Playstation 3 News: Region-Free Games (And More from GDC)
 

Region-free; What does it mean? It means that you can play those interesting Japanese games you like on your own console in the states, or elsewhere, without having to give up an arm or a leg.

Quote:

"The move was not unexpected, as SCE had previously mentioned considering the possibility of opening up the region structure for PS3 games recently (the newly-released PSP system has but does not use a region code system for games, but that's more a standard for portable games than a new development for region-free gaming.) The system is, amongst other things, hoped to help combat piracy - many import fans "chip" their consoles with region-free mod chips to play import games, and while that desire has some legitimacy, it also opens the doors for pirates to release illegal copies of games."

More at IGN.

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IGN is on top of Sony at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California like Anna Nicole Smith is on top of here diet pills [TO MS. SMITH'S LAWYERS: It was a joke]... If you want to see all of their coverage, everything ranging from Warhawk in real-time, to backwards compatibility, head on over to IGN's Sony @ GDC Coverage Page.

Again, thank you IGN.com for their GDC coverage.

Good move!

If you figure that Japanese games would have a market here in there States or the EU, region encoding them would only serve to slit the vendors throat, more than aid in any sort of anti-piracy effort.

Sony's first good move in years