Hi, since I’m new to the blog I wanted to first introduce myself. I am the line producer on Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and I work with Naughty Dog on a day-to-day basis and have been working with the team since Crash Team Racing.
We are pleased to see that there is so much interest out there in the Uncharted demo, and wanted to provide a quick update.
As many of you in Europe and Japan may have already learned, today’s demo is currently only available on the North American PlayStation Store, and will only work on PS3 units in that territory. As you may already know, North America is the first region to launch Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Monday, November 19th), and we wanted to be sure that we gave our North American PS3 players the opportunity to try out the demo prior to launch. Other territories are currently putting the finishing touches on the localization aspects of the Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune demo, and will release it in their respective PlayStation Stores in due course.
Unfortunately when attempting to download the demo, our friends in PAL regions or Japan may have encountered a bug in which you are asked to insert a disc. Please ignore this prompt and accept our apologies.
Thanks again for your interest in the game, we hope that those of you who do get a chance to play it get a taste for what we hope will become an action-adventure classic on the PS3.
“Sadly people like Solace are still locked in the “it’s mine! you can’t have it! not for you!” mindset which is common for only children.”
I never said other regions shouldn’t have it. If you learned to read and comprehend, you’d have seen that I encouraged patience, not exclusivity.
Sadly, people like you are stuck in the mindset of “I WANT IT AND I MUST HAVE IT NOW”.
Keep telling yourself that your narrow way of thinking is the more mature one. If it helps you sleep at night, good for you.
@iapetus
well said, very eliquent, you have accurately relayed the sentiments of euro gamers. me?. i was just effing and blinding.
“you’ve utterly demolished the old lie that Americans can’t ‘do’ irony.”
Double negative FTW.
Thanks!
BTW – I think it’s funny how people assume that because I’m in the north american region, that I’m American. Way to stereotype there, people.
@iapetus
Yes im Sam (from Sony’s) first blog He did claim that ALL demo’s were “region locked”. go back and check
Thanks Sam for the update in the comments. I’ve got faith in Naughty Dog, they’ll get us a demo in the store that works in all regions in the next day or so. Insomaic and Naughty Dog have my full support.
@solace
are we wrong to assume that americans live in america?.
Say NO to region locking, that is a smarter choice… really!
Ya you crazy brits, take your turn. Just kidding. Thanks for the Uncharted demo, ive waited a long time for it and cant wait for the final game.
Why Region Lock it, OUR STORES EU IS FULL OF CRAP, THATS WHY WE LEECH OF THE US STORE.
We get treated unfairly compared to US, they always get the best first and we get the worst updates ever
Just a mention to people moaning about their stores. Spare a thought for the HK store, you think you’ve got problems? I know we’re a small region, not important right? Well Sony, that’s why we have accounts for the other stores.
Would it ever be possible to have a worldwide store? Or is it completely out of the question?
Oh, but to contradict myself at least we get the white PS3 model and DualShock controller this Sunday and we have the PSN cards. At least SCEH can do somethings right. Yipee!
[…] response has been issued from Sony on their official blog, confirming what most of us already knew. The error being experienced by those attempting to play […]
crazyeighty8: This is the only blog entry that the site’s turning up for Sam, and he doesn’t say anywhere in it that all demos are region locked – just that *this* one only runs on NA PS3s. He even pointed out that it was a bug (and an easy one to fix, I might add. :P)
Solace: I’m pretty sure there’s no double negative in my statement. If there were, you should probably assume it was intentional. I ain’t no slouch when it comes to grammar.
Apologies for jumping to the rash conclusion that given no other information someone in America who’s there for sufficiently long to make a locally region-coded games console a sensible purchase might possibly by American.
Perhaps they *can’t* do irony after all. :(
BTW, I want him ——————————————————–>
In there ——————> PlayStation 3
Please comment about it sometime.
(Well, not only me, but also the other millions of fans.)
———————————
Lastly, really come back tomorrow and tell us wheter removing the region locking is possible or not, do not let us waiting here :P, but I hope the answer is a YES.
One of the advantage that the PSP and the PS3 has/had is the REGION FREE gaming and if you take that away, then well…it’s a another broken promise.
