Back in 2005 and 2006, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo made pledges to make their consoles region-free. Do you want to see how far those pledges went?

Microsoft

Started off touting how all its games would be region free. Then, they backtracked and said any games made by Microsoft would be region free. Turns out this ended up being the case, as some games like Steins;Gate are region-locked to Japan only.

Also, you can’t buy Japanese games from Games on Demand if you’re in America, and vice versa. Doesn’t matter if you have a Japanese 360 or not, it is IP-locked. Same goes for their video store.

Finally, programs like 1 vs. 100 are also region-locked by console; even if you have a Canadian IP, if the console isn’t then you can’t go in.

Sony

Sony does a little better, but still not enough. All their PS3 and PSP games are touted to be region-free, that’s great. PS2 games are still region locked, though I imagine that’s more related to licensing agreements from the past that just bite them back in the ass.

However, their video stores are country-locked. Canadian users can’t access the US Video Store, and neither can UK users. We also can’t access the Japanese video or comic store. Gee, I wonder why? It’s not like they can compete with one another, since only people who can understand the language will benefit; the rest of the masses not so much.

Also, their comic book reader for the PSP is region-locked. The US comic book reader will not work on UK and Japan PSPs, and the Japan reader won’t work on US and UK PSPs, etc. Guess what this means if someone happened to bring their PSP into Japan, wanted to buy a comic and then read it? Given the PSP has a crappy resolution to begin with, they are better off buying a cold, hard copy of the said comic.

Nintendo

They started off saying they would be region free. Are they in any way? I won’t even go there.

As you can see, it’s Phantasy Star Portable 2 for the PSP, along with its accessory set, made by Hori. The accessory set itself comes with the shown blue hard pouch, protection filters, and an analog stick attachment. This stuff is compatible with either the PSP-2000 or PSP-3000. I happen to have a PSP-3000, so I slapped it all on there, minus the analog stick attachment:

Anything that isn’t a black attachment is likely to discolor over time, and seeing this was going to happen I decided to go with a black attachment. Sadly, the Hori D-Pad attachment is not compatible with the Face Cover Portable 3 design, so I left it out.

You’ll notice the Face Cover Portable 3 design makes the PSP look more like a Nintendo DS now, lol.

This also came in the mail today:

As you can see it’s the Planex GW-USMicroN, which I picked off eBay for a reasonable price, including shipping. Great for use with the PSP and XLink, but I’m looking to see how to mess with turning it into an access point of its own. Funny the product itself is Japanese and touts “official support” for XLink Kai… goes to show how far the Japanese are interested in this sort of thing.

Maybe that’s why Adhoc Party became so important to Sony…

So it looks like SEGA can afford allowing extra collaborations beyond the UMD space. Might I make a couple of suggestions (though not wholly inclusive):

CHAOS;HEAD

• All the Di-Swords as swords, except for Rimi’s which would be a Twin Dagger
• Suimei Academy uniforms for men and women. Women would have more variations, particularly in choices like stocking colors, etc.
• Seira-tan’s outfit, pre and post-awakening versions
• Possibly Rimi’s “Final Attack” as a Photon Mirage? Doubtful
• Hair styles covered from CHAOS;HEAD not already covered by PSP2

.hack

• Kite’s Twin Daggers, Haseo’s X-Form Twin Daggers
• Data Drain Bracelet as a Photon Mirage
• All 8 Epitaphs as MAGs
• Hair styles covered from .hack not already covered by PSP2

Sadly, I cannot think of anything for Steins;Gate. Despite it having a story x1000 that of CHAOS;HEAD, it unfortunately would not fit…

Though it’s a shame, I had a group of 4 players including myself on PSN trying to take on the tank aiming for S rank. The best we managed was A rank, 5:54, no kills.

PS3’s Adhoc Party is great, it lets you connect the PSP to other players as if they were in the same room. Of course, voice chat/USB keyboard is supported, and you definitely want voice chat to be able to communicate effectively (these are supposed to be adhoc games, after all). There are a few bugs here and there with the interface, sometimes the network lags but it’s overall really cool.

Anyone want to post their experiences?

Unlike the PS3, only one account can be active on a PSP at a time. The PS3 can have more than one. I think Sony should have this fixed; it would lessen the trouble with people converting to the PSP Go, as there are people who would like to have content from both the US and JP PSN stores. Even if it means a PSN account can only activate 1 PSP at a time, being able to have multiple accounts active on a PSP would be really nice.

Speaking of which, multiple profiles on the PSP would be nice, just like how we have it on the PS3.