region coding

[rideboy]

when they thought of region coding UMD videos? i mean the reason for region coding in the 1st place was the different refresh rates and screens, right? well why put a region code on a portable console with no differences apart from where its sold? makes no sense to me... oh yeah im posting this on my US PSP. serious discussion, not a rant

[Fats]

I don't believe it has anything to do with Sony, it's exactly the same as DVD's from around the world.

[Gegenki]

Region coding has nothing to do with refresh rates or the PAL - NTSC thing.
Its to stop importing. Its basically the same reason why you can't import ps2 games. It loses them money.
The movie industry won't put movies on a format that will allow people to import. I think its also to do with piracy.
Even when ps2 came out plenty of people had tv's capable of showing ntsc yet they kept the region coding idea. PS2 has the ability to change the region code. In fact, when a game boots it reads a 3 line file and on one of the lines it says somethin like MODE: NTSC
Change it to pal and the game runs in pal. Its all about money

[Fats]

Region coding has nothing to do with refresh rates or the PAL - NTSC thing.
Its to stop importing. Its basically the same reason why you can't import ps2 games. It loses them money.
The movie industry won't put movies on a format that will allow people to import. I think its also to do with piracy.
Even when ps2 came out plenty of people had tv's capable of showing ntsc yet they kept the region coding idea. PS2 has the ability to change the region code. In fact, when a game boots it reads a 3 line file and on one of the lines it says somethin like MODE: NTSC
Change it to pal and the game runs in pal. Its all about money

^What he said.

[Loc]

Well there's no region-encoding for games, that's a good thing. Region-encoding is mainly there just because the movie departments don't work cooperatively. Plus no money is made when people import the movies.

[rideboy]

Well there's no region-encoding for games, that's a good thing. Region-encoding is mainly there just because the movie departments don't work cooperatively. Plus no money is made when people import the movies.

if i read correctly, developers have the choice though to region lock games dont they? so my US psp could be worth nothing to nobody soon...

[Z]

Region coding has nothing to do with refresh rates or the PAL - NTSC thing.
Its to stop importing. Its basically the same reason why you can't import ps2 games. It loses them money.
The movie industry won't put movies on a format that will allow people to import. I think its also to do with piracy.
Even when ps2 came out plenty of people had tv's capable of showing ntsc yet they kept the region coding idea. PS2 has the ability to change the region code. In fact, when a game boots it reads a 3 line file and on one of the lines it says somethin like MODE: NTSC
Change it to pal and the game runs in pal. Its all about money
exactly. and to add to that, movies are marketed to certain regions at certain time to maximize profits. for examply, if you can order a new DVD movie from the US and you live in Europe, you won't go to the theater later on to see it when it eventually opens up in your town/country. something to that extent.

the reason why games weren't region-locked is that it would have gone against the idea of a poirtable handheld you can carry with you around the world. so if you are playing with your PSP in a plane and then land somewhere arounbd the world, you can pick up any other PSP games from whereever you are and play on.
of course, Sony has great business relations with their partners. so if a game maker wants his games locked, he can have it. his lost/gain.

if you want to import any software for PSP, check the box/info sheet to see if it is open or locked.

have fun:)

[Fats]

if i read correctly, developers have the choice though to region lock games dont they? so my US psp could be worth nothing to nobody soon...

Are you selling your PSP or something Rideboy, because all you seem to do is bash it. Can't understand why you'd still want to own one.

[rideboy]

Are you selling your PSP or something Rideboy, because all you seem to do is bash it. Can't understand why you'd still want to own one.

im not selling it, im just worried that it will end up worth nothing. i have a nice collection of games that i dont want to ruin, me and my temper can get me into a lot of bother... like with the throwing the psp incident... but its pissed me off now that they have the ability to region lock the games as well, so there is no way to import games or movies etc in the future, meanin i would have had to get em all off either ebay or my american friends, which means waiting

[Loc]

Doubtful any games will suddenly become region-locked. Theres just no locking mechanism on any of them that I know of. Since when has the option of region-locking games become available?

[rideboy]

Doubtful any games will suddenly become region-locked. Theres just no locking mechanism on any of them that I know of. Since when has the option of region-locking games become available?

i read about it a while back... that the devs have the option to region code them if they want... might be on this board actually...

[Loc]

You're probably thinking of the Xbox360 release. Sony is actually the ones that manufacture the UMDs, and I've imported plenty of Japanese games and there is clear indication that there will never be region-encoding.

[Z]

any publisher can asign region-locking for any titles they will release. it is the publisher's right to chose whether to make its game region free or otherwise, just like chosing where to/not to release.

having said that, nearly all games are region free. only a small fraction are region coded. I only know one title that has this (don't remeber which exactly).