You guys strongly supported BC of PS2 and PS1 games before and now the 40gb doesn’t have that, which in my opinion is a bit of back stab. At the same time, one of your executives said it’s been taken away not due to cost but for people to enjoy PS3 games more….ok, so why take it out then? extra is good.
Anyways, yeah, this thing has gotten me a bit frusterated. The official release of any games still better be region-free as you guys have mentioned whether it’s from your PAL PR, NTSC PR or JP PRs
i bet naughtydog is one of those companies that are biased to americans..
Hmm. I might not be no grammar slouch, but it appears I lose the ability to type at two in the morning.
And if you’re in the North American region and get terribly upset about people assuming you’re American, I assume you’re from Canadia, right?
Dam daxter looks awsome on t e ps3…
Solace: You didn’t say we shouldn’t have it, you said we aren’t supposed to have it…which amounts to the same thing, really. not for you, so don’t complain.
All you try and do is justify the US getting things first, and lambast anyone that disagrees that that is how it should be. I waited patiently like many others until today to get the demo. I wasn’t spamming the blog every day with “I WANT THE UNCHARTED DEMO TODAY”. I paid for my PS3 like everyone else, so why should I have to wait while my american counterparts don’t? Try living in europe for a year, and enjoy all the crappy store updates and release dates. you’ll be kicking and screaming to get back to the good ol’ land of the free.
I just hope you’ve enjoyed your time trolling the blog like a juvenile and that one day the chip on your shoulder gets filled. but don’t worry, we’ll all be back and complaining once the Killzone 2 Online beta is announced for US only. then it can all start again, joy!
@iapetus
I have also gone back and cant find Sam’s statement about region lock. I swear it was here earlier. I even posted a response claiming it could not be true. I beleive it could have been removed. I was #4 to post and #3 must have read the same thing. because he also contradicted what was said.
thx for the info Sam Thompson well communicated thx for that!
Still dissapointed about the demo GRRRR but i shall wait to hear what you all have to say
NOW EVERYONE WHO SAYS THIS IS AN AMERICAN BLOG STFU RIGHT NOW ABOUT EUROPEANS MOANING HERE FULL STOP I WANNA HEAR NO MORE ABOUT THIS SITE IS JUST FOR AMERICANS BULL.
@ Naughty Dog,
We are an angry mob at times, but thanks for the hasty reply..
I still feel like you guys should have known this… You’ve got millions of people world-wide ready to buy/import this game.
The least you could do is have a friend test it thats not in the USA.
Lets hope no other bugs make it into the “gold” release.
this is utter bs, in the fact that so many games are doing this. but it shouldn’t be illegal to have two accounts. i am a US citizen but i currently reside in japan, i have an american address, and bank account and i pay taxes in america still. i also do the same in japan. all that is legal. so on a system that is non-region locked why should i have to worry about demoes being region locked. i can understand a hiccup on ntsc and pal coded (but if that is the case just say it) but for japan and the US its bull because they are both ntsc, and last i remembered both are the same region for blu-ray also, so it makes no sense at all. Also, if you fix this, don’t wait till next week to release it, release it when its finished! I import all my games, so it cost me a lot more to get them, so demoes are extremely important to me. they are the only thing i judge a game buy. Also, you had a japanese version at TGS just recently, i played it, what happened to that?
That right at the top of the page it says ” a SCEA blog for playstation fans”. Not just US Playstation fans. god bless em
This is so dumb. Was looking forward so much to this demo and ended up having to hard reset my PS3. Guess my November money goes to Assassin Creed and Silent Hill Origins.
Well done.
“will only work on PS3 units in that territory. As you may already know,”
that is a quote from above he dont say that it is region locked but he means it
“Other territories are currently putting the finishing touches on the localization aspects of the Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune demo, and will release it in their respective PlayStation Stores in due course.”
Why the hell are people complaining? I understand that most people can go to the US PSN store and download many things, but I find it hard to believe how much you all are arguing.
