Will FFXIV be region locked on PS3?

See, I own a PAL PS3, but I live in the united states (Where games are distributed as NTSC).

My Question is will the PS3 Version of FFXIV be region locked or will they all have the same coding?

I don't think the PlayStation 3 is region locked, unless it's game specific.

PS3 games are not region locked, its just when you update games they check the games region for updates. I have a US copy of demons souls and it works perfectly on my EU PS3.

Only BD video discs are region locked. Games are not.

Well in recent news I heard all ps3 games up to mid 2012 are not regionlocked, but newer games are likely to go region locked. Which makes me curious about FFXIV on ps3.

No region lock on PS3. You can play every game from every region on it.

It'll likely become region locked, but MMOs are generally treated differently than regular games -- If they're an international game like XI/XIV is, there's no true region lock outside of the account system, but if it's a localized game, like say something Korean only, you get IP banned if you're not from/in Korea.

The only lock on SE's system I believe is the SE account system, but I haven't tried making a new account in years.

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Originally Posted by TokyieRage

Well in recent news I heard all ps3 games up to mid 2012 are not regionlocked, but newer games are likely to go region locked. Which makes me curious about FFXIV on ps3.

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Is there a link? where is the source of this thing you heard because nothing is stopping people from buying imported Tales of Xillia copies from Japan.

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Originally Posted by Andrien

Is there a link? where is the source of this thing you heard because nothing is stopping people from buying imported Tales of Xillia copies from Japan.

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Region locking can happen with firmware updates.

The only region locked would be between the client and SE account. You can't play a EU copy from FF XIV with a NA SE account.

PS3 is region free, you can play game from any region in any language on any PS3.


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I don't even get why games and DVDs are region locked.

Region free DVD players are legally sold, they're cheap and easy to obtain and you can always mod chip a console to play all regions.

They should drop this system.

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Originally Posted by Jennestia

Region locking can happen with firmware updates.

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publishers could choose to region lock games but none did so during the first six years of the PS3 life and still going.

except for Atlus, Persona 4 Arena

"Persona 4: Arena" from Altus come out with a region-lock. But the region-lock is from Altus, not from Sony.
http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/...nded-by-atlus/

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Originally Posted by Arkine

PS3 is region free, you can play game from any region in any language on any PS3.


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I don't even get why games and DVDs are region locked.

Region free DVD players are legally sold, they're cheap and easy to obtain and you can always mod chip a console to play all regions.

They should drop this system.

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DVD were region locked in the first place to avoid people importing movies while they were not even released yet in other regions and/or sold at a higher price elsewhere. (Obviously a DVD sold in China would cost less than one sold in the US, while the quality would be exactly the same). And last reason was copyrights. Some movies aren't distributed by the same company depending on the region, so it's easier to control if there is region restriction in place.

As for games, this is the same. Control price, release date and distribution.

The editor still have the choice to make a release region free. X360 is region locked, yet some games are Region Free.

It's all about money anyway. While no region lock exists for music CDs, in Japan, some albums are released in two different versions, the Japanese version and the "overseas" version. The second one is typically made for the Asian market outside Japan (South Korea / China / HK etc.) and it is forbidden to sell it in Japan (manufactured outside Japan also). The packaging sometime slightly differ, the music is the same.

And the JP version is made for the domestic market (and usually 20% to 40% more expensive since it is manufactured in Japan). It sometimes include special coupon to register for some events or redeem something only available to people living in Japan.

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Originally Posted by Antipika

DVD were region locked in the first place to avoid people importing movies while they were not even released yet in other regions and/or sold at a higher price elsewhere.

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I find the region-lock on DVD needless. First you can make easy a DVD player region-free and second a DVD drive can change the region 5 times. Buy 2 and you have one for NA dvd and one for EU dvd.
Or use your home dvd player for dvd in your region and the dvd drive in the pc for import dvd.

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Originally Posted by Felis

I find the region-lock on DVD needless. First you can make easy a DVD player region-free and second a DVD drive can change the region 5 times. Buy 2 and you have one for NA dvd and one for EU dvd.
Or use your home dvd player for dvd in your region and the dvd drive in the pc for import dvd.

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You're viewing it as a consumer though -- companies don't use regions for no reason, there's specific reasons it's used and it varies by media and regulations. For example there's a lot of games localized to Japan that wouldn't fly in NA/EU because of respective laws and policies therefore it's locked to Japanese region even if you import it.

Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure region-locking was part of the plan to make sure China was flyin' solo.

PS3 games aren't region locked (unlike the Wii and XBox 360)

I sincerely hope it won't be region-locked, seeing as my PS3 is JP. The price of games in Japan is crazy.

PC version of FFXIV is region luck when it come to payments like if you have a NA account you need to pay with NA bank account not sure about IP tho.

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Originally Posted by Malakhim

Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure region-locking was part of the plan to make sure China was flyin' solo.

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They don't need to region-lock the game because of china. China players get a own game not linked to SE accounts.

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Originally Posted by Felis

I find the region-lock on DVD needless. First you can make easy a DVD player region-free and second a DVD drive can change the region 5 times. Buy 2 and you have one for NA dvd and one for EU dvd.
Or use your home dvd player for dvd in your region and the dvd drive in the pc for import dvd.

