So the PS3 isn't region free as far as backwards compatibility goes, it seems.
In the context of an article about Sony prosecuting companies illegally importing Sony products into the European Union, the following tidbit slipped out:
The company explained the reasoning behind this policy as trying to "protect" European consumers "from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards (due to voltage supply differences etc.), is not (in PS3's case) backwards compatible with either PS1 or PS2 software, will not play European Blu-ray movies or DVDs, and will not be covered by warranty."Well, that just sucks. So here I am with my plans for importing all those PS1 RPGs that never made it to Australia scuttled. It seems kind of... stupid. Looks like the mod chip market won't be dieing out after all.
- via Gamespot (emphasis added)
Or, y'know, we can just keep hoping that this statement came from a marketing guy with no idea what he's talking about.
3 comments:
I actually don't quite see the big deal with blocking imports to EU. They've got a supply problem stateside to deal with and since when was there anything wrong with enforcing the law?
Region encoding software is just dumb though. I mean, I could see being worried about rating systems or whatnot - but that's a problem that easily could be hurdled.
I don't know how I feel about the importing thing, which is why I kind of skipped over that in the post. On the one hand, there's the law, but on the other, it's a stupid law.
I'm not going to be grey-importing a console but I'm sure as hell regularly doing it with games, mostly to get around the asinine release decisions and censorship laws in Australia.
Living in Australia you get an even worse deal on release schedules than Europe. I was delighted when the Australian courts overruled Sony's attempt to crush the modchips. If they want to stop the grey market, just stop using regional encoding! It's not hard to work out.
Disappointed that the region free doesn't extend to the back catalogue, but still pleased that the PS3 isn't going to be regionally encoded. At this point in time, I'll take what I'm given. :)
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