1. It’s the American store. Don’t get mad at SCEA. Europeans and Asians should go to their own stores. Sony, to my recollection, never said that going to another region’s stores is 100% great for you to do. You’re lucky you can download anything from the American store if you’re not in America.
2. You’re going to get it eventually, by the quote I made. You are acting like Sony is cheating you out of an Uncharted demo. They’re not. Did you know that games have to be localized and it doesn’t take two seconds to do so? Did you know that it’s up to the other regions to give this stuff to you? Did you know that you all are acting like insensitive impatient people? Give Sony some credit. At least you know you’re even going to get an Uncharted demo.
If they dont’ want people downloading stuff or accessing US store, why not just IP block that region….it makes no sense to me. IP blocking a region isn’t hard for at all if a small company that I work for can do it.
NAUGHTY DOG
Just please unlock the region for this demo and we’ll be happy. I know this action in itself is not favourable in regards to the server stability for the American PS Store, but I’m sure people would be fine with slow downloads in the US knowing that gamers all over the world will also get the treat of a demo instead of having to wait weeks and weeks.
Thank you.
@linebeginstoblur
yawn yawn yawn stop boring us with your crap why do EUROPEANS pay more for the PS3 and YOU AMERICANS get the benefits?
see how that works WE pay more YOU GET more?????
if they do this to the uncharted demo, we should fear what sony will do to the demos of the upcoming titles… unless we get an explanation
I’ve been mildy intrested in this game since the trailer back at E3 05 or 06. But after playing through the demo I’m a full on beleiver, so there another $60 gone this year. Will the insanity ever stop.
@ 76
This isn’t about people raiding another store just because. This is about the shoddy treatment Europeans get from SCEE, just look at our store. 7 months it’s been up and you’d think its only been there for a few weeks. It’s an absolute graveyard, nothing of interest. Whatever is there now, any of those demos, we got weeks and months after you guys.
We paid more for this console than you did, games for us get delayed even longer than it is for you, and delaying demo’s because of Multilingual issues is unfair to us British as we already speak the same damn language as you. Heck, you use OUR language comrade. So cut us some slack, you’re not here, you don’t know what its like for us.
We want the same service as the Americans get because obviously SCEE aren’t doing us justice if people are creating multiple accounts and going through that trouble to just get one demo.
We have the right for the same quality service as you do. We are not 2nd class customers and we shouldn’t be treated as such considering how we are the backbone of PS3 sales in many regards.
Sony owes its European fans.
@saunderswan
I’m not saying that any region is better, and I understand that the situation is unfair, but if you don’t live in America, and you are able to get almost all the demos, I think that’s pretty good for you, and if something doesn’t work, for the most part, it’s hard to complain about a store that isn’t intended to serve you. As far as how this is a blow to those who are in regions who don’t get many demos, as I’ve quoted, you are going to get it. It’s just a short matter of time.
Greetings from Australia.
I’m posting here because the internet is not limited by boundaries and regions.
The first thing I did when getting my PS3, is make accounts for the AU, US and JP store. Because it’s all one place: My PS3, who cares where it is actually located.
To the Americans that say ‘use your own stuff’ try this: make a AU/EU account and only use that to get your demos, but feel free to login to US store and look at what you cant have.
Have a look at the price they charge for games in Australia, CoD4 RRP is AU$119.95 that’s US$111.20… it came out two days later than the US, which incidentally, is the time it takes to get it shipped for free from Amazon for US$59.99
The 40Gb PS3 AU$699.95 (US$649)
There is a sentiment among non US PS3 users of being ripped off, we’re sitting here waiting for content, that we then end up spending more on than US users.
We are treated like an afterthought, ‘oh it won’t sell much there so a delay isn’t too bad’. When we do get it we pay nearly twice as much.
Maybe now you can understand why it is so offensive to be locked out of a simple free demo.
As for localisation, well, apart from me spelling it with an ‘s’ rather than a ‘z’ its still english… the JP GT5 even had English in it because, surprisingly lots of Japanese people can read English!
There is always a warning about a demo not representing the final game quality. And I’m sure most users aren’t looking for grammatical inconsistencies.
