James Delahunty
11 Jun 2013 14:32
Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4 (PS4) will reportedly drop region locking - meaning games bought in any territory should work with any PS4 console.
And yes, PS4 is region free :D
Region locking is a practice common with forms of digital media intended to lock a movie or game to a specific territory. This is done for a variety of reasons, but the most obvious is to discourage the importing of content from regions where they have lower prices than in richer economies.
Movies on DVD, for example, have often been sold for very low prices in regions of Asia where street piracy is rampant. In order to stop consumers in the Western World from simply buying in bulk from developing countries, region locking was enforced. This led to entire databases of "region hacks" for DVD players being built, and gave another reason to make hardware modifications to games consoles.
Now, according to Shuhei Yoshida, President of Worldwide Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment, the PlayStation 4 will be region free when it launches this holiday season.
Does this make a difference to your interest in buying a PS4?