Topic: Playstation 3 question

Hi all - I saw something on Wikipedia that piqued my interest, as I'm considering getting a PS3 soon, perhaps while I'm in Japan, but was under the assumption that the PS3 was region-locked, and I didn't want to be locked to just playing Japanese PS3 discs.

However, Wikipedia has this:

Like the PSP, the PlayStation 3 is region free for all PS3 games. However, backward compatibility modes (i.e. PlayStation 1 and 2 games) are region locked. Blu-ray Disc and DVD region codes are also enforced. While the PS3 does have hardware regional lockout support, Sony apparently has no intentions to use it.

But then I never trust Wikipedia in itself - can anyone confirm for me, if I buy a Playstation 3 in Japan, will it play Australian PS3 games?

this page has the info you want. it's a lot of text, but searching for the word 'lock' pulls up information on games being region-locked or not.

PS3 games are not region locked. I don't know if the PS2 lock is true or not, but that sounds right since PS2's were region locked, I think. PSN is also not blocked off. As long as you have a credit card or points card in the appropriate region, you can buy from it. I have an account in Japan and Europe just to get demos since I don't have a credit card in those regions or want the games bad enough to import points cards.

I would recommend getting a PS3 that is from your Region as its going to be easier to understand, language wise lol. But you will have Japans PSN store as well as Europe, USA, HK etcs PSN stores availabe to you. If you get it, just post in our PS3 thread or email me, and Ill send you the info you need to create the accounts for the different regions.