New PS4 FAQ Mentions Possible Region Locked Games
With the openings on the PS4 pre-orders (which sold out almost instantly, I might add) in Japan, Sony Released a new official FAQ to explain the consoles most relevant goods and bads, but, there’s one point that got a few gamers worried about the possibility of not being able to play games from regions different from their console. Read more below.
Here is the text extracted from the FAQ itself:
Q: Can I use in Japan the game titles and PS4 console released overseas? Conversely, can PS4 titles sold in Japan be used in foreign countries?
A: From the view point of each region’s safety standards and to guarantee operation, please purchase the PS4 console and the games that are sold in your area. There’s the possibility that the titles of some software developers could be region locked. In addition to that, you may no longer eligible for support if you use a an overseas model of the PS4 in Japan.
This obviously put some gamers on edge, especially the part about possible region locked games, and one of those gamers asked SCE President Shuhei Yoshida directly. Below is an image from twitter.
In the tweet exchange above Shuhei Yoshida is asked “wasn’t the PS4 region free?" When he doesn’t understand the question, he’s shown the URL of the FAQ, and responds “That doesn’t deny that it’s region free at all".
As the console itself is region free, it does say that some games may be region locked. Hopefully we’re looking at a situation similar to the PS3 that had only one region locked game (Persona 4: Arena) during its whole lifetime.
Unfortunately it was a very good one, and it caused European gamers to have to wait for it for a rather relevant amount of time, but only one is definitely better than many.
Source dualshockers
I just bought a ps3, so I could care less about the ps4 until the price has gone down to $300 or less.
Living in the states and not knowing Japanese, doesn’t really affect me very much. But damn, it sure is going to blow for AUS (and others) if games start getting region locked.
I preordered the PS4 before Amazon stopped stocking them for the EU in order to increase NA sales.
Can’t wait for a next gen console as I’ve been waiting for so long ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“As the console itself is region free, it does say that some games may be region locked.”
That doesn’t even make sense.
It does, it most likely means that “typically” games can be played on the system regardless of the region they were released in, but “some” games might only be playable on PS4’s from the same region
“PS4′s from the same region”
If the PS4 has a region then it’s not region-free
yeah, depends on devs. but mostly (99%) won’t region lock their games
you can use a ps4 console from overseas in your home.. but there may be games from overseas you cannot play.. same as ps3 really..
it means you can buy a PS4 console from somewhere and using it everywhere. PS4 won’t reject account created on different region from its original region. PS4 will play any game from different region as long as devs allow it.
I don’t see a reason to worry. Just like the PS3, they are giving the option to lock the game to the publisher.
In the end, if we exclude some DLC and online contents, only 2 games “Joysound Dive” (PSN) and “Persona 4 Arena” (physical) utilized the region lock on the PS3.
right, there’s no new DRM. just like PS3.