yeah so i want in on halo 3.. is there any reason why i shouldnt buy a japanese 360 (dirt cheap on yahoo) ? are they regioncoded and is there a way around it? will it work online here (sweden)? pros and cons... :shrug:
It is region coded and as far as I know there's no way around it (at the moment, anyway). I don't know about online stuff.
As a bonus the Japanese machines will run Hong Kong (Asian) games so you can play games in English. Blue Dragon was released in Hong Kong a while before it hit the US...
The console is region encoded but not all disc are locked to each region. Quite a few games are region free. EA is known for region locking their disc. Ubisoft is known for not region locking their disc. Most microsoft disc are region locked. Quite personaly, most Asian games are vastly cheaper then buying retail for usa. As for XBLA, that is designated by where you set your account to. Like I have USA live and Canadian live because my USA account was done with an old hotmail account when I lived in california and my new accounts are canadian. Yet i've also been able to drum up a japanese account (using random typed info). FYI, I have a japanese 360. Shocking enough, it still works (its a launch unit)
this is my main concern, i dont speak a lick of japanese, whats a good source for HK/asian games in english?
Play-Asia.com, Buygame2.com, Ncsx.com, HK/Asian games are actualy just NTSC-J games. Quite often western developed games get a direct english release in HK as a NTSC-J encoded game. When buying, just check japanese import shops and look for games that are labled (Asian). The games should note on the back if they have english language (due note to be careful with halo since there are many versions, each having only 1 spoken language but text for others), as a bonus for all jpn text, asian versions usualy include a mini manual/paper that explains how to get started in the game (usualy always in english). Fyi, i buy many asian version of games.
