11 replies to this topic

[cimerians]

I tried to order Prince of Persia HD collection from Amazon UK but they will not ship to a US address. I bought it through a seller on Amazon UK instead. I sent Amazon a question about that and they said that some publishers etc will not allow the product to be sold outside the UK.

So if you are pissed that you can only download the Prince games in the USA, it seems perhaps UBI soft may be blocking you from getting it from the UK or so it seems.



Why the hell would they do that? To try and force north american users to download the game instead? Wont they make money off me if I just order the damn CD from the UK with all three games on it?

Not sure whats going on but I got my game ordered. Thought I'd post it here...not sure if anyone still imports stuff. (I usually check PlayAsia and other places but Amazon UK was the cheapest)

[HammR25]

It would have been better if you'd have gotten a used copy from the UK.

[OldAtarian]

cimerians, on Tue Dec 7, 2010 4:58 PM, said:

I tried to order Prince of Persia HD collection from Amazon UK but they will not ship to a US address. I bought it through a seller on Amazon UK instead. I sent Amazon a question about that and they said that some publishers etc will not allow the product to be sold outside the UK.

So if you are pissed that you can only download the Prince games in the USA, it seems perhaps UBI soft may be blocking you from getting it from the UK or so it seems.



Why the hell would they do that? To try and force north american users to download the game instead? Wont they make money off me if I just order the damn CD from the UK with all three games on it?

Not sure whats going on but I got my game ordered. Thought I'd post it here...not sure if anyone still imports stuff. (I usually check PlayAsia and other places but Amazon UK was the cheapest)

That's why they have region coding. It's actually illegal to sell region coded items outside their intended distribution area because it violates the distribution rights granted to others outside that region. You won't see any legit companies violating that. I tried buying from several UK game shops in the past but got stopped at checkout when filling in my address info. Their checkout pages are setup to only accept UK postcodes and every single time I asked, I was always told they weren't allowed to sell outside the UK because of region coding. I've never had a problem getting movies or games used from individuals and even a few less scrupulous merchants of new items from overseas, though. Hong Kong and Taiwanese merchants are your friends.

It's times like this that I really miss Lik Sang.

Edited by OldAtarian, Wed Dec 8, 2010 7:35 PM.

[Atariboy]

Playstation 3 games are region free.

And I highly doubt it's illegal. I imagine a company like Amazon does it to please the corporations whose products they're selling in order to protect their relationships, not because of some legal statute.

[cimerians]

As Atariboy said, PS3 games are region free so you can play them. I bought a few games from Playasia for the PS3 (Siren was one) and while the manual is in Kanji/Chinese etc the games sometimes are in english and fully playable.

Ubi decided that the US will get downloads of the POP games instead of a physical CD. I simply wanted them all on a CD instead of individual downloads...but Amazon UK wouldn't ship it.

Instead I bought it from a UK seller under the Amazon UK description of the game. All good.

[Rikkarr]

Atariboy, on Thu Dec 9, 2010 2:00 AM, said:

Playstation 3 games are region free.

And I highly doubt it's illegal. I imagine a company like Amazon does it to please the corporations whose products they're selling in order to protect their relationships, not because of some legal statute.

PS3 games ARE region free, but remember, they may not work if you're using an SD TV. This is at least true with PAL on an NTSC SD TV, not sure about NTSC-J on an NTSC SD TV.

[Underball]

Rikkarr, on Thu Dec 9, 2010 9:31 AM, said:

Atariboy, on Thu Dec 9, 2010 2:00 AM, said:

Playstation 3 games are region free.

And I highly doubt it's illegal. I imagine a company like Amazon does it to please the corporations whose products they're selling in order to protect their relationships, not because of some legal statute.

PS3 games ARE region free, but remember, they may not work if you're using an SD TV. This is at least true with PAL on an NTSC SD TV, not sure about NTSC-J on an NTSC SD TV.

Why would someone use a PS3 on an SD TV?

That's just silly. Might as well try to play a DVD on Lite Brite.

[Atariboy]

Rikkarr, on Thu Dec 9, 2010 9:31 AM, said:

PS3 games ARE region free, but remember, they may not work if you're using an SD TV. This is at least true with PAL on an NTSC SD TV, not sure about NTSC-J on an NTSC SD TV.

The resolution Japanese games run at is identical, so it would work just fine on standard definition displays in this country.

But most Playstation 3 owners are playing on HDTV's, so these region specific display standards don't matter any longer. I'm able to play any European PS3 game just fine on my PS3 on my HDTV. PAL or NTSC doesn't enter the equation when we're talking about playing a PS3 game at 720p/1080i/1080p.

Underball, on Thu Dec 9, 2010 5:53 PM, said:

Why would someone use a PS3 on an SD TV?

That's just silly. Might as well try to play a DVD on Lite Brite.

Because they don't own a HDTV and still want to enjoy games being released for the Playstation 3. It's not like you can go and buy a 480i release of the latest Playstation 3 game to play on your Playstation 2, so you have to purchase a Playstation 3 and have it output a 480i signal to play it. And it's not like the pretty HD graphics are the only reason to be playing games on this console.

It's not rocket science.

Edited by Atariboy, Thu Dec 9, 2010 5:59 PM.

