This game is being released just days apart from Infinite Undiscoveries for the US release. Hope whoever is interested in getting both (like me) has the cash for it (not quite like me), going to be quite the doozy. Oh the mind-boggling choices...

wow
This is madness!

lol looks like fun

Good Lord! Pure JRPG heaven this game. I hope it's region free :(

alimokrane: I dont think any Namco Bandai game have been region free yet, so I dont think Vesperia will be either... :(

Pure awesomness lol. Does anyone knows if the asian version will finally feature the japanese voice acting with subtitkes in english??? Because the more I pplay the demo the more I hate the english cast, really terrible :(.
Also there is a big chance for european that the asian version or american are region free, since the last two bandai nacmco games have been region free.

:( :( :(

Soul Calibur 4 Asian version is rumored to be region free. The Asian NTSC-J version has french and english text. Ace Combat 6 was also region free. Hopefully this game will be region free.

There is hope! The newest game from Namco, Soul Calibur 4 (Asia version) is region free. PAL 2009 release is just unacceptable. But let's wait and see...

The combos in this game are just incredible, especially when you consider the fact that this is indeed a jrpg. It reminds me of Guardian Heroes on the Sega Saturn, that game was phenomenal

I played the demo and looked at the menu system and i think it might be a bit too complex for me. (Please note, I'm NOT bashing the game, I'm just not into complex menu games personally as it's a bit of a chore for me, especially these days.)

looks great, awesome

we havent even got the demo yet here in the uk. Does this annoy anybody else? The fact that Microsoft charge the UK TWICE a much as the charge the states for xbox live, they charge us more for dlc, themes, gamer pics... and we get a p2p service that favours the americans alone.. because come 5pm all games will be dominated and hosted by americans.. leaving use with less quality gaming, and lacking a good community that could be built up if only microsoft cared and enfored an optional regional filter for all games.

Not only do we pay more though.. we also get less of a service as a result... we dont get the tv function, we wont be getting netfix ect. And now we're the last thought when it comes to releasing demo's too?

The xbox live service equivelant (games for windows) is now free because pc owners have that choice, they have an alternative, and they saw that the service is not worth a yearly subsciption charge, when they can get the same quality for free. Its just a shame that 360 owners dont have that choice.. if they want to get full value of their games then there is no alternative, no option, but to pay extra.

I'm probably going to get blasted by all you 360 fanboys now.. but the rant had to be made. Its time we deserved better... especially here in Europe.

bleachedsmiles don't be angry at microsoft for the demo not being in the EU marketplace it's not there falt at all, the game is stated to be released Q1 2009 in Europe and why release a demo 9 months before the game suppose to go on sale ? Btw the one who decide on the release dates of things is the companies who publish and make games.

On other hand you should THANK microsoft that they only limit movies and no other game matrela between regions, so yes that meens you can grab the demo from either the US or Japanese marketplace.

Also this title won't be region free for sure as it doesn't have the same publisher in the US and Europe. I would love to know a single game who was region free and had multiple publishers :P

And as for no movies to europe or most contries in Europe, this apply to PS3 as well. The reason for this is how the movie industry works and how they been selling licenses to multiple publishers in entire Europe, most movies have like 5-10 different publishers all over Europe and yes you need to get the license of them to sell them, For some contries it will be more expensive to fix the licenses then what you actually earn on sellin the things online after. You can blame Microsoft all you want for it but the real problem here is just how the bloody license and copywright system works.

I can blame microsoft for the fact that they charge the uk for a lesser service, less in quantity and quality. That has nothing to do with anybody but Microsoft..as they set the price for live that they believe is its value. Ofcourse the tv thing is out of their hands because that lies with all the paper work between providers. Movies though.. i'm not argueing a fact that we wouldnt get some movies released on the 360 at the same time as they hit the states. But there is no reason why a simular deal to netfix couldnt be made here with say blockbusters, or love film.. again thats not down to Microsoft, never said it was. But just as with the tv it does mean we are getting less quantity in our service here..which microsoft ARE in knowledge about but THEY choose to not lesson that charge. I dont know what you're going on about publishers for though.. we generally get movies released at the cinema within the same week as they are in the states.. if disney publish a film there they will publish it here, delays may be down to clasification ratings but not publishers. It might be different for other parts of europe where films will need that extra time to be translated, i dont know. But i'm talking about Microsofts UK service.

As for this paticular demo, i take your point on that..as i wasnt aware it got such a delay before it will hit the UK from the states.. i knew it was hitting japan first.

But none of this changes the fact that they would charge us twice as much for a p2p service than they do with the americans...and because its p2p, hosted games, the quality suffers for us because of lack of a region filter. The proof is in the pudding as they say. Play on the most popular xbox live game at 10am and you'll have a lag free experience because it will be hosted in the same country. Play on it just 5hrs later and i garentee it will be rare you'll get those five green bars. Instead you'll have ALL games hosted by americans, and the fact is that the community also suffers and racial slurs will often be passed back and fourth between brits and americans.. all could be sorted by an optional filter. So why isnt it? why not give us what we pay for? Let us build up our own gaming community.

