A week after the last wave of PlayStation 3 news, Sony has spoonfed its waiting fanbase more details of the console's planned features.
Speaking from the Games Development Conference in San Jose, USA, Sony said their new console will support the downloading of full games and other content, eliminating the need to leave the comfort of your living room. This service turns the heat up on the PS3 versus Xbox360 battle, as both consoles see the internet as an indespensible next-generation tool.
Not only will the console be online-savvy, but every unit will be region free. This means games purchased in any of the world's regions will run on any of Sony's consoles. This eliminates the need for die-hard console gamers to modify their units in order to play import games.
What is unknown however is how the console will deal with the problems of cross-platforming games from different regions, for example a PAL game bought in Europe may not display correctly on an American NTSC television.
Despite this the news is still exciting, as Sony appears to close-in on the Xbox360 with every new announcement. However Microsoft has already proved it can deliver, as the whole world waits for Sony and Nintendo to do the same.
Check out our gaming section for more gamers news.
View: IGN's PS3 Portal
Speaking from the Games Development Conference in San Jose, USA, Sony said their new console will support the downloading of full games and other content, eliminating the need to leave the comfort of your living room. This service turns the heat up on the PS3 versus Xbox360 battle, as both consoles see the internet as an indespensible next-generation tool.
Not only will the console be online-savvy, but every unit will be region free. This means games purchased in any of the world's regions will run on any of Sony's consoles. This eliminates the need for die-hard console gamers to modify their units in order to play import games.
What is unknown however is how the console will deal with the problems of cross-platforming games from different regions, for example a PAL game bought in Europe may not display correctly on an American NTSC television.
Despite this the news is still exciting, as Sony appears to close-in on the Xbox360 with every new announcement. However Microsoft has already proved it can deliver, as the whole world waits for Sony and Nintendo to do the same.
Check out our gaming section for more gamers news.
View: IGN's PS3 Portal
Its just region free, plain and simple. Japanese games will run on English consoles, but they won't be translated - at least Sony haven't said they will be!
I had (many moons ago) a SNES and a Megadrive and it played both US and UK games without issue (other than a converter for the US SNES games Which were rather boxy). As far as I'm aware the US ones were "NTSC" and the UK ones "PAL".
Have we reverted to a time where it's impossible to convert from NTSC>Pal or vice versa on the fly? It happened 15 years ago, why not now?
However, the PS3 apparently will not have any protection at all built into the console. I believe that the Xbox 360 doesn't either, for that it's left up to the developers to develop software protection if they so choose.
The 360 could also distrubute games over Live but personally I wouldn't use the service on either console. If I'm paying for a game I want the package etc with it!
That might ruin Sony's plans.
At least region-free consoles will help them have more consoles available for a worldwide release.
Also, as mentioned above, the bigger issue for me would be the fact that I wouldn't have a copy of it (just like music), and that drive space is limited.
One more thing to consider. This opens up substantially more possibilities to illegally run games on the system. If it can read a game off the HDD, then who's to stop someone from pointing it to a fake website to download games illegally some how (perhaps a site running locally on your PC that you downloaded the game onto), or to somehow manage to hook the HDD up to your computer and copy the game over. I'm sure there will be protections in place for this, but it seems like they are making it a lot easier to illegally store and play games. What do they plan on doing, moving to serial numbers for console games too?
Liked that last line. Good job on not showing fanboyism, Tim Brookes.
That aside this is acually bad making it region free because alot of PS2 modchip makers are now going to go to the Xbox 360. A modchip exist for one reason; To play imports and backups. You can backup the games on your HD and imports are already supported there isnt any reason for PS modchip makers to continue. So Xbox-Scene I think is gonna get alot bigger...
I just hope Sony can acually deliver all this and isnt just making hype...
I too hope Sony deliver, because even though I dont intend to purchase a PS3 as of yet (I'm a PC gamer at heart) this news certainly got me excited at the prospect of region free gaming.
It also got me thinking about what Nintendo are cooking up, now there's a console I've been interested in from the word go! (Mainly for budget reasons)
At least, not for a month or two.
I agree that this kind of stuff should be left to the gaming section. That's why it's there, right.
