Report: Can't Play PS3 Games with Military Friends in Iraq & Afghanistan
Report: Can't Play PS3 Games with Military Friends in Iraq & Afghanistan
October 14, 2008
We don't have much detail on this one, but a brief story on MaxConsole indicates that gamers in the U.S. are unable to use the PlayStation Network to play PS3 games online with friends and relatives serving with military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan:
A writer over at Sony Insider is asking Sony why he cannot play PS3 games over the PSN with his friends who are serving abroad the United States military.
According to the report: If you have a friend who lives in a different country, then its likely you will not be able to add them as a friend on your PS3. The reason why is that if you register your PS3 in a specific country, your Playstation Network is limited to that region. So, if my friend from the United States registers his/her Playstation 3 while they are on tour in Iraq/Afghanistan, then I will never be able to add them as long as I’m a US resident.
The writer says it is time Sony removed the restrictions of the Playstation Network and made it truly global.
The original post is not showing up at Sony Insider. It's unclear whether it was removed for some reason. MaxConsole does mention a work-around:
There is a workaround, but it is weak - if you purchased your PS3 in the USA, registered it there, and then brought it to another country you can still play your friends.
GP: It's ironic that this situation has become an issue, especially since the SOCOM commercial at left suggests that U.S. gamers could play via PS2 with overseas military gamers.
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Posted 11/08/09 at 09:02am
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
Posted 11/08/09 at 09:01am
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:53am
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:46am
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:31am
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:07am
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:06am
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Posted 11/08/09 at 12:24am
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
Posted 11/07/09 at 11:33pm
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
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Comments
"The reason why is that if you register your PS3 in a specific country, your Playstation Network is limited to that region."
Why did they do this? Why cripple the system in such an arbitrary way?
Surely this can only inconvenience people, benefits nobody and adds extra unneccesary complexity to the system.
I believe the writer of this post is mistaken about the region lock on the PSN. I have multiple members on my friends list from England and I am in Kentucky. This may have more to do with Iraq/Afghanistan or military members being on a military network, but it is not region locked for all regions. I even have multiple PSN accounts for Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia so that I can access their PlayStation Stores in those regions.
It may also just be that the game he is attempting to play has region locking for the online portion, which is a decision some developers have done and not something Sony makes them do. All I know is that I play Warhawk and Gran Turismo 5: Prologue with many friends in England and can even voice chat with them in-game (Warhawk only, Gran Turismo doesn't have voice chat yet) or directly from my friends list. While playing Warhawk in public servers I have also found some people in the game voice chatting in French, Spanish, and once even some form of Middle Eastern language. I have also run across many Japanese and French drivers in Gran Turismo.
I believe the author of the Sony Insider post has his facts wrong and this may be why the post is no longer showing up on the site.
Someone is dead wrong here and I can't figure out how they could be so far off from the truth. There is no standard block towards adding friends or playing with friends online based on console region, physical region or account region. I own a Japanese PS3 and I live in Japan. I have both a US and an American account, and both accounts have friends who live inside and outside of Japan. I have played GTA IV online with people in Japan as well as Americans and lord knows what other strangers who just turned up.
Has it occurred to this writer that the Military may be blocking remote connections for security purposes?
Do Not Talk About Feitclub http://www.feitclub.com
Has it occurred to this writer that the Military may be blocking remote connections for security purposes?
That was my first thought before finishing reading the article. And now it's my thought again after reading these comments.
-Gray17
I have to agree this story doesn't make any sense, I too have multiple friends from other countries. Namely Spain for some reason. I do not see the cause or correlation to PSN.
Indeed, I'm in England, bought and registered my PS3 here; and my friends list has a number of americans, one guy in portugal and another in finland.
Something definitely sounds fishy with this post. I currently don't have any friends on my PS3, haven't play online much sinch I got it (djizzo1408 if anyone is interested), so I can't speak from experience. But it makes no sense that you wouldn't be able to add people from outside.
I really would figure this has something to do with military networks. I also gotta take issue with the "Weak" workaround. How is it weak? Why would military people set their regions to Iraq/Afghanistan or Middle East? I would guess they would all say "United States" since that is their permanent home.
I thought they were fighting a war over there or something but it looks like now they are just chilling and playing games.
Why would someone tolerate a ping response from the furthest possible destination from their point of origin? Sony probably asked themselves that when they implented regional limitation.
Besides, Sigvatr's right... There's a war going on. And this ignorant frenchie wonders, do they even have the intact-needed infrastructure to support the internet? :S