[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...