I would say it's for getting main page hits, but I don't think Neowin needs any more for any particular reason, so I don't really know why these end up on the front page.
The PS3 is finally shaping up (albeit only a little bit) to the hype machine that Sony created. I don't doubt it will be a great console, but I'll stick with my 360 thank you very much.
Not that I'd have the money to spend on a PS3 even if I wanted to get one.
-Spenser
Hum
The 360 seems to be region free to, so it's up to the publishers really to decide on there games, I guess there the ones who lose out really.
maaaaaybe, but somehow i doubt it
wonder if all this will work... sounds like its to much to say...
So what does this mean... Western gamers can import games in a language they don't understand?
(Unless all PS3 games make use of the BlueRay DVD capacity and include all languages [English, Japanese, etc...] as a selectable option)
Apart from game collectors, why would Western gamers want to import PAL or JAP games? (i.e. If a PAL version exists, then there is most likely a NTSC U/C version. And NTSC JP games are in Japanese which most people don't understand)
And why would Japanese gamers want to import NTSC U/C or PAL games?
As far as I see it, it will be the PAL (Europe, Australia) gamers who will most benefit from a region-free console. (I.E. PAL conversions usually suck and are on 50mhz, games take at least 5 months to arrive from the U.S. and in some cases, never)
Then how do you take that same game over to a friends house to play there
or what about selling it on Ebay when your done with it
or using it as a trade in at the local game store
this idea has been bounced around for such a long time
and the world isn't really ready for it I think
that is of course it makes the game less expensive by atleast $20
other than that I don't think it will make much sense
Overview
There is a company called Transcendent Innovations (known as 'Trainn'
So how does it work? Very simple. Just follow these basic instructions step-by-step and your brand new PS3 will be on its way to you in no time. It may be helpful to print out these instructions before getting started.
Getting Started
First, follow this link:
http://www.YourPS34free.com/index.php?ref=4923545
That will take you to the sign-up page. Just follow the simple instructions to sign up - though I do suggest you set your account as a 'Referral' account, rather than a 'Points' account. That way, you'll only need to complete one free trial offer, and will get a few of your friends to do the same (but more on that later).
Once, you're signed up, Trainn will send you an email confirming your account. Now you're all set to get that offer completed and out of the way.
Completing an Offer
When you first log in to the site, you'll see a tab labeled 'Progress' - this shows how far along you are to getting your free PS3. Click on the tab labeled 'Offers' - and then click on the link for 'Instant Offers'. These are the offers that will credit to your Trainn account, you guessed it, instantly (appropriately named!
My suggestion is to do Stamps.com. Its totally free, well, even better than free, since you get $5 in free postage. You sign up for a free 4 week trial. Trainn's only requirements are that:
* You don't cancel your Stamps.com account for at least 21 days (not a problem, since you have a 4 week free trial, just cancel somewhere between days 22 and 2
* You download their postage software upon sign up when prompted; and
* You print out the free postage that Stamps.com gives you.
Why do they require this? Well, Stamps.com only wants to pay Trainn for consumers that actually have an interest in trying their products and services - not those that are only in it to get something for free. But that's it - its very simple, and again, free. Once you've completed the offer, the 'Progress' tab on your Trainn account should show that you've now completed your offer requirement. Now you're ready for referrals.
Referrals
Here's the last step - getting referrals. The number of referrals depends on what you want to receive from Trainn:
* 40GB PS3 requires 8 referrals; and
* 80GB PS3 requires 10 referrals.
* They also offer various PS3 bundles (with extra games, controllers, etc) with requirements that vary from 9 to 14 referrals.
So, depending on which PS3 you want, just get that many people to do what you did - sign up for a new account using your own unique referral link (found on the 'Progress' tab). As soon as they sign up for an account at YourPS34Free and complete their one offer requirement your account will be updated to show credit for that referral. Sounds easy, and it is. Again, this is just a way for big corporations to target some of their marketing dollars direct to consumers. Take advantage of it and let them buy you a new PS3! All you have to do is click on this link to get started:
http://www.YourPS34free.com/index.php?ref=4923545
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