[Dave Baumann]

Anyone know if it has it, or is it region free like DS?

[Gerry]

AFAIK it DOES have regional encoding, but the decision to use it or not is entirely made in software. So one game may implement it whilst another doesn't.

Movie playback on the device; dunno. I guess that's more likely to have regional encoding much like DVDs.

No doubt someone else will fill in the details for me.

[Kolgar]

Everything I've read suggests that PSP games are region-free.

UMD movies are coded, however. Though I read on one board that Japan and Europe may share the same coding and will therefore play the same movies. Can't confirm this, though.

Sorry I can't provide any links. This info's hard to come by on the FAQs and I can't remember where I found it.

[darkblu]

hmm. my copy of wipeout pure has a mysterious icon on the back cover of the box. basically, it is a square-ish icon with a quarter of a planet in the lower left corner and the digit '1' in the upper right corner. seems suspiciously region-like to me. i have yet to check any other psp games covers, though.

[Nick[FM]]

At least the current games are region-free. Only the movies (tried with Spiderman2) are region-locked.

[hey69]

Originally Posted by darkblu

hmm. my copy of wipeout pure has a mysterious icon on the back cover of the box. basically, it is a square-ish icon with a quarter of a planet in the lower left corner and the digit '1' in the upper right corner. seems suspiciously region-like to me. i have yet to check any other psp games covers, though.

yup, japan games are 2 .

future games may or may not be region encoded (only time will tell)
but sony stressed many times the hardware was regionfree (to please both customers and publishers?)
now atm , all games are region free.
only UMD moviez are region locked

[Dave Baumann]

Mmmm, interesting. So it sounds like the regional encoding for game may be more intended for the languages?

I'm somewhat peaved that they have further delayed the Euro launch but I'll be going to the US in July at the very least, so I might pick one up then. Still, if the games do end up regionally encoded I guess Amazon delivers overseas...

[mech]

DVDBoxOffice.com is probably the cheapest/easiest option for importing PSP games and UMDs. Free shipping internationally too.

With talk of a delay until September, and with how cheap importing stuff is these days, I broke and bought one from Canada. Can't wait.

[crystalcube]

The movies and music will be region encoded but not games. Even for the sample disc the games demos work on differnt region psp but not audio/video ie if you take the sampler from US release and play it on japanese psp you will only be able to see game demos.

but sony stressed many times the hardware was regionfree (to please both customers and publishers?)

To enforce region coding both hardware and software has to be region coded. In fact the hardware is always region coded but software may not be e.g. games are not while movies are.

[jvd]

I have a jap psp (3 actually ) and they play american games . So i think you will be fine