Expert: Joseph - 6/2/2008

Question
QUESTION: hi, sorry im not sure if your the right person to ask.....if i buy ps3 games in america will i be able to play them on my european ps3?

ANSWER: Like all forms of media, they have different formats for different parts of the world.  I forget exactly what the format here is used, it's called NTCS or something like that.  Long story short, you will either have to buy an american PS3 or mod your european one.  Your current PS3 is region coded for whatever part of the world you got it from.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: you see the reason i even questioned it is because some blue ray dvds arent region coded...so i don't see why the games would be...are u sure that they are? have u had a first hand experience or heard about first hand experiences? thanks for replying so quick

Answer
Some blue rays arn't, but pretty much every game is.  The region code is usually printed on the front of the box art and on the disk itself.  You normally run into this issue with importing japanese games, as lots of americas do b/c they get games we don't, there isn't a lot of americans importing european games b/c they normally don't get games we don't, plus they're normally released in the U.S. first.  You just have to check on the region code of your paticular PS3 vs. the games.  I know there is coding in Europe but I think some places uses the same coding as the U.S.  You'll just have to check the coding on your particular machine, should be in the manual somewhere or maybe in the "about" section on the PS3 software.  U.S. uses NTCS (I think that's what it's called, I know it starts with an N) so see if your PS3 has that coding.