Buying PSone games on PSN - language question

[Phil]

Now that Final Fantasy VII can be bought on PSN, I was wondering if anyone knew if after purchase, if the language can be chosen?

From what I am aware of, creditcards are bound to a PSN login account with the same country of origin. In other words, if I have a German creditcard, I can only use it in the German PSN shop. Obviously, the [PSone] content in the German PSN isn't multilanguage, as most PS3 games/demos are.

Am I forced to buy PSone content in German because I can't use my creditcard in the UK PSN store or is there some dialog window after purchase that lets me chose what language I want to download the game?

Anyone have some information?

I'm a bit annoyed that english speaking customers have no way to purchase legitimate english games in their own country.

Despite my PS3 being set to the language English, PSN is still entirely german, as well as all account settings (for entering creditcard, profile settings etc). This is a complete mess.

 

[Arwin]

Hmm, I wasn't aware of this, that is messy. As far as the games are concerned, didn't most games even back then in Europe come with at least English, Spanish, French and German included in Europe?

 

[Phil]

In the PSone / PS2 era? Nope, not that I'm aware of. Of the 40 games I purchased on both PSone and PS2, only the sport games and some racing games had multi-languages on the same disk. Oh and some Sony titles such as Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank were multi language as well...

With most games I didn't care - accept for the Metal Gear Solid series and the Final Fantasy's that I imported from the UK (as US imports didn't work on my PS due to the regional code).

And the German versions? A mess. Final Fantasy X and beyond for example were english but with forced german subtitles and I think the contents of the menu were in German as well. Same with MGS3 - the game was in english, but the codec subtitles were forced German as well as just about every cut-scene.

At least back a few years we still had some stores which imported the occasional games from the UK (mainly the Final Fantasy games), but since then, regional blocking as become more serious and I think there's an import law that prohibits shops importing games and especially movies from other countries (you have the movie industry to thank for that).

Sadly, since then, it has become increasingly difficult to get the games. Luckily on PS3, most games with a few exception have multilanguage support, so it's not a big deal anymore.

Since Final Fantasy VII is one of those games which is impossible to come by (even as 2nd hand, you'll be lucky to find a intact version), buying it over PSN would be neat. It's not much use to me in German though!

 

[Arwin]

I see - we've come a long way then! I guess that in the PSOne era I rarely noticed, because Dutch was rarely an option anyway so we typically got English language.

The PS2 era probably was when we started to get multiple languages per disc then. I remember being surprised by Ubisoft a few times, game like Good and Evil which supported spoken dialogue in something like 8 languages or more, including Dutch which was a big surprise for me.

I think I might still have the original PC version of Final Fantasy VII, which is in English (if I can still find it). I only bought VIII on the PSOne I think. Don't know if I still have it though.

The origin for your import problems by the way I think is actually by and large caused by the very strict German laws on game violence. Only very recently importing from Asia became a bit harder, but that's about it. For the rest, PS3 and PSP being largely region free has made things easier rather than harder! PS3 games support for multi-language has been more than flawless at times, with Uncharted's option to choose any combination of European language I can think of seperately for dialogue, subtitles and menu text.

Let me know anyway if you learn anything about this. Maybe there's some info on Neogaf? I did a quick google but that turned up mostly torrents ... doh.

 

[Phil]

You are right - things have calmed down a lot since this generation. Sony games have been flawless so far (as they have been mostly on the PS2 already). It's usually the Japanese games that are a bit of a problem and unfortunately, those games are really dialog driven, which is why to me, having them in English is an absolute priority.

There are other games too which are not multi-language: Call of Duty I imported (for one because the German version is cut, but also because it is strict German only). I also wanted to buy Prince of Persia, but that is another one which is not multi-language. One sale less I guess.

I was adviced to check my creditcard again on the UK PSN shop and the US one. Maybe I'm lucky, though I definately heard of it not working with other people. Maybe my info is a bit off.
Still, even if it works - isn't it a mess that one is forced to give wrong address info when creating a foreign PSN account just to get the content in their preferred language?

