The answer in the first link is actually a correct statement:
Those answers weren't given by Sony, but by a reporter.
It says that the PS3 will have region free games, not that the PS3 itself is region free.
Even if every single PS3 game was region free, noone could still say that PS3 itself is "region free". First of all, there are region locked BluRays. Then there are PS1+PS2 games, which are still region locked as well and there is also all sorts of region locked DLC.
The backward compability stuff also isnt specific to the european PS3.
But it wasn't said that only "some (release) PS3s would have 99% backward compatibility" either.
That might have changed after that interview were made to cut costs, who knows.
Just like the region locked games. And OtherOS. And all the other changes.
and btw. again - that wasn't an interview with Sony. The answers were given by a reporter. Or do you really think that they asked Sony about the region locked state of PS3 and
Wii?
But yeah, the PS3 is region locked indeed, so if anyone said that, then its not correct. I guess that is why its so hard to find (at least from my experience) official quotes/statements on it after the PS3 was released.
That's not correct. You must have missed my 2nd link. I didn't put much work into searching around, because we already know that Sony can not be trusted and removes features, whenever they like (see region free and see OtherOS).
http://www.ign.com/articles/2006/03/22/gdc-06-region-free-ps3
n a Q&A session following the platform keynote address at GDC 2006 this morning, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison confirmed what was heavily demanded for import gamers all over the world, and yet previously thought unthinkable for a major corporation: the PS3 will be region-free for gaming.
I would say that this should probably count as "came directly from Sony". Sure, it's IGN. But that article got published and Sony didn't correct them. Shouldn't they have contacted IGN and told them that PS3 is not really region free and will just have some region free games instead?
But in practical term, it doesnt really matter that much concidering how many PS3 games that actually are region free. The PS3 is pretty much region free in practical terms.
And Nintendo has an actual account system in pratical terms then. I mean 2 region locked PS3 games, that's nothing right? Only matters in case you want to play those. Persona 4 Arena, who wanted to play that? Noone. That's just some weird Japanese game, that noone in the west wanted to play.
And that region locked DLC, that's also nothing right? You need to jump through hoops and research a lot and in case you get the wrong data, you will have just wasted money, because Sony won't refund any purchases on PSN, but who cares about that. That's just a minor inconvenience and it's also the fault of the consumer of course. The consumer should have researched better. Sure, Sony doesn't give out proper region lock information for every single piece of DLC, but who cares, right?
And those region locked PSN demos, not a problem. Players just have to wait.
So let's look at all those unimportant issues. Yeah, PS3 is totally region free in pratical terms.
Its possible, i never checked for it since i prefer english (besides Resistance 2, i just checked there to try it out). I know that Ratchet & Clank: All For One from late 2011 had multiply languages depending on which language the PS3 was set to at least.
It's not just possible. It's a fact.
- Uncharted 2+3 is English only in UK.
- Last Of Us has English, Russian and Polish audio on the disc, nothing else
- I just checked on ogdb for Ratchet&Clank: All For One - even this one is confirmed to NOT have German audio on it
- Ratchet&Clank: Crack In Time - English only in UK
- Ratchet&Clank: Tools Of Destruction (2007) - was multilingual
- God Of War Ascension - English only in UK
- God Of War 3 - also English only
(in theory some of those games could have some non multi-5 language on it - see Last Of Us and Russian audio, it's quite difficult to get 100% accurate data, because Sony doesn't release that as well. Because #4theplayers. Consumers have to crowd-source that information by themselves. But all of those except the early ones - ToD for example - don't offer German or French or Spanish and such, which is nothing else but effectively forcing consumers to buy games even from certain COUNTRIES, not just regions, which is actually worse than just region locking)