With the PS3 Slim coming out, I'm about to finally take the plunge, buy one, and belatedly join the world of Whipeout HD and Fury!

Now with all the region locking and ridiculous restrictions on who can buy what, I want to make sure I have as many options as possible when it comes to playing the games, going online, and acquiring future DLC.

I live in Japan, so that region's PS3 is the easiest to acquire, but I could also buy one when I'm back in the US in October. The prices are almost identical.

But I don't want to suffer the fate of non-European Wipeout fans who not only didn't get extra content released in their regions, but couldn't even buy the content for the European games because they didn't live (and have credit cards and billing addresses) in the right places!

The PS3 is region-free, but how about the content? Should I make a European PSN account and attempt to buy the British Wipeout HD and Fury since it's sure to get any extra content? Will I still be able to buy that extra stuff even if I don't live there?

I'm leaning towards buying the Japanese PS3 from the local store here in Japan and then making three accounts (Japan, US, EU) for games. Is this a good strategy?