Sony region-locks digital content on PS Vita
But games region-free
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 players to one account.
"The only difference is that Vita requires you to do a factory reset when logging into a new acct," he Tweeted.
Importing physical titles remains possible as the PS Vita is region-free in that sense, but it's bad news for Japanophiles who have to use separate accounts in order to grab their region-specific PSN content.
"Very clear that it's not region-locked, but that only applies to physical media," Douglas insisted.
"Don't know the rationale behind locking digital," he admitted. ®
COMMENTS
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