I’m not freaking out that Drakes Fortune is currently locked, I’m disappointed there wasn’t a warning that the download was different to all the other US demo downloads. And I surprised that someone somewhere thought no one would mind or notice it was ‘locked’
I applaud ND’s speed in responding so quickly, and apologise for people abusing them… I’m sure they don’t deserve being swore at and called idiots. Although it is incredibly short sighted to release a region locked demo for such an anticipated title, available via only by a digital download.
I will be seriously pîssed if they decide to region lock the game because one of the major PS3 selling points was no region coding… but then again another of the PS3’s big selling points was backwards compatibility…
Indecently AU/EU users didn’t get full B/C to begin with anyway, we got “some games will and some games won’t”.
furransu: We got an explanation. It’s a bug. It wasn’t picked up because the demo was up on the NA store and was tested on NA hardware. More information to come tomorrow. What more do you want?
Region locked? You complete and utter wankers.
Uncharted was high on my list of games to get when I went back to Canada, but if this is how you treat your dirty foreign customers, I think I’ll be picking up Ratchet & Clank and Assassin’s Creed istead.
Complete and utter BULL***T!
If you speak English, and the US store is so much better, and it’s cheaper for you to buy US versions of all the games anyway, why didn’t you just get a US version of the PS3?
“Wanted to chime in here and let you know that we have shared your frustration with the Naughty Dog team and we are going to see what we can do.”
PR Crap that means nothing. The only reason you’re even spouting this is because it’s getting such (deserved) bad press. See what you can do? How about doing your bloody job and making sure the PS3 demos are available WORLDWIDE AT THE SAME TIME?
sigh
Trying to communicate anything to PR people is like trying to talk to a retarded hammer.
“As you have learned through communicating with Evan and Amy on the blog, Naughty Dog is a studio that listens to gamers”
If they actually bothered to listen the gamers, we wouldn’t be in this situation. It’s obvious that Naughty Dog don’t care for their “dirty, foreign” customers.
Two words for Naughty Dog – BAD DOG!
Wish I had a rolled up newspaper so I could rub your nose in the s**t you just took on your dirty foreign customers.
[…] may not be lost though. In the comments section on the Playstation Blog Sam Thompson had this to […]
well I just chipped my PS2 to play NTSC games, but if you mean a PS3:
Because it wont play region 4 DVD’s or region locked Blu-rays… you need a power converter, and you don’t get a warranty.
Wow, a region locked demo. How stupid is that?
Sam you got everybody mad at you, Ey guys i know all this don’t download it unless you from the US crap is going on ride now but if you get to download the game do it if not wait is coming and Sam i hope you learn your lessond buddy.
Im glad to be here in the states, but I do feel for those gamers in the PAL territorie. They too want to enjoy a good demo and be part of the Play Station family. IT is messed up how they are always left for last when they too have the same passion and desire to play the games you provide us.
@Sam quick and important question
I have a Jpanese PS3 and live in germany but preordered the US Version. Will i be able to play atleast the full US version or will it region locked too or can I keep my preorder?
Be carefull Sony, lot of your fans are located in Europe. But if you continue to ignore these guys, maybe you will lose the console war definitly.
@linebeginstoblur
if this was the other way around you would be moaning here that you dont have it i.e PSEYE games its a demo we are talkin about this site is FOR ALL PLAYSTATION FANS NOT JUST AMERICANS read all my posts not just the ones at the bottom of the page am not complaining to SCEA about it i am complaining FULL STOP
i wish someone from this site would tell these people this FACT or DENY this FACT that THIS SITE IS FOR ALL PS FANS NOT JUST AMERICANS
its not region locked it seems… asia is ntsc and cant even play the demo
So i can’t complain Japan get alot of better stuff that we do. OK about the game we all been waithing for the demo the game is coming out don’t let SAM stop you from downloading the demo.
i think its only American developers that are dumb and brainless… the Japanese developers dont put restriction on their games and demos simply because they want to get people to play their games
We arent saying this site is for americans only, were saying that SCEA has nothing to do with Europe. Since its SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT AMERICA!!!
SCEE is the one you should be attacking.
Am I the only one that noticed the ps3 daxter avatar?