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DVD was born in 1995. At the time it was very uncommon for people to have one reader already, so having 2 was just out of question. Same with importing. Internet wasn't as widely present in our daily life as it is today. So yeah region lock was really effective until ~2000. Then DVD players started to become "standard" on new purchased PCs and it was relatively easy to make a player region free by flashing it.

Then home players became less and less expensive while e-business was booming. Anyone could just import anything and play it at home.

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Originally Posted by Helius

PS3 games aren't region locked (unlike the Wii and XBox 360)

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Actually I'd like to correct everyone stating the 360 is completely region locked: this is not the case at all.

The first batch of games certainly were, but Microsoft's policy is that whoever publishes the game can decide to region lock it. In actuality MOST games aren't region locked at all.

I have an NTSC XBox 360 and play dozens of PAL games on it. I used to have to check online if a game was region free or not but by now every major publisher (Every game by EA, Activision and Capcom at least, excluding the sports games for licensing reasons) are region free now. Basically every game I buy for my 360 now is region free.

Also to answer OPs question, the game MIGHT be region locked. Or rather, not the game itself but the account system. It is already region locked this way on the pc (for example you need an NA account to play the NA version of the game).

I know this because I had an NA account for Alpha/Beta, but then I moved to England and when I purchased the full version here I could not use my NA account, I had to make a new EU one.

So heads up on that.

I would like a dev response to this please, this is actually a very good question to be answered.

It is certainly not the primary reason for region locking, but there is a quite practical reason for region locking. Namely, the physical differences between recorded media in various parts of the world. The NTSC standard calls for 23.9 Hz on "24p" (24 fps progressive), while the PAL standard sets this to 25 Hz even. This requires a hardware (or more recently software) conversion between the two standards. While not really pertinent anymore, the mechanical differences between PAL and NTSC almost certainly contributed to the existence of region locking. For more information

Nothing to do with that. NTSC is the same in Japan and the US, yet you have two regions for games. (NTSC and NTSC-J.)

While for DVDs, Japan is Region 2, Europe is Region 2, and movies/TV have different standards (EU is PAL / JP is NTSC).

It has absolutely nothing to do with technical specs.

All TV supports PAL and NTSC just fine now, we're not in the 90's anymore. It's all about money. Region locking is just a form of DRM.

Hmmm, while true, I would be extremely surprised if the technical differences between PAL and NTSC had absolutely no impact on the original motivation behind region locking. I'm not saying that it is at all pertinent anymore, as you say, we're not in the 90's anymore. But saying that it was always just a blind money grab doesn't seem likely given that there was a reasonably valid excuse for it.

Simple enough to figure out I suppose, has NTSC and NTSC-J always existed, or was it originally just NTCS and PAL and sub-regions were added shortly after? If it's the former, I'll agree it never had anything to with technical specs. If the later, most likely they at least had some good intentions (or at least justification).

Only thing ever on the ps3 that is region locked is a recent game, Persona 4: arena, because of "this place has it cheaper! so we are locking it to only that area! we want money!"



Anything else is not region locked

NTSC-J locked games been there since the PlayStation. The NES already had region lock in place as well.

Also, for DVD and Movies/TV, France always had its own system (SECAM) yet never had its own region for DVDs and was assigned to Zone 2, like the rest of Europe and Japan.

It really has nothing to do with technical specs. That was never a motive.

Things that are annoying for customers (us) are 99% of the time put in place for economical reason. Not for practical reasons. Anyway if something is not compatible, it's not compatible. When you tried to play an NTSC VHS on a PAL VCR, you would get a black & white distorted picture.

Same for DVD if your PAL player and/or TV didn't support NTSC. How would region lock change anything? In the end it wouldn't play.

Hmm, so it seems. That's too bad, having dabbled with video editing and cleaning up NTSC video (removing 2:3 pulldown frames is quite the pain), I had always assumed that the convenience of not having to deal with video conversion was one of the reasons for region locking.

Having done a little more research myself between posts, it does look like NTSC and NTSC-J also have small technical differences, but they are all on the transmission side (interpretation of True Black, for instance).

I need to throw out a correction to the common conception that region locking does not exist on the PS3.

Indeed, physical discs are not region-locked, but DLC is. I have two examples from my own Australian playing experience.

I imported a copy of Assassin's Creed 2 from the United States. When I downloaded the extra chapters from the Australian Playstation Store, they installed to a file for the PAL version of the game. My US disk would not play the Australian DLC. Wasted money.

I own an Australian (PAL) copy of Dragon Age: Origins. I imported a US copy of the Awakenings expansion. It refused to install correctly, because it was looking for an NA installation for Origins. More wasted money.

If you have played around with imports, you may be aware that you can install a game on your system twice and collect the trophies for the game twice, because the PS3 treats PAL and NTSC copies of the same title as completely separate games. It's probably a coding thing.


The conclusion I draw from this is that if you import a version of the game that is not home to your region (NTSC vs PAL) then the game will install correctly initially, but you may experience difficulties downloading patches.

So it's a valid question.

To be safe, import from a region that shares your own FPS coding. eg: Australians should import from Europe, not Japan or the USA.

DLC aren't all locked. I got JP DLCs on my EU console. Again it's only the editor choice to lock or not the content, any content (DLC, downloaded game, physical games, or even demos). All consoles are region coded. Then the editor can choose to lock something or not.