next gen system, we will see, they did promise alot more with the Ps2 and never delivered some of it.
Basically that could happen depending on the developer.
With 25GB on a single sided disc they could put all the versions onto the disk for a global release that all the discs are the same and are released everywhere. That’s already being talked about as something that will probably end up happening if the developer chooses to do so.
Other options are that let’s say a game releases in Japan, (they get a shit load more games than we do), since our PS3’s can play those games and they see lots of imports going to USA (legally of course) then that could say hey, enough people obviously want our game over in the states… let’s give them their own copy of it.
Some cool stuff with no region coding. It can only help Sony’s cause. I like the fact that they waited so long to bring it out… let Microsoft get settled with what they are doing and bring in something that will dominate them. It can’t fail.
There is also going to be games available to just download to your PS3 hard drive. They already have a website setup for developers to go to so they can sign up to make their games available for e-distribution. Basically getting rid of the middle man.