"New Blu-Ray region-coding puts the US and Japan in the same basket, Europe picnics on its own

If you're a gaming connosieur, chances are you'll have bemoaned the games industry's policy of region locking titles many times over. Indeed, with most of the - let's say unique - offerings on consoles coming from the East, practically the only way to get a slice of that traditional Japanese bonkersness is to import or (illegally) chip your machine. However, stories fresh off the internet wire are suggesting we could be one step closer to our dream of a multi-region console. Sort of.

Currently, all consoles restrict gamers from playing titles released for regions other than the machine's home territory. However, reports from Japan show the first buds of hope for relaxed region-encoding restrictions in the form of the Playstation 3's new Blu-Ray format. Apparently, Japan and the rest of Asia will now be bracketed in the same region as North and South America, whilst leaving us poor Europeans as the regional outcasts along with Africa.

If there's any truth to these reports then at the very least those lucky Americans will be able to import bizarre Japanese anime movies (and filth) and play them on their Playstation 3 consoles without any internal tinkering whatsoever.

Whether this convenience will extend to actual game software remains a mystery, but we'd bet money that Sony isn't quite ready to swing open the regional flood gates just yet." [link]