Vita gets its own unique region lock

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

Yes because hacking a region locked console to play a region locked game then importing a region locked game at great personal expense makes me a fucking pirate. You cannot seriously expect me to buy two Vitas, one American and one UK, just to knock you down off that pedestal.

I have no idea where that came from.

I simply pointed out what you're doing makes no sense. You want Tales games in your region. 3DS is getting a Tales game in your region to test the waters to see if Tales games will sell again in your region.

So you ignore the system that Tales game is coming out on to buy and import for a system you're assuming won't get the Tales game in your region at all. You are perpetuating the problem. If the 3DS game they took a chance on doesnt sell - and it being a remake is largely beside the point - they won't take a chance on your Vita game, either. Its already been a shaky proposition to get a Tales game on consoles as is.

Have fun perpetuating the cycle of misery, I guess.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

Annnnnnnd we're back to one account only on Vita:

Sony Backtracks, Says Only One Account Per Vita | Game|Life | Wired.com

After getting everyone’s hopes up, Sony now says only one user account can be used on a PlayStation Vita.

Though a Sony representative told Wired.com at a Vita preview event last week in Manhattan that Vita users will be able to switch accounts by swapping out memory cards, the PlayStation maker has now retracted that statement. It told Wired.com in an email on Thursday that Vita owners will indeed have to reset their hardware to factory settings, deleting all of their data, in order to sign in with a different PlayStation Network account.

Sony will release Vita in Japan on Saturday and in the U.S. on February 22.

“[The] PSN account is tied to the hardware and the memory card, not just the card,” a different Sony representative said in an e-mail, “which means that if a second person is using your Vita, it’s not just a case of switching out memory cards, it’s clearing out all of your saved data on the Vita itself when you do the factory reset.”

“In other words, PlayStation Vita is intended to be played by only one user,” the representative said.

Vita users will have to delete all of their data in order to use new accounts on Sony’s online network, which is used for both digital shopping and multiplayer gaming. The PlayStation 3 and PSP allow users to sign in with separate accounts. They also allow players in different regions to create Japanese or European accounts to download games from those regions. It seems that neither of these things will be possible on PlayStation Vita — at least not without jumping through some as-yet-undiscovered loopholes.

I'm sure they'll make up their minds eventually.

[Raydeus]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

Awesome.

I'm not buying it. My PSP suffices me for the limited gaming on the go I do anyway.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

All these updates between MS, Nintendo and Sony have been amusing to me of late.

MS and Sony updated their EULAs to prevent class action lawsuits from users. Sony's is an obvious result of the PSN outage and the class-action lawsuits that followed. MS probably just did it because they remembered where the high defect rate got Sony on PS2 and 360 has had a pretty high one. Nintendo has yet to make such an action.

Sony has backed away from the freedom they once gave PSP and PS3 owners as of the November EULA, games can be shared between two Playstation devices only from November onward, three systems less than they offered before to basically prevent sharing between friends on DLC and games. 360's update added features, particularly if you had a Kinect. Nintendo updated 3DS so you could share games between multiple 3DSes on the same single account. Its almost like they read Sony's November update and switched policies just to troll it.

This stuff tells us what we can expect from the future, I see Nintendo, MS and Apple adding features to their devices while Sony continues to strip them away. Its not a terribly attractive strategy Sony is taking on.

[Armando]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

I find it cute how Sony believes they have as much charisma as Apple to be doing this sort of shit.

[Icemage]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

I just find it amusing that ALL these companies think they're doing themselves favors with these crazy EULAs (Microsoft also just updated the XBL ToS in almost exactly the same way).


Icemage

[Raydeus]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

Apparently they don't seem to understand that now more than ever it is the consumer who will decide how they will use the products and how they will modify them to suit their needs and wants, whether companies like it or not. And the more restrictions companies try to put in place the more the costumers will turn to cracking the system, which is just right around the corner from Yarrr Street. Specially so if there are regional restrictions involved.

All companies need to do is create good quality products to make money from, and then get the hell out of the way of their paying costumers instead of treating them like thieves.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

Sony's been treating customers like thieves for almost 13 years now, their paranoia has just migrated from one division to the next. First music, then movies and now its games.

You'd think with it going on that long they'd be the best prepared or at least learned their lesson from the Napster debacle, but they're just too proud to admit their shit stinks.

[Aeni]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

The Vita has it's own medium, so I'm assuming there's no region lock there. Other than that, why vex over shallow accomplishment tags like trophies? I thought the purpose of owning any of these devices and utilizing the services was to play games. Didn't think social networking was the main draw here.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

The Vita has it's own medium, so I'm assuming there's no region lock there. Other than that, why vex over shallow accomplishment tags like trophies? I thought the purpose of owning any of these devices and utilizing the services was to play games. Didn't think social networking was the main draw here.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. The Vita also requires the memory cards for game saves... yeah.

