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I have an unused copy of Mass Effect 2 Collector's Edition bought via Amazon.com in the US, including a special code for Inferno Armour (also unused).

Will it work fine if I install and start playing the game in the UK? Does geographical location matter?

Thanks!

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  • Rule of thumb, this varies and I don't know how ME2 works, so I'm not answering the question: Offline/Standard Play is not geographically dependent. Games requiring registration may be locked out outside the purchased region. Multiplayer/Online features vary wildly. Some may work worldwide, some may have specific set ups in specific regions, some may lock out cross-region online usage entirely.
    – VxJasonxV
    Nov 28, 2010 at 6:34

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For a PC, there should be no issue as Eric states. For consoles, there may not be an issue, and it all depends on a lot of factors.

Games are never format dependent, though they may be region locked. It's purely a limitation that's there because the manufacturer wanted it to be; once that has been bypassed one way or another (modding, FreeLoader, Action Replay...), then it can become possible to run the game.

IIRC, the only connection method that may cause problems is using an RF adapter; none of the others are subject to issues because they don't use PAL/NTSC/NTSC-J for transmitting the signal. All consoles these days support a 60Hz output, and I can't remember the last time I saw a TV that didn't support 60Hz input. (I'm not entirely sure about how it looks for US/Japan for TVs that can do 50Hz, but at least for modern consoles, all games can run in 60Hz anyway.)

Additionally, the PS3 is advertised as being completely free of region locking for PS3 games, while for the XBox 360, some games are actually region-free, and Mass Effect 2 is supposedly one of them.

So no, you should have no problem at all, regardless of which system the game is for - as long as your console works with the TV (which it should, although you may need a power adapter if your console is not bought locally).

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The answer depends on your platform. PC games should work worldwide without any problems.

Console games however are format dependent. The main formats are NTSC, NTSJ and PAL. NTSC is used (mostly) in America and UK uses PAL format (usually). NTSJ is a special japanese format that will prevent you from compatibility with the rest of the world.

The main difference is about TV standards across the world which are slightly different from one country to another, so the console has to adapt and therefor, the games have to adapt to the different consoles.

Refer to this map for general format compatibility

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    Note that technically it is not a "format" specific to a disc but a "region restriction" in modern consoles. FYI, Xbox 360 PAL, after JTAG hack can play games from any region. Note that discs from different regions may contain different languages and/or additional content such as levels or characters.
    – Denis Nikolaenko
    Jan 9, 2011 at 13:00

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