Japan and US apart of the same BD region

[fuchikoma]

Here is some Christmas Day good news for you! IT Media has announced some details on the Blu-Ray region coding and it holds a nice surprise. Japan, North America, and East Asia will all be sharing one region code. This potentially means that American gamers will be able to import Japanese PS3 Blu-Ray games, and will definately be able to import Japanese Blu-Ray Anime/Movie titles without any hassle. Europe unfortunately will be sharing a region code with Africa so likely not much cross-gaming there. Sorry Europe, looks like you will be getting the gaming bone again. Oh and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all from all of us here at GR!

Masakazu Honda @ ITMedia reports about the final review version of the AACS contents management system for HD formats such as Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD. AACS LA consists of IBM, Sony, Toshiba, Warner, Intel, Microsoft, Matsushita, and Disney.

+ ICT (Image Constrain Token) must be supported by AACS software and hardware as Warner wanted. ICT is utilized to limit hi-res analog output. But in countries such as Japan in which the laws prohibit ICT, it's not required until 2011. Contents providers except for Warner say they don't use ICT, but according to Honda even Warner won't use it because of commercial reasons.

+ Though Warner was eager to abolish region code and there were no objection until the final decision, film companies not in AACS LA opposed it and it was decided that region code stays in BD-ROM. But it undergoes reorganization. Basically, Japan and other East Asian countries except for China are moved to Region 1. The new region codes are

Region 1: North America, South America, East Asia except for China (India, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia etc.)
Region 2: Europe and Africa
Region 3: China, Russia and other countries

IMHO, most likely, the handling of region codes in the PS3 BD will be the same as PSP (no regions in games).http://gamersreports.com/news/705/

[.Automatisch]

Saw this on X-Mas day... Was VERY excited by this, as it means Sony will allow the PS3 to play imports without modifications finally [if true, of course]. Also good for anime fans, if they like raws of course. The thing that puzzles me is if they will allow PSX/PS2 imports to work as well, or will they limit them to their respective region...

[Nin-Nin69]

Knowing Sony they'll find some way to put a stop to this solution.

[.Automatisch]

^^Why? It's their baby, why would they do that? Also, going by the PSP, it's highly possible they will adopt this new standard of region-free games. Movies, of course, NEED regions [for market purposes, among other things]. But games, in this day and age, don't really need it. The only thing example where regions help the games industry is how Europeans wouldn't buy their own games if they can just import American ones 6+ months earlier... There are other reasons, I'm sure, but that's the only glaring issue I see. The amount of American importers is small, as the average person won't be getting odd titles like Mr. Mosquito, etc, but this is good for us nonetheless.

[peacebyanymeans]

*In other news, Europe's responce*

Europe: ...the hell?

[fuchikoma]

Knowing Sony they'll find some way to put a stop to this solution.I highly doubt that. Sony is apart of the AACS LA which was going to do away with region coding for BD until they were presented with opposition from those outside of the AACS LA. After this the AACS LA decided to keep region coding and came up with the new regions which Sony must have agreed to being apart of this group. This could mean PS3 titles will go by the same regions but it might not. Using the fact that psp games are region free in determining region coding on ps3 games is flawed since handheld games are traditionally region free unlike console games. Though a branch of Sony has mentioned that the ps3 might be region free. http://www.the-magicbox.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15041

[Artimus Gigan]

Knowing Sony they'll find some way to put a stop to this solution.I don't think so

The PSP UMDs are region free and can play games from other countries without system modifications

[Chad Bonin]

Yes, but PS3's market share is almost guaranteed to be much more than the PSP. Letting Japan import Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (a drip in a bucket) is nowhere near letting America import Final Fantasy XIV (a dam-breaking tidalwave that would destroy the game's US sales) early.

[Artimus Gigan]

Yes, but PS3's market share is almost guaranteed to be much more than the PSP. Letting Japan import Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (a drip in a bucket) is nowhere near letting America import Final Fantasy XIV (a dam-breaking tidalwave that would destroy the game's US sales) early.They don't really provide english options, so for a text heavy game at costing 30%-40% more due to importing(not to mention shipping fees) many people would just wait it out. Besides the US games are usualy less buggy than their Japanese counterparts.

[Mr. Obsession]

snake']The thing that puzzles me is if they will allow PSX/PS2 imports to work as well, or will they limit them to their respective region...The PS3 Blu-Ray's may very well end up being region free but some how I get the feeling that the old PS/2 CD and DVDs will sill be keep their old region coding.


letting America import Final Fantasy XIV (a dam-breaking tidalwave that would destroy the game's US sales) early.Except imports become a smaller fraction of total sales the more text heavy a game becomes. The large majority of US gamers don't even understand spoken Japanese, let alone read the written language. And I'm willing to bet that at least half of the people who import a game from Japan will turn around and purchase the exact same game when it's localized here in the US.

Europe on the other hand, well, region free games would mean that imports would crucify the local industry. Why wait for months or years (or have it never released) for a game you want when it's already available in your second (or first) language from the US?

[.Automatisch]

^^ I agree with both points... Letting someone import a big title like FF isn't really going to affect the sales that much... I mean, people already CAN, and have been importing, yet nothing has really changed since people started. It's such a small amount of people that it's really not going to change sales much, unless there was some odd title in Japan that would never be released here that thousands upon thousands of gamers got across the US.

[Dogbert]

This really only applies to movies. If Sony wants to use region coding for the games, they can do so any way they see fit. Just because they were ready to dump movie region coding doesn't mean they feel the same way about games. That isn't to say I'm claiming they will continue to use region coding for games, just that I don't see this as evidence either way for PS3 games.