Japanese IT Media has announced some details on the Blu-Ray region coding and it holds a nice surprise. Japan, North America, and East Asia will all be sharing one region code.

This potentially means that American gamers will be able to import Japanese PS3 Blu-Ray games, and will definately be able to import Japanese Blu-Ray Anime/Movie titles without any hassle. Europe unfortunately will be sharing a region code with Africa so likely not much cross-gaming there. Sorry Europe, looks like you will be getting the gaming bone again. Oh and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all from all of us here at GR!

Masakazu Honda @ ITMedia reports about the final review version of the AACS contents management system for HD formats such as Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD. AACS LA consists of IBM, Sony, Toshiba, Warner, Intel, Microsoft, Matsushita, and Disney.

+ ICT (Image Constrain Token) must be supported by AACS software and hardware as Warner wanted. ICT is utilized to limit hi-res analog output. But in countries such as Japan in which the laws prohibit ICT, it's not required until 2011. Contents providers except for Warner say they don't use ICT, but according to Honda even Warner won't use it because of commercial reasons.

+ Though Warner was eager to abolish region code and there were no objection until the final decision, film companies not in AACS LA opposed it and it was decided that region code stays in BD-ROM. But it undergoes reorganization. Basically, Japan and other East Asian countries except for China are moved to Region 1. The new region codes are:

• Region 1: North America, South America, East Asia except for China (India, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia etc.)
• Region 2: Europe and Africa
• Region 3: China, Russia and other countries

IMHO, most likely, the handling of region codes in the PS3 BD will be the same as PSP (no regions in games).

From GamersReports - ITMedia