So I'm thinking of buying a PS3 and WOHD...

[Xavier]

(Mods, if this isn't the best place for this discussion, by all means move it.)

So I'm thinking of finally taking the plunge and buying a PS3. Wipeout, of course, is one of my main motivations -- I'll be buying WOHD just a few minutes after setting the machine up!

My problem is that I'm a multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-regional kind of guy, and will be wanting to play games from all over the world. The PSP, thankfully, is region-free, and supposedly the PS3 is as well (for PS3 games), but how about for PS1 classics? I'mnot about to spend the extra money for a backwards-compatible 60 GB PS3 if I can't play all my old games on it. (For reference, in the game shop near me, there's a silver 40 GB PS3 for Y27,000, and a black 20 GB backwards-compatible PS3 for Y39,800.)

I have a credit card from the US (where I was born) and another in Japan (where I now live), but none from Europe (where I only lived for a summer and didn't have a job or bank account). Can I use any of these addresses with the PS Store? Will I be limited in what I can buy based on where I live? I'd definitely prefer to play games in English rather than Japanese (I'm surrounded by Japanese all day long -- when I kick back and play video games, I usually want English), so I'd want to buy WOHD from the US or UK.

If there will be problems with this, I'll probably just buy a US PS3, as backward-compatible machines are easier to find there. (Japan never got the 80 GB software-based-backwards-compatible PS3, AFAIK.)

How are the rest of you "citizens of the world" enjoying your PS3s? Complaints, problems, praise, thoughts?

[yeldar2097]

take the plunge take the plunge TAKE THE PLUNGE

i'm not sure about the backwards compatibility bit but i know that you can have PSN accounts from different regions so thats all good.

Praise: its brilliant, i love it, it does EVERYTHING, it looks awesome
Complaints: i can't bring it to school with me

[GreenPhazon]

I'm pretty sure all PS3s play PS1 games. It's the PS2 support you have to look out for.

[Xavier]

i'm not sure about the backwards compatibility bit but i know that you can have PSN accounts from different regions so thats all good.

See, this is what I want to do. But do I need a credit card issued in that region to buy games from there?

[stinkleroy]

As far as I am aware Xavier you do need a region specific credit card to purchase games from a PSN store in another region.

There may be services on the net that offer a gateway but I don't know of any. If in doubt....google

[Xavier]

OK, got it. Google, like AG Systems, is our friend.

Aren't there also point cards that can be used to purchase games? If I got one of those (on eBay, say) and tried to buy a game with it, the PS3 wouldn't block me and say that I can't spend pounds if my credit card charges me in yen... would it? If that happens, I'll probably make the US my PS3 "home", and use my American CC.

[stinkleroy]

Unfortunately the point cards are also region specific, they are mainly in place for those who don't have bank accounts or don't feel comfortable entering their financial details into the PS3.

Only other option is to break SCE rules and find a nice US/Euro pal to gameshare with you.

I'd advise buying American for your specified needs

[designer_79]

Xavier, for the fact that you live in Japan ... please do yourself a big favour and register your PS3 to the Japanese PSN-store. The fact you have an adress in Japan as well as the Japanese credit card is perfect. The Japanese store has the most content of the 3 existing ones (American, European and Japanese). Furthermore the Japanese 'Home', the 3d online meeting, gaming and chatting place for the PS3 users (not unlike 2nd-life) is the most developed one.

And how I envy you, that you cen get the PSN - cards ... the kind of prepaid - card system you can use in the PSN-Store as well ...

As you already know, the PS3 games are region free, as for the PS1 backwards compatibility i can only tell, that i bought a PS1 game in the European PSN-store and this works fine on my 'imported-from-Hong Kong-bought-in-China' PS3. After my next holiday in Europe I'll take my old PS1 discs back to test on my HK-machine.