Region locked coming to PS3?

[xatnys]

Well, a few places. Some media outlets, some forums, etc.

Basically, some genius tried to run Netflix on his French PS3, and naturally it's region locked. Somehow this information got reported as "PS3 FW 3.50 NOW HAS REGION LOCKING" which is largely incorrect, since what little region locking there is on the system has been there for AGES.

So yea, basically took no news, blew it up, and made a fuss out of nothing.

The person who noticed it was one of the contributors to ps3 jailbreaking efforts; he knows what he's talking about. It isn't that "PS3 3.50 now has region locking", it's more like "Sony has been implementing region locking since at least FW 3.30, but it hasn't been used yet."

At the moment it's a PARAM.SFO field known as REGION_DENY. It's naive to say the "PS3 isn't region locked." Perhaps "PS3 isn't region locked for now"?

In any case, you can see it in (limited) action on a debug unit here: http://jerem73.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/region-restriction/

 

[Shifty Geezer]

At the moment it's a PARAM.SFO field known as REGION_DENY. It's naive to say the "PS3 isn't region locked." Perhaps "PS3 isn't region locked for now"?

But that's always been the case. PS3 is hardware regionalised. Thsee regions haven't been enforced for games but have for media and services. What has actually changed if the opportunity to limit games to regions is nothing new?

 

[xatnys]

It's new as of 3.30, which even though was a while ago, went largely under the radar. It seems like the general question is "what's the big deal?" - from the response here it seems like there's an aura of relief that the "PS3 isn't region locked"; it's just that there should simply be no surprise if games start to utilize it.

 

[JPT]

So whats the difference now compared to when ND launched the Uncharted 1 demo and it was locked/not working in other regions than US?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It's new as of 3.30...

Really? There was no option to regbion lock games prior to 3.30? I'm surprised by that, because regional identification of a unit was clearly there from day 1. I suppose it could be that the region info wasn't available to the game to maek a refusal and Sony added that. But what's the reason to region-lcok games? I guess maybe there's complaints from nations with censorship about their populace being able to play taboo games?

 

[Npl]

whatever the reasons for region-locks may be, I dont see why Sony shouldn`t make the option available. a region locked title is still better than no title.

 

[patsu]

It should be there since day 1 (for PS1 and PS2 games), but probably only available as an API in 3.30.

Applications that serve content with limited regional rights (e.g., NetFlix) will need to enforce the restriction.

 

[NeoTechni]

I wish this sort of thing was illegal

 

[xatnys]

So whats the difference now compared to when ND launched the Uncharted 1 demo and it was locked/not working in other regions than US?

I can't speak for ND but it's possible Sony / PSN used an alternative way of restricting region. It could be done at the api level but that would be a bit excessive.

Really? There was no option to regbion lock games prior to 3.30? I'm surprised by that, because regional identification of a unit was clearly there from day 1. I suppose it could be that the region info wasn't available to the game to maek a refusal and Sony added that. But what's the reason to region-lcok games? I guess maybe there's complaints from nations with censorship about their populace being able to play taboo games?

AFAIK, no; there's always been ways to identify a user's region, but no explicit function or setting for denying by region like the REGION_DENY field in PARAM.SFO (unless someone who is really familiar with the PS3 SDK would like to enlighten us). I really don't know what the reasoning would be, but I'm in the same boat as others hoping games remain region free. Personally, I assumed the reasoning for region locking was for maximizing market yields in respective countries.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I imagine that's the theory, but Sony ignoring it this gen suggests they felt exports to unsupported markets (Japanese titles can be played anywhere on PS3) was good and people buying cheap from other markets wasn't such an issue. Maybe the change in exchange rates has changed that and they don't want US imports into Japan?? I suppose for movies it was to stop the EU etc. getting US DVDs before the cinema release over here, because the US release is so much earlier. I suppose that is a valid concern with games that don't get global releases. Of course the real fix then is to actually release globally!

