Blu-ray region code news

[Berserker]

Got this of the Gt forums:

Here is some Christmas Day good news for you! IT Media has announced some details on the Blu-Ray region coding and it holds a nice surprise. Japan, North America, and East Asia will all be sharing one region code. This potentially means that American gamers will be able to import Japanese PS3 Blu-Ray games, and will definately be able to import Japanese Blu-Ray Anime/Movie titles without any hassle. Europe unfortunately will be sharing a region code with Africa so likely not much cross-gaming there. Sorry Europe, looks like you will be getting the gaming bone again. Oh and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all from all of us here at GR!

Congrats my us friends, I don't know what Sony has against europeans but it's getting annoying. :shame:

[kupoartist]

oh well... at least we had a nice run with DVD regions shared with Japan. Doesn't matter to me too much, as i'm not a big importer. Potentially this is actually a good move. If people didn't import games full-stop, perhaps local European publishers would take bigger risks on releasing games, because they can be assured that there aren't several hundred import copies floating around.

TBH, though Blue-Ray films may have the regions listed there, I doubt Sony are about to go back on every other games console generation and make Game imports between the US and Japan possible. There's simply too much money at risk (because Console's are sold at a loss to be recuperated by software sales. What if Sony Japan were to unwitingly take all the US's software buisness? Sony US could go bust and need Japan to needlessly bail them out). Besides, Japanese games will still be in Japanese (unless the publishers realise how lucrative it's going to be, and use the expanded disk's capabilities to accomodate English subtitles, DVD style).

Also, wouldn't it be interesting if Sony were defeated in the optical media war because of their regions? Not that I particularly care for the next generation of movies. I for one won't be specifically re-purchasing all my DVDs for BRs, and with HD-TVs in Europe currently a enthusiast's minority, I can't see anyone else taking the bait for a long time...