back to article Sony region-locks digital content on PS Vita

The PlayStation Vita will be region-locked for digital content, Sony has confirmed. It said the device requires a factory reset to jump between different PlayStation Network accounts. Sony Japan's Third-Party Relations chief, Brad Douglas, confirmed the news through Twitter, highlighting that the next-gen PSP also limits …

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  1. MJI Silver badge

    May be lost sale here

    Got 3 people wanting to use 1 Vita.

    We want our own PSN accounts on it.

    Otherwise game sharing is a total waste of time.

    B*****y idiots!

    1. Oor Nonny-Muss
      FAIL

      Two lost sales here

      Had 2 on pre-order (one for me, one for the boy). Cancelled them both now. First the PSN restriction then this creeping unnecessary differentiation... end of the line.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      > Got 3 people wanting to use 1 Vita.

      Perhaps Sony would like you to buy 3 Vitas.

      It's piracy I tell you! Depriving the poor starving devs of their income by sharing what you've bought!

      Wait... am I in the right rant?

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Why 3?

        We won't all be playing at once.

        IF we do get one we wil lhave to set up a new PSN account and then ask about sharing to another PSN account, if it can't do that they have lied over the abilities.

    3. MJI Silver badge

      Sale regained

      Just read - PSN account is attached to the memory card, so rather than buy 3 Vitas - buy 3 memory cards

  2. dotdavid
    Flame

    Rationale

    ""Don't know the rationale behind locking digital," he admitted."

    Perhaps Brad should read this;

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_differentiation

    1. Rippy

      Reason

      Not to be pedantic, but Sony hasn't provided a rationale.

      Product differentiation seems a plausible reason, but here's a more likely one: it allows them to be more friendly to individual nanny-states who want to micromanage communications with their people. And that seems to be spreading: Think Of The Children (English-speaking world), Thou Shalt Not Criticize The Elite (France), The State Is A Perfect Shining Diamond (China and its many imitators), Muhammad Is The Perfect Prophet And My Interpretation Is The Only Right One ...

      These rulers are comfortable with their ability to manage physical things like a game on a DVD but are still struggling with those insubordinate electrons.

      G.

  3. nemo20000
    IT Angle

    Story?

    So identical to the PSP then?

    As long as they don’t repeat the region locking fiasco of the PSP where the locking was based on where your machine was purchased instead of where you live and your account is registered... one can but hope.

  4. David Webb

    Bad idea, putting any form of lock on a device gives hackers a "reason" to hack the device opening it up to piracy as a by-product. Locking out Linux on the PS3 for instance brought about the hacks that eventually opened it up to pirates (and now that it's possible the scene is practically dead as the hackers have what they want so hacked PS3's are stuck on 3.55 firmware forever).

    Besides, only Japan gets the really cool H games dammit.

  5. Frumious Bandersnatch

    subhead should really read

    "But games region-free ... for now"

    This is Sony we're talking about, after all.

    1. MJI Silver badge

      All PS3 games are as well

      I expect it is to do with the copywrite holders - like that mob in America.

      But games are fine as the producers are more sensible.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Damn that was fast!

    Sony is already screwing the buyers of their latest hardware? Damn that was fast!

  7. MJI Silver badge

    After more research

    They are not screwing us.

    1) PSN accounts - not quite a screw up but not obvious, the cards are tied to the Vita but you can have multiple cards per Vita each one with a different PSN account.

    2) Not tied per region, games companies are single publisher and want to sell as many as possible, so importing ect is OK, only problems are regionalisation (ie text and speech languages).

    3) Only media content is tied - this is not SCE but all the media companies who as we all know are very litigatious.

    So really it is lack of detail from Sony which has caused the upset.

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