When Sony made flash card games require saves to an entirely separate flash medium, practicality was thrown out the window as well so we can't be sure games are really region free. Its true 3DS has data saved to memory cards, but its for Spatpass data/DLC and downloadable games, not game saves themselves as those still occur on the game cart.

[Raydeus]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

Yeah, not to mention having accounts virtually hardcoded into the system (for practical purposes) pretty much screams Regional restrictions by itself. Unless Sony is planning to surprise the world with global accounts that is. Then, and only then would hardware linked accounts make sense for the "only one user per unit" argument.

But chances of a big Japanese company like Sony to go global? Between 0 and impossible is the number I'm thinking about right now.

[Aeni]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

I wouldn't be too sure about that. The Vita also requires the memory cards for game saves... yeah.

When Sony made flash card games require saves to an entirely separate flash medium, practicality was thrown out the window as well so we can't be sure games are really region free. Its true 3DS has data saved to memory cards, but its for Spatpass data/DLC and downloadable games, not game saves themselves as those still occur on the game cart.

The memory cards are not coded for region use so there's no harm there. The only way I can see where this account policy will trickle down into a region lock-out of the actual hardware itself is if you're forced to log in every time you want to use the device (i.e., branded smart phone and registration with brand carrier a la SIM card) but I can't see that being even remotely possible with Sony ... unless the powers that be are screwed up beyond belief and then at that time I will declare Sony to be officially dead.

Another point is that for Plus members, they will not benefit from the auto-save and upload service if there is a region lockout on the hardware, putting usage registration restrictions on the side. They can preserve the Plus service even with this account restriction but will not be able to do so with a similar restriction on the hardware.

Nintendo's 3DS was a hardware lockout as you can't play import games on a domestic device regardless of whether or not a saved state was required. If I misunderstood you on that last point, then I apologize.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

PS Vita buyers report freezing/touch screen problems -Destructoid

『PSVita』 有機EL画面がシミだらけなんだけど… : オレ的ゲーム速報＠刃





While you can never expect launch units to be perfect - my first 3DS actually had a dead left speaker - this is kinda bad stuff. Gotta suck if you imported the thing and ended up with one of those issues.

I'm eager to see a durability test, though. I've had some pretty disturbing tumbles with my current 3DS and it came up unaffected in every way.

Also:

PS Vita can't charge via USB port -Destructoid

Keep your filthy USB chargers away from Vita!

So are we still going to insist Sony doesn't treat us like thieves?

They've taken away just about ever sensible design element they could have used to make this an attractive product. By themselves they seem small, but put them together and it paints a rather specific picture of how Sony feels about us as customers. Clearly, I am not to be trusted with the Sony products I own.

- There's cheap, affordable flash memory on the market, but let's make new expansive, proprietary ones.
- USB cables deliver an electrical current that charges lithium ion batteries and iPhones and 3DS readily accept it.
- The UMD program - pay for the right to play games you own for PSP on Vita, $7 to $13 each
- Oh, not all games are eligible, by the way. Good luck with Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Kingdom Hearts.
- Region lock by one account and they're applied to memory cards.

So, are these things "not a big deal" anymore? That's five of them. When does it become indicative or a problem?

To top it all off, its already been hacked in the first day to run ill-gotten PSP games. Same program as the PSP-3000 on the most recent firmware update but still, a hack's a hack.

[Raydeus]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

Hacked on the first day? Yep, and Chinese markets probably had open Vitas before it was even released. XD

It's sad really, Sony was on the right track when they started being more open. But then they chickened out and went back to their dinosaur ways.

Thing is costumers wont be as forgiving this time around, the PS2 goodwill has already run out and probably not even KB can save them now. And one thing is certain, if my PS3 (first gen) ever breaks I'm not buying another one.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Vita gets its own unique region lock

Sony has more or less sold me on the next MS console at this point. Its where all my friends play anyway and with Team Ico realistically at its creative end, there's not much reason to stick with Sony next gen unless they win some really killer exclusives. But Metal Gear is getting its first proper multiplatform game and many others already are multiplatform. That's the world we live in, but its not the one Sony lives in.

Plus if Wii U gets the third party support it needs, do I really need three consoles anyway? I've always been of the opinion that this gen you could have a PS3 or 360 with a Wii and be set for all the best stuff. Sony's exclusives aren't terribly mindblowing to me and MS doesn't even know a franchise outside of Halo, Fable and making Rare do bullshit with Kinect.

So 3DS, Wii U, Xbox Next, iPhone, Steam and I'm set, really. The 3DS exclusive train has just started rolling, too. I don't really need a Vita - its just sad Sony made me not want one and also not want the PS4. I can already expect that to not be backwards compatible to PS3 or PS2 (but it will probably still play PS1 games), have no USB ports and require the sacrifice of my firstborn to prove my loyalty as a consumer to them.