Sony to crack down on Home region hopping?
- Posted May 19th, 2009 at 22:27 EDT by Steven Williamson
- 32 Comments
Hopping from one region to another on PlayStation Home is apparently a fairly common practice for a variety of reasons, including gamers looking to buy items that aren't available in their particular region. Despite the chances of getting caught moving from region to the next being very slim, it was a practice that many thought was illegal. According to SCEA, though, it's completely legitimate and you won't be punished for it -- for now anyway!
That doesn't mean it condones such activity -- to the contrary. On the official PlayStation forums, SCEA Home Manager CydoniaX has responded to information spread recently from a SCEE representative going by the forum name TedTheDog, who told users that they would be getting picture frames in the next update, v.1.21. It turns out that this is for the U.K. only. In his post, CydoniaX appears to be a little cross at his European colleague for revealing the information in a section of the forum that's frequented mainly by U.S. Home users.
In his post he writes:
Tedthedog is great at communicating with the EU community, but also needs to make sure he lets us know he's doing it. We've all discussed this and we're cool. But this kind of thing won't be happening again if we can help it.
On the subject of region hopping, he writes:
Every region has its own business deals, developers, etc and it can be extremely difficult to get legal agreement for cross-regional deals. So if you are an SCEA Home user, it's not the best idea to be going to SCEE or SCEJ forums for your information about Home. NO we don't condone global travel or wearing items in SCEA that users obtained through creating accounts in EU or Japan. The fact that many people have figured out how to go around this is not something that we plan to either condone or punish. That said, I can tell you that all regions agree that this needs to stop.
So we come to the conclusion that those who are currently region hopping aren't being punished and won't be in the immediate future. By the the sounds of it, however, CydoniaX's last sentence suggests that the different regions will be getting together very shortly to discuss how to prevent it. How long then before region hopping grinds to a halt?
Oh, if anyone is bothered about the picture frames that caused all of this fuss, CydoniaX says that they'll be coming to the U.S. region in due course.
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UPDATE: Apparently, TedTheDog actually told users on the U.K. PlayStation forums that the U.S. will be getting picture frames in v.1.21. We apologize for any confusion.
Comments
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Jimmy Thompson |
Infalla- 10:31pm BST - May 19th, 2009
- 1
first
That being said, might as well get away with it if you can, if you even still use Home, that is. -
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rbrtchng
- 10:41pm BST - May 19th, 2009
- 4
Wow, instead of telling the gamers to stop doing this, how about Sony get their acts together and make every Home region the same?
Why is Sony the only company stupid enough to make Home functions different per region? How about instead of each region working on their own region, make every region work on a part of Home, and update it to every region?
The only thing different in Home between regions should be content (what kinds of shirts or trailers), but the overall experience should be the same.
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Fiddlesworth
- 10:45pm BST - May 19th, 2009
- 6
Nobody is getting picture frames THIS Thursday with the new patch.
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Alpha2
- 10:47pm BST - May 19th, 2009
- 8
How about you give the US freaking checkers so I'm not tempted to go to europe!! See this is the big problem you want people to not do something but you dont seem to understand that you cant stop them as long as there are things they want from other places and there's no legal way to STOP us from doing it. It's like saying I cant go to a japanese website because they dont want me to see their ads, or download images for my desktop, and that's BS.
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mixpix72 |
MixPix72- 10:48pm BST - May 19th, 2009
- 10
@4
you contradicted yourself you said everything should be the same BUT the content should be different. i dont pretend to know everything about how home works but i think they have different regions for 2 reasons:
1. because the servers would be overloaded or their location.
2. for the content reason. how can you have one home on one server look and act exactly the same with different things on it.
like i said i dont pretend to know eerything but it seems that they kinda have to do this unless everyone has the same thing and they put a server in one CENTRAL location to everyone so there is minimal lag. please correct me if i am wrong though (nicely please) -
Fiddlesworth
- 10:53pm BST - May 19th, 2009
- 11
"TedTheDog, who told users that they would be getting picture frames in the next update, v.1.21. It turns out that this is for the U.K. only."
TedTheDog never said this, and his post still doesn't say this. PSU shouldn't be spreading misinformation.
