PlayStation Vita to be region free

By Ryan Fleming September 19, 2011

For some, this news won’t mean a thing. It might merit a shrug, perhaps followed by a quiet “meh,” before then being forgotten. For others, this is perhaps the biggest news of the week. Granted, not a huge amount of others, but some.

One of the banes of hardcore gamers has always been the difficulty inherent in playing imported titles. If you wanted to try out the hot new games in Japan—and assuming the language barrier wasn’t an issue—it was not as simple as just going on Amazon.jp and ordering away. The games have long been region-specific, which would require a risky and difficult mod of your gaming system, or the purchase of a system from Japan.

So rejoice, import game fans! 1up.com has confirmed that the new PlayStation Vita will be region free, so any Vitas sold in North America will accept and run Vita games from anywhere in the world, as well as any movies regardless of what region they are from. The PSP is currently region free as well, but only with games, not movies. This also means that the early adopters that can’t wait to get their hands on the Vita could purchase one from Japan when they are released on December 17–again, assuming the language barrier isn’t an issue. You could then rub it in the noses of all your friends in North America awaiting the Vita’s release sometime in 2012.

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Ryan Fleming is the Gaming and Cinema Editor for Digital Trends. He joined the DT staff in 2009 after spending time covering…

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