No region lockout on PSP (It's a fact)

benstylus · Post by **benstylus** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 5:56 am

Friend of mine at work with an Japanese PSP tested it with a US copy of Need for Speed Underground. And it works.

Which means.... No region lockout.

Woot.

Now I might consider buying one.

When it drops in price.

And the games are cheaper.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 5:59 am

You know what's going to happen. The games won't get any cheaper, the prices for games on the 'next gen' consoles will go up

benstylus · Post by **benstylus** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:07 am

Neon wrote:You know what's going to happen. The games won't get any cheaper, the prices for games on the 'next gen' consoles will go up

Well, what I was referring to is buying the launch games 6 months or so down the line when the launch games have cheapened in price.

I've got enough games to keep me busy without a PSP anyway.

Plus there's really not a "killer app" for me that would make me buy a PSP, unlike Feel the Magic/Project Rub/Kimi no tame nara shineru for the DS.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 5:29 pm

Sony really is maddening, painstakingly installing near-impossible-to-override region lockouts on some of their systems, and completely ignoring the feature on others...or is there some hardware technicality that makes it impossible to put a region lockout on the PSP?

UnscathedFlyingObject · Sat Mar 19, 2005 5:41 pm

By my logic, I'd say that they didn't include region lockout on the PSP because users would have real reasons to bitch about. First of all, almost no handheld has region lockout, and unlike consoles, people bring their portables with them to travel. Therefore, they don't want some moronic tourist in China cursing them because they can't play their pirate psp game, or so my logic goes. I'm probably wrong, and it's just because portable games never sell too well (excluding pokemon), and thus they don't bother trying to keep sales to a region.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 7:00 pm

The original Tetris sold pretty well for a handheld. In fact, it sold, what, about 50 million?

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 9:16 pm

No region lockout on the PSP means that it's easier to play those import shmups!!

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 11:51 pm

It wouldn't surprise me to see the next-gen consoles release at the $299 price point, with price cuts to follow later. That's the price that the PS2 and XBox released at in the US, with the Cube going for $249. It's also interesting to note that when I got my Japanese Saturn, it still had the original receipt in the box for something like 42,900 yen...

Zhon · Post by **Zhon** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 2:25 am

Region lockout is possible on the PSP, but all games are being given "all-region" encoding. The UMD movies will be region-locked, however.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:58 pm

Zhon wrote:The UMD movies will be region-locked, however.

Which nobody really gives a shit about here.

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:21 am

Although they probably should, because it proves that region-locked games are a real possibility. The same applies to the PSP as applies to the Xbox - the hardware allows for region-free software, but it all depends on what's on the disc. And we all have a rough idea of what percentage of Xbox games are region-free...

If, later down the line, a publisher decided that they were going to make their games incompatible with PSPs bought in certain parts of the world, the only thing stopping them would be getting it past Sony's approval team. I'm almost convinced it'll happen sooner or later - if the option's there, publishers *will* abuse it.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:56 am

Alot of nextgen titles are announced to be in the sub $60 range. PSP game prices are ridiculous imo. If people pay them, its no wonder nextgen prices will go up!

Piracy will too.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 5:59 pm

neorichieb1971 wrote:Alot of nextgen titles are announced to be in the sub $60 range. PSP game prices are ridiculous imo. If people pay them, its no wonder nextgen prices will go up!

Piracy will too.

Remember that some SNES games were $60 when they were brand new.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 6:05 pm

True, but those were also cartridge-format games, which cost more than a CD-based game to produce. The price was still high, obviously, but charging that much for a CD game is even more outlandish.