Sony Computer Entertainment Australia?s PR Manager, Adrian Christie, explained the Sony PS3?s region restrictions. The previous console, PS2, was region locked according to Holywood?s region lock scheme. It had 6 regions according to region divided by the movie studios. Also, the PAL and NTSC regions were not compatible across the platform. Game developers had to use black bars and slower gamplay to run the game in PAL regions.

With the arrival of high-definition plasma and LCD TVs, Sony has done away with region locking their PS3 systems. This eliminated the casue to region lock PS3 games. On the other hand, Blu-ray movies will be region locked into 3 different regions according to movie studios. There will be 3 regions instead of 6 for the high def Blu-ray movies. North and South America as well as Japan and South Korea will be grouped into one region. Europe, Africa, and Australia will comprise the second region. Russia and China will anchor the third region for the Blu-ray movies.

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