I'm considering picking up an Xbox 360 sometime down the road (probably an premium or arcade if I can add my own hard drive somehow). Playing imports is pretty important when I purchase a console to me. Some 360 games are region free but many others aren't from what I can tell.
As someone coming from the original Xbox - I was wondering if there is any kind of "softmod" for the 360 that will allow me to play imports like on the original? Never used Xbox live nor have any plans to so getting banned from it with a modded console isn't very important to me
I heard there is no way around it except to buy an import XBOX 360. The XBOX 360 itself is region free but Microsoft left the region lock up to the game company. I might pick one up eventually but worried about the RROD. I want it for the planned shmups being released in Japan, i.e. Raiden Fighters Comp., Ketsui, and DDP DOJ BL.
I'm not an expert on the matter, but as far as I know it's impossible to bypass the region lock. You can't change the region of your console since so far no one knows exactly where that information is stored, we just know it's somewhere on the motherboard, and the games can't be region patched because they have to be exact 1:1 copies of the originals.
This pretty much sucks, since I was really looking forward to play Shikigami No Shiro III but it's region locked to Japan.
If you're going to be importing for the 360, you might as well just find a Japanese system. Some games are region free, but these are typically the Asia versions of Western games. You'll be hard pressed to find a Japanese only game that works in a US system. Of course, the 360 as an import system doesn't give you many options anyway. 90% of the software is either Western developed or gets US releases. There's a few imports I can think of like Far East of Eden, Oneechanbara, Shikigami No Shiro III and Raiden Fighters, but some of these will hit state side. I also read that Spectral Force 3 and Operation Darkness are being brought over by Atlas.
As far as softmods go, I don't think there are any. I believe you can hard mod, but that might put you at risk at banning your console from Live, which is an integral part of the 360. You'll want to be able connect even if you don't plan on playing online, for updates and marketplace stuff.
I wouldn't worry about imports tbh. Theres very little content coming from east. What you really want is a Japanese Live account (a silver will do) you just need to find a valid japanese address and hope they don't mind you 'borrowing' it. This will let you download the japanese XBLA games.
There was a softmod at one point but it only worked on a very very old firmware and no subsequent holes exploits have been found since.
I would advise against hard modding the 360 as well as what was previously mentioned regarding them banning your xbox's serial number from live.
So it would seem that the scene isn't as well developed yet then the original Xbox, thats to bad.
I could care less about Xbox live really, so losing access to me isn't a big deal. I don't play online nor do any of the arcade games seem interesting. Only downside I could see is game patches (not sure if they patch a lot of 360 games?).
No hard mods either can bypass region lock? If so that really sucks! I'm mostly interested in some asian edition games as well as some Japanese ones. Also strongly prefer Japanese voice acting - another main reason of my interest in imports.
Hopefully they'll drop price in Japan or Asia since they just did in Europe!
Yes the blaster just patches at boot time. It can't do anything in the firmware of the 360.
If i was you i'd just import a Japanese 360, they cost very little over there. They're completely worthless in the eyes of the Japanese. Don't they have a name for products that come from the west that are inferior in their opinion no matter what? I think the only company that has managed to overcome that so far is Apple. Having said that Apple are very eastern in their product design anyway (small form factor, high usability and user friendly) as opposed to the West's function over form mentality.
I definitely think it's pointless though. There's not much to go on, only a handful of games. Most of the games that are released are translated to japanese from english and later than when we get the games anyway.
If you are really into japanese games i'd just buy a PS3. It's region free out of the box (for games, not movies) plus MGS4 is out in a couple of months anyway (and btw the only way you'll be able to hear the japanese voices is if you import from Japan as Kojima has stated that the BD is not big enough to hold all the data for multiple languages.)
TBH i feel the 360 is great if you like western games, plus it's cheap and so are the games. If you are really into Japanese games then i would highly suggest just getting a PS3, but with that comes a higher price of entry (unless you sacrifice BC and buy the cheaper 40GB model) and the added costs of importing the asian games (risk of having import duty/tax applied on everything you buy, which stings, and it does happen!)
I was looking at the play-asia's 360 region chart - seems most of the games I'm interested in have some interesting options. Some of the asian edition ones even include Japanese voice acting with English subs. If prices come down I'll probably just pick up a Japanese 360 in the future then.
I have a PS3 - great for import gaming. I'm just hoping someone comes out with a region bypass for bc so I can upsacle my import PS2 games on it.
