The PS4’s lack of online requirements or used games DRM has been cause for celebration for many, but as someone who lives in neither the US or Japan, one thing was even more important. Whether the PS4 was, like its predecessor, region-free.
According to SCE boss Shuhei Yoshida, it is.
Yes.
Comments
28 responses to “The PlayStation 4 Is Region-Free”
Not at all surprised by this, but still very welcome news.
Joy. Region locking consoles is fucking stupid and only encourages hackers to crack your console. It worked wonders for Sony this time and will work again with ps4.
just all the more reason to import the console from America it self.
US ps4 – $399
Aus ps4 -$549
$149 difference
US Xbone- $499
Aus Xbone-$599
$100 difference
Where is the fucking justice in that?
I think you’re forgetting taxes in the US prices. Still a disparity, but due to our small population and away from everything else. That’s what happens.
Don’t forget to put in the sales tax for the US prices (they always state the price before tax while Aus has the GST built in) – now take the 10% sales tax they have in California and you have the following
US PS4 – $438
AUS PS4 – $549
$111 Difference
US Xbone – $548
AUS Xbone – $599
$51 Differnece
Now Sony places Australia with Europe when it comes to releases and pricing here is the price difference between us and the UK and Euro (the prices are converted to AUD and had their relevent taxes added in)
UK PS4 – $689
Euro PS4 – $671
Aus PS4 – $549
Differnece between UK & Aus – $140 (to Australia)
Difference between Euro & Aus – $122 (to Australia)
Um.. In the UK it’s £349 which is $575 AUD according to, today’s exchange rate and in Europe its €399 which comes to $559 AUD according to, today’s exchange.
So uh..? How does the UK’s one DROP is price with VAT and the European one gain 100+ dollars with tax.
Whoops my bad – The UK price was still in Pounds and I ddin’t convert it over (I have edited my previous post). My prices for the UK and Euro are at todays exchange rate
Just like the US, The Euros and the UK show their prices before any Sales Tax/VAT is added (it’s because in the US, UK and the Euro Zone, they charge full sales tax/VAT on some items and a reduced tax rate/VAT on other items whereas here in Australia it’s a flat rate for all goods and services).
So the Brits will be paying £418 inc. VAT (20%) and the Spanish (for example) will be paying €482 inc. VAT (21%)
So when you look at it…Our price for the PS4 before GST is $494 and the Xbone is $539 ($45 difference)
All good!
Thanks for explaining that, I kind of forget those places are made up of multiple countries with different sales tax in each country, where as we one country one sales tax..
your forgetting US price doesnt include tax. Also exchange rate also the exchange rate is expected to deteriorate from current levels of 95c US to 1$ AUD (approx) analysts reckon it could fall to like 80 cents as US high yield investors take their money back overseas to avoid exchange losses.
obviously Microsoft either has a different outlook on the $ or their costs here are slightly lower compared to Sony.
One word. Shipping.
Now if only the world could sort out the region locking for Blu-Ray we in Australia could buy cheaper PS4’s! 🙂
Just play them on your PS3
It’s region locked, though.
This is something I didn’t properly research. I got rid of my stand-alone DVD player when I got my PS3, only to find out I could no longer watch half my collection.
100% agree that region-locking is bad and needs to be banished forever. That being said …
A lot of Blu-Ray discs (or at least, most of the ones I’ve bought) don’t employ the region-locking, though. My Australian copy of City of Ember doesn’t play on my US PS3, and I think I’ve found one US disc that doesn’t play on my mum’s Australian-region Sony Blu-Ray player. And that’s it, out of what must be at least a hundred BDs I’ve bought since 2010.
In fact, even DVDs I’ve bought off Amazon in the past 2 years are more likely to be region-free than region-locked. If it weren’t for the fact that US disc packaging is slightly thinner than ours, I’d almost never know the difference, given how infrequently I get a region-lock message.
The real nuisance is region-locking on iTunes – having to have a US account to download digital copies of movies I’ve bought from the US. PitA.
Buy it from the UK then. As pointed out above they’re 131 dollars cheaper in the UK and they’re blu-ray region 2 there like us for movies 🙂
Edit: Nevermind turns out the comment above stating that wasn’t even close to the UK sales price.
Well that just about does it. Have loved my 360 the entire time I’ve had it but there’s just too many nails in the coffin; looks like I’ll be jumping brand.
If enough people back the more customer focused brand (this time it’s Sony) then down the track the others will change their stance.
What we need is some kind of equilibrium.
Sony dominate with PS2, get complacent with success and mess up PS3 so 360 pulls ahead. Microsoft get complacent with 360 success and mess up XBone while Sony makes up for previous shortcomings and improves PS4.
Lather, rinse, repeat?
Yep. Lather, rinse, repeat.
But that is how the world works. Look at Apple till Samsung started punching hard.
So we as the customer need to keep making informed purchase decisions to keep it all in check.
I can live with that, though. If Microsoft (or some else) take their lessons from the Xbone, and in the next iteration, make their Xbox cos(60)=0.496 better than the PS5, that would be great. Particular if Sony makes a great PS5.
They can’t even get their maths right.
I’m not really sure how Sony ‘messed up’ with the PS3?
Sure it was VERY expensive at launch, and they launched later than X360, but in comparison online is (was) free, you could play PS2 games (on the initial 60g model) AND watch blu rays. X360 may have launched first but they rushed their production and horrendously stuffed up with RROD. I used to work in a games shop in almost every single day people would come in with RROD and being fed up with the BS would switch to PS3, so that hurt their reputation massively.
I think it’s almost even in terms of market saturation now, with a lot of people having jumped ship from Microsoft to Sony, which is pretty good for Sony as they were beat out of the gate by X360.
Well, to be fair my memories are stretching back 8 years or so – there may be some coloured perceptions happening in the meantime. I just remember the PS3 launch floundering with high prices driving poor sales, 360 having better timed exclusives, jumping ahead (if we take out the sales figures for the Wii)
Regardless, there’s a clear winner at this early stage between PS4 and XBone.
Is this just for game or is it region free for bluray and DVD as well?
In theory, no it’s just for games. That being said, it’s up to the guys that get the discs printed or the games/DLC put up on PSN.
In practice, there are BDs and DVDs that are not region locked, and a few games that publishers place region-specific bits on (I think for example, Dragon Age on PS3 had issues if you imported a copy from the US). There’s also at least one PS3 game that is region-locked completely, I believe. I think Sony said they wouldn’t stop publishers from implementing their own form of region-locking, through something like Origin.
It might not be the most reliable source, but check the Sony section on the Wikipedia page on region-locking: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_lockout#Sony
Absolutely delighted to hear this, I live in Japan at the moment so this will make my life so much easier.
Is it optional like the PS3 though? I know no one ever used it except Atlus that one time, but I hope that single case sent a message that choosing region locking is as bad as always online or draconian DRM policies.
Congrads Sony, you didn’t pull any Microsoft style crap! Granted, the PS4 should region free for movies too, but it is leaps and bounds better than the Xbone.
*Region free gaming. I import almost all of my games
*No always online DRM or mandatory cameras
*Preowned games policy is the same as it is on PS3 with online passes etc.
*No free online play is pretty dodgy, but at least PS+ is good value for money
Overall, they have my support for now. I don’t care about console wars but Sony definitely has the better offer here. MUCH better. I can’t see MS winning over anyone with half a brain. FYI I’m not a fanboy as I own all 3 consoles, but objectively speaking, MS has just been smashed in comparison.
Im fine if Blu-rays from AUS don’t work on my US PS4 because I got my PS3 from Australia so I just use my PS3 as my DVD player.
PS I’m Australian