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Javonne
- 11:18pm BST - May 19th, 2009
- 12
If They want this to stop, than why don't they make all the Home servers equal in all regions? Home is so boring to me now. When Home first came out, I was expecting there to be weather changes such as rain, snow, and windy weather. I was also expecting the time frame to change according to the time zone you're in. These people claim that the PS3 is the most Powerful Consol in existance, well why can't they do amazing stuff like that? They have lamps and lights for you to buy, but it never turns night time. They always have it sunny in the American Home and it never changes, at least the Japanese Home had some snow and cloudy weather before, even just recently they had cherry blossoms. But the problem with the Japanese home is that they don't have any audio. I've grown tired of home.
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AaronSOLDIER |
AaronSOLDIER- 11:40pm BST - May 19th, 2009
- 14
Well there wouldnt be any hopping if all the regions were treated equally. In fact, if all PSN's were equal, such as home and the store, I wouldnt have multiple accounts in the first place. So its actually up to Sony to stop this. And WTF, you cant wear clothing obtained from other regions
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Jamakazi |
SlapFish12- 11:53pm BST - May 19th, 2009
- 15
You guys dont understand.. Dont you think sony have tried to make every region fair?
Look at the E.U How many different languages, and currency's are used?
While the US is just the standard dollar? And standard english that they're all taught.
They cant add home all together (EU,US,JP) because it would be mega hassle, sorting out all of the different types of currency and all the different languages out, for once, Shut up, stop complaining, and be happy with what you have, Home isnt a Game. Its a social area. GTFU and realise. Its not a failure. because the people who use home For WHAT it really is, enjoy it.
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nextgen3 |
Nextgen22- 12:13am BST - May 20th, 2009
- 17
i couldn't careless about HOME HOPPING, iv never done it but i think that different regions should stick within there own server just because when i use HOME i hardly see any UK english or welsh spoken languages other than foreign users who only know very little english. so i prefer to be talking to my users in the same language that i speak not something i dont know like japanese, spanish, italian or whatever it is.
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kopkiwi |
Kopkiwi- 12:23am BST - May 20th, 2009
- 18
Sorry Sony, but AGAIN you are in the wrong with your online content. You give Japan just about everything you can think of and shun the rest of us. You update your stores unfairly and more often than not completely ignore the Aus/NZ stores and you do the exact same with HOME content and you expect people to play by the rules?
Dream on.
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1solidsnake |
solid1snake67- 1:16am BST - May 20th, 2009
- 19
what are picture frames? why all the fuss? i've talked to cydonia X cool guy
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Aramil_Caelan
- 2:45am BST - May 20th, 2009
- 21
why is this a problem? whats the big deal w/ region-hopping?
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Bigdoggy |
Gypscrew- 6:57am BST - May 20th, 2009
- 24
is it really that hard for Sony. Come on now, I support them but if they are going to pull this crap, what's the point of HOME.
Bascially HOME isn't for the people that bought Sony's PS3, instead it's for the developers basically, but we can go in their and chat. What a load of crap, just when you think HOME couldn't possibly suck anymore, Sony then decides to make suckier.
Whatever, I don't go into HOME anyway for other obvious reasons but if Sony wants this place to be a chat place, I say open it up for everyone that has a PS3, for god sakes, it's not that big of a freakin deal.
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bobtheduck
- 7:15am BST - May 20th, 2009
- 25
She said the taking of items from one region to another is what's forbidden (like US accounts getting the Namco stuff) not going into a region you don't live in...
I go onto the Japanese region whenever I feel like going on home because I want to find Japanese people to talk to. I hope Sony wouldn't stop that.
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tadpole3159 |
faulkner8991- 8:38am BST - May 20th, 2009
- 26
they created software and then created there own silly rules about it. wierd
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michaelcorleone
- 11:59am BST - May 20th, 2009
- 28
so we (the uk) get picture frames in the next patch? please say someone knows.....!
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Paranoimia |
Paranoimia- 1:25pm BST - May 20th, 2009
- 30
The biggest issue to come out of all this is that CydoniaX is behaving like a spoilt little brat. Month after month, we in Europe have put up with her telling us via the US blog what's coming to the US Home and what us in Europe won't be getting. The first time TedTheDog beats her to the punch, she's whining like a little kid and saying things like 'we'll be taking steps to ensure that this doesn't happen again'.
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airhead190 |
airhead190- 9:12pm BST - May 20th, 2009
- 32
omg that is soooooo horrible. haha idc. how about we dont really focus on home too much and lets make better game play online and better exclusives
ha "i wish i could punch someone in home" very true. that would be awesome
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