The Wholesale Forums

[Armanie14]

I was wondering, what are the issues with compatibility with the new consoles, for example i see people buying the japanese versions but they wish to sell in the UK.

When older consoles were around it was that you couldn't play foreign games on your console and consoles that were imported from other countries have different plugs so you cant get any power. Now im discovering this might not be the case. If this is true why then do people bother buying from UK wholesalers when Japanese Wholesalers/Manufacturers would most likely be cheaper (if you can indeed play the game console anywhere in the world with a game from anywhere in the world).

I also heard that Playstation3 is Multi-Regional ( I think that was the term used) so does this meen that the games bought abroad are still playable in any console? or is it to do with I/O issues?

Could anyone explain which consoles & games are compatible to play in the UK? Or point me to an article that does, Once again i hope this is in the right section, if not then please move for me, i did have a brief look around for a queries section but found none.

[alex2807]

I've heard from many different people that the PS3 is multi region which means any PS3 console will play any game from anywhere in the world eg. UK console can play JAP games and JAP console can play UK games.

Hope this helps.

[Mad Wholesale]

As I understand it, the PS3 console is region locked, but the games are region free so they can be played on any PS3 console.

If you get a region 1 game in the future you wont be able to play that on a region 2 console ... ie US import on UK console.

I am not sure if all PS3 games will be region free forever but for now they all seem to be that way.

[Armanie14]

In the case of XBOX 360 what is PAL, and are there any other formats that i should know about? Is is that games are made for the UK compatible XBOX's? IF so what other formatgames play on the japanese versions. Also what is the reason for buying xbox 360 consoles in japan if they do not play PAL games and nobody in the UK would be able to play games on them.

So for PS3 The only problem in buying games from japan would be that the game box and instruction manual would be in japanese.

This is really confusing me.

[superstardj]

The PS3 will play games from all over the world on any console. The X Box 360 is PAL locked however some games have region free compatability such as Gears Of War, Rainbow 6 Vegas etc. The DS and PSP can also play games from all over the world. Not a very techinical description but to the point!

[moneybanks14]

The region locking is a load of rubbish just to scare people from buying a foreign console.

[PT]

PS3 = Multi-Region for games. DVDs are region locked.

PSP = Multi-Region for games. JAP/UK = Region 2 UMD movie. US = Region 1 UMD movie.

Xbox 360 = Fully Region Locked. NTSC-J games are available and there are titles which are multi-region.

Nintendo DS = Multi-region. Typically not very profitable due to a lot of home-brew.

Nintendo Wii = Fully Region Locked. (No NTSC-J Equivalent out).

If you have any further queries about games feel free to contact me.