This is straight bullcrap!! Why is it that Sony would make EVERYTHING else Region Free but not physical disc Japanese PS1 games??! cuz i've just gotten my copy of Racing Lagoon from the mail and once i'd tried popping it in it told me exactly it was Region Restricted and now i'm heated! just why would make people waste money and stuff then later finding out that YOUR game you just bought is locked for good (unless you have E3 Flasher via CFW or Corba Odde installed) it's stupid!! I swear to god it's retarded as hell! Anyone had a similar problem and know how'd you handled it, let me know what you think of all of this stupidness
All the info is on the web,a simple search would tell you that a ps3 is region locked on ps1/ps2 games. I got lucky and ended up with a cfw ps3 but yea it would have been nice if sony made the ps1 and ps2 side region free,all it would take is a simple firmware update.
True, but thing is that why make the Japanese PS1 PSN classics downloadable ones region free and NOT the discs itself?
It might be legal concerns. On PSN it's a case by case basis. But for discs it's a free for all. Either way, I don't see why you'd want to play PS1 or PS2 titles on the PS3. The original systems are the best way to play those games if you have the consoles available.
Yes, on PSN they will have renegotiated rights. While PS1/PS2 discs were only ever licensed for their own regions. For example the early DDR games were only released in Japan because Konami only paid for the rights there. I'm not sure the likelihood of them getting sued, but legal departments don't like taking risks. If your legal department tells you to restrict the games and you value being employed then you do it.
I think one issue might be software ratings: PSN releases are submitted to rating boards of the different regions, while disc versions don't have ratings given by the ratings boards in the areas they were never released in.
It's exactly that. PS1 and PS2 were region locked consoles, so they can't just shred previous license contracts. It's even worse if a particular license is now owned by a different company. Also, the Japanese PS1 games available on PSN were not added by Sony themselves. It was either companies like MonkeyPawGames, GungHo Online Entertainment or Capcom who licensed every single of those games individually. More info here: http://monkeypawgames.com/about/ http://monkeypawgames.com/games/ http://www.gunghoonline.com/gcategories/import-classics/
I was thinking, can i use a Gameshark v4.0 or Gameshark Lite to run imports on it? (besides using it for cheats only)
Yeah, i thought that was kinda stupid too. Granted i only have one genuine import which is a US version of Final Fantasy VIII (fuck 50hz and bastardised borders). Had to buy the game yet again on my US PSN account since i have no PS1 anymore
My PS3 gathers dust in the living room and I have a half dozen PS1 & 2's so I've really had no motivation to use the PS1 feature. But I have to ask, beyond original memory card support or certain peripherals (guns, cheat devices, dance pads), what advantages are there to playing PS1 games on a PS1?
This is some good stuff to read. The original PS1 games are region encoded to start with so I'm not shocked the emulation is region encoded too. Might even be necessary on a technical level for all I know (some NTSC-J GameCube games need the Japanese BIOS present for some fonts. Same with some NTSC-J SegaCD games. While they will run just fine with American consoles the text doesn't fully work and that would cause a lot of people to be pissed off if the respective companies decided to offer this functionality officially with a few broken games). Purchase a PS1 with a modchip in it for $30, problem solved. Getting so worked up over something so minor is a terrible waste of time. An inconvenience is annoying sure but "straight up bullcrap"? Hardly. I just wish my life was mostly so trivial that I could get angry over region locks. It is the real deal with hardware so unless you've got a first gen PS3 you have something that isn't 100% accurate (putting aside variations between different PS1 models for the moment). On top of that a PS3 costs about as much as it costs me to buy ~5 PS1s in working condition with controllers, cables, and a 12C508a with enough money left over to buy a decent bottle of scotch. You also can't do linkable games on a PS3 or use a Gameshark so that means no debug rooms in FFVII. I'm also not sure how you'd handle Psycho Mantis in MGS due to the need to swap controller ports to finish him off without the need of a GameShark or being ridiculously skillful. Oh and unless you modify your PS3 you can't play backups at all. Think about it for two seconds, how do you swap discs on a PS3 for PS1 games?
I wish, some of us live in the sticks. I've got a bridge to sell to whoever finds a modded PS1 in Freeland WA.
