Regional Lockout: Newbie Next Gen Console Owners Beware!

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Regional Lockout: Newbie Next Gen Console Owners Beware!

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I have been a gamer as far as I can remember, but it doesn't mean that I have owned or experienced every possible gaming console there is to date. The only real gaming console which I personally own back in the days was a Sega Genesis Megadrive System. There isn't much of an issue about picking the right games for that classic console. The next gaming platform I owned was a personal computer back at 2004 which didn't show any problems back when I was playing games on it. Fast forward to 2010, I acquired my first ever next generation console, the XBOX 360. Now this is where one concern came up, regional lockout. What is this regional lockout anyway?

In a nutshell, regional lockout is programming practice incorporated to various forms of media (cd, dvds, bluray, consoles, players, etc.) in order to prevent the playing of media designed for a device from the country where it is marketed on the version of the same device marketed in another country. Common regional lockout labels are NTSC-J (Asia), NTSC U/C (North America), PAL, PAL/E (Europe and Oceania), NTSC-C (China).

So if your gaming console is PS3 and it is region lockout to the United States of America (NTSC-U label), then you can not play PS3 games titles labeled with NTSC-J, NTSC-C, PAL, PAL/E on them. Immediately buying a game title for your console without even knowing its region, is the common mistake amongst newbie next gen console owners commit. A good way to avoid this is to check the receipt of your gaming console (XBOX 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii, PSP) or any identification of where was the console manufactured. Upon finding out the region it belongs to, only then can you now shop for potential game titles for your console. Shop with utmost scrutiny and hand-pick titles with the same region as your console (a NTSC-U console must have an NTSC-U game purchase) to avoid wasting valuable time and money.

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