PS4 Region Questions (Please Help Me!)

Hey everyone,

I live in the UK and the PS4 is out of stock everywhere until February! But I looked on Amazon.com (The USA version) and the PS4 is in stock so I bought it there and it will be delivered on the 27th :D But then I looked into all this Region locking, shifting accounts and got really confused. I understand about the PS4 Power cable being USA so I will need an adapter, thats covered. I have read on the internet that PS4 is region free which is good, isnt it? I will break my this into smaller questions:

If I buy my PS4 from the USA and I live in UK, Will I have to buy PS4 games from the USA all the time?

If I already have a Europe account on PSN and use that on my USA PS4, will anything be affected like the store being locked and DLC not working because I'm not in the right region?

Is the picture quality different on the PS4 because I will be playing NTSC on a PAL Tv?

If on Amazon it states that a Bluray is 'All regions' will that play on my USA PS4?

That's all I could think of at the minute, I am sorry if these questions are a bit dumb but the information was hard to understand and specifically find on the internet. So Overall, will everything just be the same as a PS4 being purchased from the same region?

You have made a bad decision, just for the fact that there is no way to get your PlayStation 4 fixed by Sony if it breaks. If it breaks early on you may be able to take it back to where you bought it, but if it does not break until long term use, you will have issues.

If I buy my PS4 from the USA and I live in UK, Will I have to buy PS4 games from the USA all the time?

You will not have to purchase video games from the United States, you can purchase your video games from the United Kingdom locally. Also, do not create a fake PlayStation Network account for the United States either, if you purchase video games from the United Kingdom that require an on-line pass in order to play the video game on-line, know that it will be region locked and will not work on a PlayStation Network account meant for the United States; although they may do away with the on-line pass thing all together for this new generation of consoles.

If I already have a Europe account on PSN and use that on my USA PS4, will anything be affected like the store being locked and DLC not working because I'm not in the right region?

I think everything is IP address based, so console does not determine your region in the way you described. You simply living in the United Kingdom means everything should work fine.

If on Amazon it states that a Bluray is 'All regions' will that play on my USA PS4?

For the United Kingdom, they use Region Code B for Blu-ray Disc, so you have another problem, you will not be able to use any Blu-ray Disc on your PlayStation 4 marketed for the United States, the United States used Region Code A; so you would have to purchase Region Code A Blu-ray Disc for your PlayStation 4 marketed for the United States.

Thanks a lot for the reply and advice Glitter, The PS4 has been dispatched now so I can't cancel, I really hope it doesn't break with in a few months or even years. Is there anything I can do for a valid warranty to get in the UK separately at all?

@glitter: About the 1st paragraph. Why taking console to an ordinary local service isn't an option?

@rockinpapa: The warranty through Sony is only good for the region the console is meant for (in this case the USA) so Sony's UK branch will not take any warranty requests for his system.

@kye-mc: You're welcome, from what I understand there is nothing you can do and I know this is not what you want to read; it is like this for all video game consoles and handhelds from what I understand, maybe even electronics in general have this rule as well. I wish you had posted this before purchasing, I dislike that you have to go through this. The only way you will ever be able to get it fixed now, is if you get it fixed by someone or do it yourself.

I was in a similar situation, but I never purchased the console. What happened with me was I was interested in Japanese exclusives for another console last generation which was region locked and despite the high failure rate, I was still willing to purchase it from overseas at the time, just so I could play the type of video games I wanted; in the end I ended up not going through with it and I realized how badly it would have hurt me had I put a lot of money into something I could not get fixed, that was bound to break due to its high failure rate.

If you have a friend in the United States that you trust, you can send it to them and then have them get it fixed; this is about the only way you can get it fixed the right way, as I understand they will not let you have it exported it to them and then have it imported back to you in the United Kingdom if it breaks. I was once interested in importing video games and I did not acknowledge at the time how much of a problem it was going to be, to import hardware in order play the video games I wanted.

@rockinpapa: Even if it isn't technically covered by the warranty because of region you often find local service centres are happy to fix things anyway (or send you a new unit) simply because your on-going patronage (buying software) is more important to them than selling hardware.

I do have an uncle in Canada so that could work, would be pricey altogether though but better than buying a brand new PS4! If Warranty and Bluray playing are the only 2 things its not bad, I also read into the NTSC/PAL thingy and found that HDMI is unaffected no matter what TV, thanks again :)