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I'm travelling soon and am considering buying a (much cheaper there) Playstation Vita to bring back home.

Will I have any issues using an imported Vita at home?

Will I be able to:

  • configure it to use English?
  • connect it to my local PSN store and buy games / download my PSP titles?
  • play locally-released physical games?

If it helps, I live in Australia and I'm travelling to Japan.

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    Don't forget tho Japan's button system is usually reversed
    – Lyrion
    Commented Mar 1, 2012 at 12:27
  • Are the buttons actually wired differently though? I suspect not. It would be the Japanese versions of the games that are reversing the buttons. I intend to play games from my own region, so the buttons should be as normal.
    – YellowMegaMan
    Commented Mar 2, 2012 at 20:58

2 Answers 2

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I bought my PS Vita in Taiwan on release day (23/12/2011), and live in London where it was a 2 month wait before the UK release (22/2/2012). Everything is fully region-free, you choose the language on initial setup. Everything worked perfectly, even the voice-over for Welcome Park was in English.

The PSN store is linked to the location of your PSN account, meaning if you use your Australian account you will connect to the Australian store. This applies for all other services which use PSN. As I bought mine before the UK release, it meant I couldn't access the UK store until the UK release, but now everything works as expected.

Physical games are region-free too. Enjoy!

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    Thanks for the info. Did you buy a 3G one? Does Near work?
    – YellowMegaMan
    Commented Mar 2, 2012 at 21:01
  • No, I got the wifi version. Yup Near works, though I'm not quite sure how to use it still!
    – Ric
    Commented Mar 4, 2012 at 22:48
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Yes, the PSP Vita is both region-free and supports language selection, which means you will be able to buy a Japanese console and play games from anywhere in the world on it. [Source]

From the same source, however, do note the following (this was written before a world wide release):

Will I have trouble using US software and services later on?

Honestly, it's hard to say. When it comes to downloadable applications, you should be able to get most things from the local PlayStation Store, but when it comes to system software updates we're in relatively uncharted territory. We're honestly not sure if Near will let US and Japanese handheld users connect with one another, in fact. We reviewed our Japanese unit in Japan, after all.

Though this looks like it might be okay since it seems dependent on your PSN account info.

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  • If I were to guess, I'd say that Near will work between units of different regions. The main requirement would be that both units have 3G access to one of the local mobile phone networks. One of them might need roaming enabled :-)
    – YellowMegaMan
    Commented Mar 3, 2012 at 6:30

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