I want to import Rock Band because I'm sick of waiting, but I don't want to spend $200 on a game that won't work.

Yes they are. I believe this was brought up in another topic.

X-box 360 games are region encoded, PS3 games are not.

Why are they region encoded? Methinks the goverment and it's 'laws' are behind this.

Funny, I was having a look at play-asia.com (Fire, I was the one who brought up the question in the 'How are games in your country thread', and someone told me 'bout play-asia) and, it seems you can get games that aren't regionally locked. Thoguh, I haven't tried this out yet, so don't quote me on this.

- A procrastinator

Edit:

Kogarian:
Why are they region encoded? Methinks the goverment and it's 'laws' are behind this.

Greedy bastards

Games are region coded for a lot of reasons, the first big one is that less-than-scrupulous resellers buy cheap Thai games and resell them at 200% profit in affluent countries like the US. So the region codes are meant to keep the price about the same in all countries based on their economic levels. 59$ in a country like Thailand about enough to pay your rent for a month in a less than crappy condo. Or, a one alcohol fueled weekend in Bangkok. Would you pay a months rent for GTA 4? 59$ in the US is like a going to the theatre and dinner in the US.

stompy, some games are region locked; such as Take2 games. Some others are not. It depends on the distributor's policies. Playasia does have a great list of games and their regions. Also keep in mind that Asia uses NTSC, and AUS/UK uses PAL, this can keep you from playing games in different regions also without specific region coding.

HalfShadow:
Games have always been region-encoded, specifically to stop importing.

PS3 is region-free? Not that I care, but I thought only handhelds were region-free.

So are PC games, you can't exactly "region encode" a PC when so many people can build one themselves.

wilsonscrazybed:
stompy, some games are region locked; such as Take2 games. Some others are not. It depends on the distributor's policies. Playasia does have a great list of games and their regions. Also keep in mind that Asia uses NTSC, and AUS/UK uses PAL, this can keep you from playing games in different regions also without specific region coding.

Will do wilsoncrzybed. Thanks for the heads-up. Though, if you don't mind me running this by you, if I buy a region-free US game, would that mean it works in my PAL (Australian) Xbox 360? Would I be able to play this, is what I mean.

- A procrastinator

Yep. PAL and NTSC standards apply to the 360.

Yes Stompy, That COD4 will run fine on your PAL xbox 360.

If an xbox 360 game is not region locked, it makes no difference whether it is PAL or NTSC. As long as your TV is capable of the signal (basically any modern TV is) then it will work.

MS games are rarely region locked but EA games are almost always region locked. MS does not decide whether a game is region coded or not, its up to the game publisher.

Xbox 360 games can be region locked between PAL, NTSC US and NTSC Japen. So a PAL region locked game will work on any PAL system, such as an xbox 360 from Australian, UK, Italy, Germany etc.

Rock band is region locked to NTSC only, otherwise I would have purchased it back in Nov 07. Hardware on the other hand has no region locking, so if you can get the guitars/drums cheaper from another country, go for it.

The following url is a list of xbox 360 games and whether they have region locks or not.

http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Region_Free_Xbox_360_Games

It's a shame that in this day and age regions still exist for video games, if they must exist then Australia should be in the same region as USA. We didn't sign the fair trade agreement with them for nothing.

Thumbs up to SONY for having all games region free for PS3, just a shame about the games ;). Sadly Blueray movies are region coded though, but again... many Blueray movies are also region free. Disney and FOX are almost always region locked though.

wtftrauma:
Yes Stompy, That COD4 will run fine on your PAL xbox 360.

Thanks for the heads-up. Both heads-up.

- A procrastinator

Can't imagine anything worse then playing an FPS with a gamepad though :0

COD4 is one of the better single player games i've played on the PC for a long time. MP is alright but I spend most of my free time playing Team Fortress 2.

Oh btw, Spongetacular... get ready for some outrageous prices when Rock Band gets released in Australia/Europe. I think ill get the game standalone and just use my Guitar Hero 2 guitar. I'll get the drums when they go cheap.

Unlike the PS3, Guitar Hero guitars will work with Rock band on the X360.