Help! Xbox Region Free (Ghostbusters)

[ALF]

Bear with me here. The Xbox baffles me continuously. The collective knowledge of the TrekBBS I'm sure can help me out. This is my "who ya gonna call" moment of need.

I have a Japanese Xbox. I am currently in Canada.

I have long wondered how I will get to play the Ghostbusters video game on my Xbox. I figured, a) I would need to send away for an Asian version of the game (waiting is not my strong suit) b) I would have to buy a new North American Xbox (shelling out hundreds of dollars needlessly also not my strong suit, c) find someone to hack my box so that it will play any region games which is totally ridiculous (I don't see anything illegal there as I always only play real game discs anyway) and yes I know I won't be able use Xbox Live if I do that. What a pain C would be.

Anyhoo... with yesterday's announcement that Ghostbusters would be region free, I was stumped. The Europians are rejoicing because that means their systems will play the game.

How do they know this for sure? Is there any way I can find out if the game will work on a Japanese Xbox without buying the game to find out and wasting a lot of money and/or time in the process?

None of my titles worked in my brother's North American Xbox. All my titles are NSTC-J. I do have a PAL version of Grand Theft Auto IV and THAT does work in my Xbox. Wouldn't work in my brother's Xbox of course. And I have a Simpsons game that I'm using as a coaster because it's NSTC-U . I thought I'd done enough research to determine that it was region free, but it's not.

Is it true that they say region locking is at the discretion of the software manufacturer? Can anyone who knows about this crazy region locking foolishness and let me know if I will be able to play NSTC Ghostbusters on a Japanese XBOX??

Thanks, TrekBBSers!

 

[dark angel_707]

region locking is at the discretion of the publisher and certain games are region free as a rule activision and ubisoft are always region free and EA games are always locked. e-retailers Playasia have a list of region free game on there site

Ghostbusters is region free
http://www.destructoid.com/xbox-360-version-of-ghostbusters-not-region-locked-132821.phtml

 

[ALF]

Okay, thanks for the link and at the risk of coming across completely incompetent, Xbox PALowners in Europe are rejoicing, but does NSTC-J fit into the same category? None of the articles I come across cite Japan as a playable region for the NSTC-U release on June 16th.

Or does not region locked simply mean ANY Xbox will play it?

 

[dark angel_707]

I don't think it has been tested on Japanese 360 (as I don't think many gamers own japanese xbox outside japan) I would wait for a little while to be 100%

to use prototpe as example the disc would work on any machine
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-dw-49-en-70-3csa.html

but GB is not known as this point for NSTC-J Machines. could email them at PA to see if they can check


I hope that helps a bit

 

[ALF]

Thanks, that helps a lot!
Well, I'll keep my eyes peeled and let my results known. Knowing full well I'm in a major minority here.
Looks like it'll appear here when it is figured out.
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-00-3-xbox360_compatibility_guide-49-en-84-i.html#list

But Activision + Region Free sounds promising, using Prototype as an example.

 

[ALF]

[URL=http://www.imagebam.com/image/ee218338590510][/URL]

I don't suppose this scan of the back of the NSTC-U Xbox 360 game box offers any hints?

 

[Hermiod]

The only thing I will say to people considering importing the game is that the box scan billcosby just posted suggests that it will have DLC. European DLC might not work with the NTSC or NTSC-J versions of the game.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Why not just bypass play Asia and go via ebay, you can get the 360 region free version for as low as £33.99 delivered, and from trust worthy sellers by the look of it.

I even found it cheaper, £28.89 and £3 dilivery, comes to £31.89......now thats cheap.

 

[rafterman1701]

360's region locking is so half-assed. The Play-Asia list is a good way to judge releases. Generally speaking, every disc is still the same game with maybe a language difference and sometimes that's not even true. Many Asian versions of 360 games are the exact same ones as NA except for the packaging. DLC works with any version because it's on the HDD and region lock is purely a DVD drive thing and not a system thing. The only time DLC can be a problem is if it's locked in a way that detects the IP of the 360 and blocks territories.

 

[ALF]

Play Asia's confirmed for sure that NSTC-U on PAL works.
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-dh-49-en-70-2hlj.html

 

[ALF]

Play Asia's confirmed for sure that NSTC-U on PAL works.
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-dh-49-en-70-2hlj.html

EDIT: It works on my NSTC-J as well!
Thanks to everyone for their input.