 

[Arwin]

The person who noticed it was one of the contributors to ps3 jailbreaking efforts; he knows what he's talking about. It isn't that "PS3 3.50 now has region locking", it's more like "Sony has been implementing region locking since at least FW 3.30, but it hasn't been used yet."

At the moment it's a PARAM.SFO field known as REGION_DENY. It's naive to say the "PS3 isn't region locked." Perhaps "PS3 isn't region locked for now"?

In any case, you can see it in (limited) action on a debug unit here: http://jerem73.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/region-restriction/

But did he look at all firmwares, or is Firmware 3.30 simply the oldest firmware he's looked at? Because for all I know it was made clear even before launch of the PS3 that region locking was optional, but that Sony didn't enforce it, similar to how it treated PSP games. As far as I know it's a publisher/platform decision that Sony made. And if there had been publishers strongly objecting against this policy / demanding to have region locking enforced 'or else', we'd have known it by now.

In other words, unless he can say that he's looked at a pre-3.30 firmware and found one that didn't have this option, then this whole debate is meaningless, at least in so-far as that some people just didn't realise it was there all the time.

 

[xatnys]

3.30 is not the oldest firmware he/they have looked at. I'm not really seeing a debate here; having access to a debug unit would allow them to work from whatever version they'd want. If you'd really like to get specific, the explicit functionality of denying by region via param.sfo wasn't completely implemented until at least 3.30. Under that is regarded as 'unsupported'.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

3.30 is not the oldest firmware he/they have looked at. I'm not really seeing a debate here.

the debate centred on whether the information was sufficiently complete. If they did look into other FW's, and this feature wasn't present until 3.30, then everythings just as you say and we have a proper picture, that regional locking wasn't available prior to FW 3.30 introduced in April this year, although isn't new to FW 3.50 as per the original report. Which overturns some of our prior understandings regards the region system!

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Under that is regarded as 'unsupported'.

That makes me think there was a previous unsupported method to lock or partially lock by region. And perhaps this new field just formalizes and standardizes it.

Of course, if they are going through the trouble to nail it down such that it is now a supported feature, I can't think of any reason why they would do that if they or someone else isn't planning on using it. Would seem to be wasted resources if someone doesn't use it.

Regards,
SB

 

[NeoTechni]

I can't think of any reason why they would do that if they or someone else isn't planning on using it. Would seem to be wasted resources if someone doesn't use it.

Like custom soundtracks, remote play, and numerous other underused features PS3 has?

Hell, PSP has yet to be used as a second display

*grumble*

 

[xatnys]

SB: I think that would be the case. It's probably always been possible to implement a proprietary method of region protection (if you can identify by region, you could certainly use that to control access), just that Sony decided to standardize and simplify the process from SDK 3.30 onward.

Like custom soundtracks, remote play, and numerous other underused features PS3 has?

Hell, PSP has yet to be used as a second display

*grumble*

Apparently one of the benefits of jailbreaking is the ability to enable remote play for any PS3 game..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgrgz1xrb5U&feature=player_embedded

 

[patsu]

May be it's part of the Ultraviolet framework ?

Also, unoptimized RemotePlay experience may not be pretty.

 

[NeoTechni]

Apparently one of the benefits of jailbreaking is the ability to enable remote play for any PS3 game..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgrgz1xrb5U&feature=player_embedded

I know. That's what pisses me off.

May be it's part of the Ultraviolet framework ?

Also, unoptimized RemotePlay experience may not be pretty.

It's better than nothing. Too many PS3 games that should run fine don't even try (ie: all the PSN/puzzle games, 3D Dot Game Heroes)

 

[patsu]

Yes, would be great for slower paced games. We usually don't need big screen for puzzle games. This means it's still a developer support feature. If Sony enables this for all games, then everyone has to optimize their experience for it.

 

[NeoTechni]

No, then it becomes more like RemotePlay for PS1 games. Some dont work for it either.