[Underball]

Atariboy, on Thu Dec 9, 2010 5:55 PM, said:

Rikkarr, on Thu Dec 9, 2010 9:31 AM, said:

PS3 games ARE region free, but remember, they may not work if you're using an SD TV. This is at least true with PAL on an NTSC SD TV, not sure about NTSC-J on an NTSC SD TV.

The resolution Japanese games run at is identical, so it would work just fine on standard definition displays in this country.

But most Playstation 3 owners are playing on HDTV's, so these region specific display standards don't matter any longer. I'm able to play any European PS3 game just fine on my PS3 on my HDTV. PAL or NTSC doesn't enter the equation when we're talking about playing a PS3 game at 720p/1080i/1080p.

Underball, on Thu Dec 9, 2010 5:53 PM, said:

Why would someone use a PS3 on an SD TV?

That's just silly. Might as well try to play a DVD on Lite Brite.

Because they don't own a HDTV and still want to enjoy games being released for the Playstation 3. It's not like you can go and buy a 480i release of the latest Playstation 3 game to play on your Playstation 2, so you have to purchase a Playstation 3 and have it output a 480i signal to play it. And it's not like the pretty HD graphics are the only reason to be playing games on this console.

It's not rocket science.

Yes, but if you can afford a $400 video game system with $60+ games, chances are you can afford a halfway decent HDTV, since you can get many 32" or smaller HD sets for under $400 these days.

good luck trying to read any of the on-screen text of an HD game on a 480i tube TV.

[Rikkarr]

Underball, on Fri Dec 10, 2010 2:20 PM, said:

Atariboy, on Thu Dec 9, 2010 5:55 PM, said:

Rikkarr, on Thu Dec 9, 2010 9:31 AM, said:

PS3 games ARE region free, but remember, they may not work if you're using an SD TV. This is at least true with PAL on an NTSC SD TV, not sure about NTSC-J on an NTSC SD TV.

The resolution Japanese games run at is identical, so it would work just fine on standard definition displays in this country.

But most Playstation 3 owners are playing on HDTV's, so these region specific display standards don't matter any longer. I'm able to play any European PS3 game just fine on my PS3 on my HDTV. PAL or NTSC doesn't enter the equation when we're talking about playing a PS3 game at 720p/1080i/1080p.

Underball, on Thu Dec 9, 2010 5:53 PM, said:

Why would someone use a PS3 on an SD TV?

That's just silly. Might as well try to play a DVD on Lite Brite.

Because they don't own a HDTV and still want to enjoy games being released for the Playstation 3. It's not like you can go and buy a 480i release of the latest Playstation 3 game to play on your Playstation 2, so you have to purchase a Playstation 3 and have it output a 480i signal to play it. And it's not like the pretty HD graphics are the only reason to be playing games on this console.

It's not rocket science.

Yes, but if you can afford a $400 video game system with $60+ games, chances are you can afford a halfway decent HDTV, since you can get many 32" or smaller HD sets for under $400 these days.

good luck trying to read any of the on-screen text of an HD game on a 480i tube TV.

I wish I could afford one But I can't. The only reason I got a PS3 in the first place was because I had a friend selling his old one, and he cut me a great deal ($175). Of course, it's controller was broken, and it had no games, but I was able to get some for christmas. And that's pretty much what I've been doing: getting PS3 games as gifts. I do download games from PSN, but only the cheap ones, and usually when they go on sale. My current job doesn't pay well (but my co-workers ARE awesome ) and education, housing, and food are expensive, and they take priority over electronics.

I also tend to play a lot of PS2 on my PS3, as the games tend to be cheaper, and I can afford more of them. So for now at least, I'm stuck with an SDTV (ALMOST got an HDTV on Black Friday, but they were sold out. Maybe next year). I do play through component, though, so it does look a little better. And as of yet, I've had no trouble reading text.

Sorry if this sounded like an attack, Underball. It wasn't meant to be, you do bring up good points, I was just stating why I still use an SDTV.

[onmode-ky]

Not sure about other Amazon branches, but Amazon.co.jp has never sold video games to North American shipping destinations. I don't know if they did at some point (I'm inclined to think not), but the policy has certainly been like this for many years.

It's a pity, too, because they have some great discounts; with Play-Asia.com and NCSXShop.com, you normally pay full price.

onmode-ky

[Atariboy]

Underball, on Fri Dec 10, 2010 2:20 PM, said:

Yes, but if you can afford a $400 video game system with $60+ games, chances are you can afford a halfway decent HDTV, since you can get many 32" or smaller HD sets for under $400 these days.

good luck trying to read any of the on-screen text of an HD game on a 480i tube TV.

These days

When I bought mine several years ago, $400 was just doing to get you junk as far as HDTV's go (Such as a Vizio). And I was able to enjoy games just fine and read text on my 480i CRT.

I actually ended up buying a LCD computer monitor with a HDMI input at the time since $400 could buy you a really nice monitor, unlike actual HDTV's.

The purpose of the Playstation 3 is to have fun playing games. That purpose doesn't just disappear because you're playing it at 480i.

Edited by Atariboy, Fri Dec 10, 2010 6:09 PM.