Hot answers tagged region-locked
17
I sent an e-mail to blizzard support, this is what they answered:
Quality and customer service are the highest priorities for Blizzard Entertainment. Because we cannot guarantee a positive gaming experience for users connecting to servers outside the supported region, we do not support use outside of the designated region. You can change which region you ...
13
The 3DS, unlike the Nintendo DS before it, is region-locked. There are 3 regions: North America, Japan and EU/Australia. So if you buy your 3DS in Australia, you'll need to purchase games from either the EU or Australia as well. Nintendo explained their reasoning in the following statement:
“Nintendo 3DS hardware is available in three versions: Japanese, ...
12
The reason behind this is the Korean "Cyber defamation law" forbidding users from making anonymous comments.
One way of ensuring this requirement is for game developers to couple each account to a uniquely identifiable attribute for each person, in this case, their Korean social security number.
11
Yes
From wikipedia :
The PlayStation 3 is one of the few home consoles to be advertised as region-free. However, while region free for PS3 games, there is region locking for backwards compatible PS2 and PS1 games, as well as DVD and Blu-ray Disc movies. Additionally, some games separate online players per region, such as Metal Gear Solid 4 Online.
10
Depending on the version of Forza 4 you have, you might be out of luck. The best solution I can think of (without getting into a system hack) would be to sell your game and purchase a US-region specific or region-unlocked game. This kind of sucks, I admit, but maybe you can get lucky with a trade. Either that, or trade in the system.
If you own an ...
9
You can often get around the blocks that they have in place by simply contacting Steam Support (you need to register a separate account at their site) and requesting the American store, but you will then have to pay with an American credit card. I did this several times when I was in Australia and it takes 1-3 days for them to unlock your account to do so, ...
8
Yes, they should work with your TV, as both the UK and the AUS region use the PAL system, however, be aware that you might need to buy new power cords over there.
As proper broadband uses CAT5 Cables worldwide, a normal plug & play broadband connection should always work. (also, wireless also uses the same basic system worldwide, so no problems ...
8
Yes, what you want to do is possible. While all 3DS software is region-locked, Nintendo DS software is not. Because that region-locking isn't encoded into the DS software, you can play software from all regions on your 3DS.
You can even check out this youtube video where someone demonstrates a DS games from North America, Japan, and Europe on their North ...
7
Portugal is a PAL region. The UK is also a PAL region. There should be no problem. If you happen to have a game not from a PAL region, here is a compatibility guide.
6
It might sound a bit trivial, but did you try installing the N.A client and E.U client on different folders?
Personally I play League of Legends on N.A and E.U servers as well, and I got them installed on 2 different folders with 2 different desktop launch Icons and they work OK.
According to: StarCraft II EU and NA on same MACHINE ? apparently the ...
4
Unless explicitly listed otherwise, the version sold on Amazon is always the one that fits the "local" territory. For Amazon.com, that's US, and therefore NTSC. Obviously, that doesn't matter for all systems, but it does for the Wii.
For a PAL version, you have to look at one of the European Amazon departments, such as Amazon.co.uk (where, at the time of ...
4
No, a region 1 Xbox is like any other DVD player - it will not play DVDs from other regions:
Each Xbox 360 console is manufactured for a specific DVD and game region, following international standards. The Xbox 360 console can only play discs that are sold in the same region as the console.
Your only option (short of modding the console, which you ...
4
PS3 games are region free but the game saves are apparently not. I haven't used any cross-region games on my PS3, so I haven't experienced the particulars.
Someone does suggest a (fairly complex) method of getting around PS3 save region lock though:
(you need a pen drive, PSP or any other USB mass storage device)
On your old game/PS3, copy the ...
4
You can actually know not just the region, but often the individual country the game was released in.
Look near the barcode in the lower right on the back of the case. You'll see a code like CTR-APPP-GER or CTR-A66J-JPN, maybe with TSA before it, or a similar code with a P in the middle like CTR P ATHE USA. The last three letters indicate the country of ...
3
Steam limitations
On Steam you can "circumvent" store limitations through gifts. For example, if you live in Germany, you can still get Doom II from Steam if you get a friend in another country to gift (say, the USA) it to you. Alternatively, you can travel to where those games are available and buy them yourself. :)
I don't know, however, if this works ...
3
The short answer is because Starcraft 2 is region-locked, like most videos, games, and game consoles.
The easiest way to circumvent this region locking is to simply purchase another copy of the game from the region you're seeking to join.
The patient route is to wait until Blizzard gets around to implementing cross-region battle.net.
Edit: Too bad you ...
3
I am located in India, and the only way I could purchase the retail edition was a version that is imported. All imported editions of Skyrim in the Indian market available are imported from the UK under license.
But the actual retail box does not display the license, the importer's packaging displays the license number of import.
I also have friends who ...
3
How do you play a region-locked xbox 360 game?
You can play a region-locked xbox 360 game on a console for that region as you have already figured out. The three regions are generally identified by the different output standards that they support in those regions of NTSC, NTSC-J, and PAL.
Can an xbox account in the US region exist on a foreign console?
...
3
You can have two different memory cards, one for each user, but you will need to do a factory reset each time you swtich your memory cards, see the following video, courtesy of IGN:
2
It looks like Blizzard chose to not region lock SC2 in Australia: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/07/starcraft-ii-will-not-be-region-locked-in-australia/
But who knows what they'll do in the future with Diablo III and whatnot. I would buy the US version of the game, I think.
2
Online gameplay is not limited by where you play the game, no matter what country you connect to the internet from.
For Starcraft 2 specifically, the only thing that matters is what regional copy of the game you buy. Buying the NA version will connect you to the NA servers -- which may prove unbearably laggy from Australia, but won't stop you from playing ...
2
Yes. (Source)
Note that EU/AU is the same region (1, 2). So in fact, you answered your own question with the link that says the AU version is not locked :P
2
The Wii is region locked, so if India is part of a different region than the US (which it probably is), you most likely won't be able to buy games from a local India retailer, assuming that the games they sell are actually packaged for India. If they buy games from the US and then sell them in India though, you shouldn't have a problem.
The PS3, PSP, and DS ...
2
I'm not sure about Nintendo's arrangements with India, but I bought mine from the US and I live in SEA. Aside from the obvious connectivity issues everything seems to run smoothly. I can play games bought both from here and from the US.
There's only one situation where your games will not be compatible and that's if the games you have are bootlegged. Be ...
2
Eplezmuerto has covered the basics but one thing you might want to watch out for is what languages the game(s) come in.
If your friend is English/English speaking then he'll be fine with games from the UK.
If you want games in a specific language you'll need to look carefully as though games will be PAL and so compatible with his XBox they may not ...
2
I am not sure about memory cards being region locked, but I can tell you that for the most part, saved games are. Each game is given a unique ID and these vary for the same game between release regions and even just editions in some cases. It is this unique ID that the saved games are stamped with that associate them to that game. As far as one region game ...
2
As far as I know all PS3 games are infact region free. The same cannot be said about Blu-Ray movies though.
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
and of course there's this question as pointed out by Colin.
However most of these are only forum posts. If I get chance will have a good search for some concrete evidence from Sony.
Happy gaming :)
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
