Whoa, Is this an indication of regional-locked PSP Games?

timlot

Banned
http://www.techjapan.com/modules.ph...e=article&sid=740&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

From the article...
"Every article I've read about the PSP so far has indicated that the PSP will not have region-locked games. But what's this? Scott (sar7501) has taken a picture from the packaging of Namco's "Ridge Racers" software for the PSP, and it clearly depicts what I believe to be a "region" icon. So does the PSP have region-locked games? o*ne of the PSP's primary developers, Mr. Kawanishi, even indicated otherwise in an interview.

I guess we won't really know until Sony makes an official statement, or the American version of the PSP is released. The icon appears just above the barcode, and has the number "2" in white lettering with an outline of a sphere. Note that Japan's DVD region code is also 2."

DVC000022.JPG
 
Um, could it be that the JPN PSP game may have the region 2 logo but the PSP system its self is the Region free...(just like oversea dvd movies and region free players).
 
OR, could the PSP system be region free (but still have embedded in it which region it was created for) and the games have the region lock on them? Isn't that what the Xbox does; relies on the games for the region encoding? I'm not absolutely sure on that, though.
 
Well, the PSP IS locked for movies at least, which is why I'm bothering to import one in the first place. But for games, I highly doubt it.
 
Defensor said:
Um, could it be that the JPN PSP game may have the region 2 logo but the PSP system its self is the Region free...(just like oversea dvd movies and region free players).
That would be like having a game with NTSC on the box that could work just as well on PAL and SECAM sets.
crestfallen said:
OR, could the PSP system be region free (but still have embedded in it which region it was created for) and the games have the region lock on them? Isn't that what the Xbox does; relies on the games for the region encoding? I'm not absolutely sure on that, though.
How would that be any different, though? It's just one way to implement it.


As for whether that's what that logo means, hard to say. Of course without knowing Japanese it's hard for me to rule out what's probably shown elsewhere in the image, but it could be something like number of players (though I bet that's the 2-8), some measure of battery use, or... *shrugs*
 
i just checked the cases of a few japanese ps2 games, and i'm not seeing anything like that logo.
 
fennec fox said:
Hah, his logo says Tech Tzapan

well it's kind of hard to see but doesn't it say teggu japan, ジャパン instead of ツァパン so i think he spelt it right.

but i really like to know why they put it there but even if it would mean it's region lock i guess japan and europe still share the same format and that doesn't really make any sense why leave out 1 of the 3 big regions.
 
Jonnyram said:
No, he's used TSU instead of SHI for the start of "Japan". It's a common mistake for learners though.

:lol I blame the font, and my teachers at Kansai Gaidai :p Granted one of my teachers co-wrote the Genki books, and was probably one of the best teachers I ever had period, but I still blame her.
 
CVXFREAK said:
Heh, funny logo indeed. I understood the difference between SHI and TSU on day two. :D


Maybe you can give me some study tips, I gotta take a JLPT lvl 2 this month. Know a quick way I can cram in the last couple hundred kanji I need to get down? :p
 
I meant they all have the "FOR JAPAN ONLY" thing on the back. Any Japanese game regardless of platform. DS games have it too, it's just written in Japanese.
 
i think this thread refers to the wireframe globe with the "2" next to it, not the "for japan only," which is in fact on all japanese games.

since scea and scei executives have gone on record that there's no lockout on psp games, i doubt games will be locked out initially. but if region coding is present on games and consoles, then that means they can implement a lockout at some point in the future. which would suck. and it wouldn't be unprecedented -- i know genesis/megadrive games initially had no lockout save the shape of the cartridge, but certain later games added software protections.
 
Ohh, I see.

Well if it means anything, I heard from a couple of different people who made PSP launch games that there was no region encoding included in their games. Make of that what you will, I guess (shrug).
 
kpop100 said:
Maybe you can give me some study tips, I gotta take a JLPT lvl 2 this month. Know a quick way I can cram in the last couple hundred kanji I need to get down? :p

I'd love to, but I'm not as good as you might think. SHI and TSU's difference just seemed way too obvious for me, in the same manner that I never get 0 and O mixed up and never did when I was young. :D
 
JackFrost2012 said:
I think Region 2 is for Zhapanese titles.

:lol

Informative thread, though, I must say. I can't say I would be at all surprised if there did turn out to be region-locked PSP games (if not ALL of them). I'm not sure what Sony's rationale for not including a region lock would be, really, aside from maybe a slight added cost?
 
Sony's official take about the issue is that the system per se has no regional lock but game publisher may decide to make their games locked or not.
 
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