Accoarding to my info, you can also get PSN cards that you can then use to buy content in foreign PSN shops...


BTW: I've got FFVII but in german. I'm still in search for FFVIII though, though hopefully that will be out on PSN eventually and by then I will have found a way to get them in english!

 

[Arwin]

By the way, if it comes to that, then the U.S. version of Final Fantasy VII is the version to get, as it's NTSC and this NTSC version is apparently quite a bit faster than the PAL version. And yes, you should be able to get that using a U.S. PSN card, if you can get your hands on one of those (there's some sites I think that sell those and just give you the code right away or via email or something, avoiding any customs issues that way)

 

[Sigfried1977]

Try making a US PSN account and getting it from there. My German Visa cards works with the US PSN. My Mastercard doesn't, and sadly neither of the two work with my UK account.
With a friend of mine the whole situation is reversed: His Mastercard works everywhere, but his Visa doesn't. Very strange.

As for importing foreign language versions: it honestly has never been easier. I'm importing almost almost all my games and gaming related stuff from the UK now (and all my sick horror movies on Blu Ray as well). It's a hell of a lot cheaper (15 Pounds for Little Big Planet) and Amazon apparently doesn't seem to care about our strict German age restrictions as long as they get the money. Delivery takes a mere day longer than ordering from Amazon.de, so you don't even have to wait substantially longer.

 

[Phil]

Try making a US PSN account and getting it from there. My German Visa cards works with the US PSN. My Mastercard doesn't, and sadly neither of the two work with my UK account.
With a friend of mine the whole situation is reversed: His Mastercard works everywhere, but his Visa doesn't. Very strange.

As for importing foreign language versions: it honestly has never been easier. I'm importing almost almost all my games and gaming related stuff from the UK now (and all my sick horror movies on Blu Ray as well). It's a hell of a lot cheaper (15 Pounds for Little Big Planet) and Amazon apparently doesn't seem to care about our strict German age restrictions as long as they get the money. Delivery takes a mere day longer than ordering from Amazon.de, so you don't even have to wait substantially longer.

Thanks for the advice. I tested this and my VISA seems to work fine with my US PSN account. I am a bit worried though - when entering a creditcard, you must also fill out the address of the creditcard owner, though it being a US account limits it to the country US.

Since the creditcard is from a different country - there's really no way to enter the correct information.

How did you do it? Should I be alarmed?

 

[Sigfried1977]

I used my real name, but with the fake US address I made the account with. Works just fine.

 

[ban25]

Since Final Fantasy VII is one of those games which is impossible to come by (even as 2nd hand, you'll be lucky to find a intact version), buying it over PSN would be neat. It's not much use to me in German though!

In Europe perhaps, but it is available new in many stores in Japan and I occasionally see it new in the states.

 

[Sigfried1977]

Good for you I guess, but it certainly doesn't help us European gamers. PSone and the PS2 games are pretty much all region locked, so even importing wouldn't do us any good.
Even the ugly Platinum versions of FFVII (and in bad shape no less) go for hefty second hand prices here.

 

[Tchock]

If your credit card does not work, route it through Entropay.


Granted you get charged a wee bit, but at least it's a US credit card and obviously bound to work

 

[ban25]

Good for you I guess, but it certainly doesn't help us European gamers. PSone and the PS2 games are pretty much all region locked, so even importing wouldn't do us any good.
Even the ugly Platinum versions of FFVII (and in bad shape no less) go for hefty second hand prices here.

My recommendation would be to import a PS2. Alternatively, you could try a PSP. It's not region locked. You just have to figure out how to buy the games -- maybe through the PC store.

 

[Phil]

I'm actually pretty happy if I don't have to buy or use an antic PSone or PS2 anymore. In fact, the wiring to my beamer (hanging from the ceiling) is quite limited, so it's PS3 only for me. Due to region locking, only UK copies could be considered until now sadly and unfortunately, it's not always easy coming by them (rare games do get imported but only near their launch dates).

The PSN route seems perfect to me and I hope they put the rest of the Final Fantasy's on PSN soon!

PS: Thanks for the advice through Entropay Tchock!