Even if there are legal concerns, that's still stupid, that you can't play games from any region, for a console that's 2 generations older and no longer supported ( when the PS3 came out)
Region locking is stupid, but companies respecting licenses isn't. It doesn't matter if it's been 20 years or not. A game may have lots of licences inside it, some are easy to see like car brands, soundtrack and so on. Others are mostly forgotten by most people, like the game engine, video encoders, publisher rights and ip ownership (game company could have gone bankrupt, sold or merged with another). There's also age ratings, censored content, language support,... The list goes on and on. Examples: Outrun has the Ferrari License. As soon as it expired, SEGA could not sell it anymore. Batman has the DC license, the voice actors license, soundtrack... Tony Hawk's Pro Skater has lots of brand licenses, real skaters likeness, soundtrack by real rock bands,... Actually, be glad that with physical media you can still buy the game you want and play it (with the correct console that is). In the so called "digital future", they'll simply remove it from the online store and that's it. You can't play it unless you had already bought it. But even there's no guarantee they'll keep the files on their servers "forever" for you. The whole concept of ownership doesn't exist with digital downloads. Some examples: http://gamerant.com/marvel-xmen-spiderman-games-pulled-xbox-live-psn-steam/ http://www.destructoid.com/marvel-vs-capcom-games-to-be-pulled-from-psn-xbla-267521.phtml http://www.destructoid.com/some-marvel-games-have-vanished-from-steam-psn-xbl-268301.phtml http://www.destructoid.com/irem-removing-pretty-much-all-of-its-content-from-psn-206834.phtml http://www.joystiq.com/2011/09/28/r-type-being-removed-from-virtual-console-on-sept-30/ http://www.joystiq.com/2011/09/28/r-type-being-removed-from-virtual-console-on-sept-30/
Now I understand. Companies like Microsoft and Sony were smart the past and this generation and mostly didn't include region locking. It's a shame that Nintendo still supports region locking, that's just stupid for 2014. I would buy a 3DS, but the region locking really puts me off. I would like to buy some import japanese games and some cheaper 1st party games from the USA. But I can't, thanks Nintendo. And thanks to modders that the original Wii was hacked and made region free.
3DS being region locked is pretty backwards, considering their handhelds have mostly been region free (well, upto the DSL anyway, not sure about the other revisions of the DS)
DS Lite/Lite iQue ones were region free until the DSi version came out. Haven't personally checked the DSL XL version so I can't say about that but from the DSi onwards, region locks were in place - one of the first questions I asked at a pre-launch party about the DSi and was pretty disappointed in hearing it. If I don't have a regional console or modded console on-hand, I typically end up just chucking the disc into my computer and emulating it after ripping the BIOS off my regional consoles to avoid this whole drama. Otherwise I'll end up buying whatever I can via PSN whenever possible just to make it easier as I'm rather lazy in terms of going fishing for whatever game I wanted to play.
The problem is that console manufacturers/games companies tend to think about the future rather than the past. It's the latest Call of Duty or GTA that's going to push the envelope and sell a system, not a 15 year old game for the PS1. Whilst this does make sense, the downside is that older games are forgotten about. Nobody is going to spend money and waste their time trying to untangle the legal paperwork so you can play any old Japanese PS1 games on your PS3. As far as Sony are concerned (in this instance) they've had their day, so just brush them under the carpet and let them fade away into the mists of time. Sad, but that's how it is. Unless we see a massive change in how copyright is rolled out then that is the way things will always be. Now, if you see a game as 'art' then it's all rather depressing because what you and I see as art becomes nothing more than a throwaway commodity with a shelf-life like a crate of fruit. It expires and it dies. That's copyright today. It works wonders for the latest best-selling franchise, but for every franchise saved (say, Star Wars) their success takes down thousands of less successful casualties in the process. It's survival of the fittest - great if you're George Lucas, not so great if you aren't. We can only hope it will change over time but so far it's going the wrong way (depending on your point of view) The same sad truth also applies to movies and music. Just my 2 cents.
It was planned years in advance. Nintendo started testing region lock with iQue DS games back in 2005. 3DS didn't launch until 2011.