Well it's only as complex as you wish for it to be :)

Awesome gameplay footage!

Yet again showing that companies don't seem to care about other countries apart from the US and Japan waiting till 2009 thanks alot

Play-asia have a english Asian version due to come out on August the 14th, I will be getting this for my JP 360, I will let you all know if its region free, when the time comes.

bleachedsmiles nobodyu is forcing you to pay for XBL, infact I don't, and I rarely even use the service besides demos, nothing is stopping anyone from making a second or third silver account for JP and US demos.

MS should have actually made the 360 region free in the next update, I'm sure its possible, the days of region locked games are coming to an end hopefully, Sony seem to have the right idea.

We don't have the demo, because it's not coming out here until next year. If you really want to play it, it isn't very difficult to create an American account and download it.

And if you think Microsoft are screwing over, you'd best not take a look at Nintendo, you'd have an aneurysm. We pay more for things, because that's how our economy works, you can't possibly pretend that this is all Microsoft's doing. MS are the one videogame company that actually seem to give a damn about us.

Theres no alternative to a gold account to allow you to play your games online.. so in that sense yes..microsoft ARE forcing us to pay for xbl. The fact is that its a myth to say they're not forcing us to pay for it..simply because theres no choice there if you want to get full value out of your games. If we didnt "choose" to pay the additional fee then we would be being charged for a product (the game) at the same price as the competitors charge their customers..yet only get half the contents. It shouldnt be a choice to get what you pay for, thats not a privilege its a right.

Ofcourse then the other choice is to dump the 360 and get one of the other platforms..each of which provides a free service of the same, if not better, quality. (before anybody starts talking down psn i would advice you play the most popular online game this generation on both platforms..cod 4. Both will be of the same quality lag wise..but only one will break up your games with "host has left the game" ..which happens so often you could probably set your watch by it now). But then why do we own the 360? we dont own it through a love to microsoft..i have no loyality there, it would be foolish to. We own it for the GAMES.. so to cheat myself out of those games, or pay a additional fee that i dont agree warrents a charge, then ofcourse theres little choice.

As for setting up a jap/usa account... i thought microsoft had put a block on people doing that..and have you lose your existing account, and then would be charged to get your old name back? I know they atleast spoke of policing it cause i remember ign going on about it.

Wow, chick with the spear is full of win!

@bleachedsmiles

If you think the European marketplace is bad then check out the Asian marketplace. When we got the Tales of Vesperia demo, it played in Japanese not in English because our console has the same region code as Japan NTSC-J. Content in the Asian marketplace (i.e. Singapore Marketplace) is lacking and practically stagnant. Yes I will admit that the US marketplace is the best and most maintained one and perhaps Microsoft should consider centralizing the live service.

Oh and not only that...Asia has 2 releases of Tales of Vesperia. On August 7 we have the Japanese version. On August 14 we have the English version. It doesn't make sense to release a Japanese version to the rest of Asia because practically 99% of Asians don't speak Japanese. But whose decision was that? That was Namco's decision...it was a precedent dating all the way from the days of Nintendo and Sony where Asia was not even remotely supported and people buy imports to just play.

But for all purposes, region locking is a thing that was implemented to protect distributors and retailers across all regions and to lower prices on some. Game prices in Asia are much lower than its American and European counterparts. It's lower because the standard of living here isn't as high as the west. Minimum wage here is lower than the western world. Content is locked for each live area because there are various people who 'own' that similar content across several countries. Microsoft implemented region locking and content specification to avoid having lawsuits served to them for violating XXXX IP rights claims for certain regions. That's the way the world works. It's not really fair but that's what happens.

As for Sony, they are setting a precedent and chances are in the generation after this the rest of the console companies will follow. While I heard that the distributors are grumbling about the lack of region coding for Sony, they are in a better position to implement this change because Sony is known to be a media giant more than Microsoft. They are well established in the movie and entertainment industry that its very hard to actually touch them. But note that Sony also compromised by actuall region locking Blu-Ray movies.

Right now the only thing Microsoft is doing is to advise their publishers that they have the option to remove region locks. Right now several big publishers have done this such as Capcom, Ubisoft, Activision. But there are others who doesn't seem to budge particularly EA and 2K. The decision to retain region locking is partly due to the publisher themselves.

It's very easy to complain that you are getting a raw deal out of something. In the end XBOX Live just cost around $3++/month which I don't think is such a steep value. I'll admit that Microsoft has a long way to go when it comes to the regional management of the XBOX 360 but these things take time. Despite the advancements of Live, this is the first time Microsoft has expanded the service to various territories.

Its about $6 a month here.. which is just over £3.. and yes its not steep..but it is £3 extra a month than every other platform charges for online. And you have to take into consideration just what that £40 a year Microsoft wishes to charge for a gold account could buy you..because at the end of the day its an extra game you could have, or dlc...songs, maps ect. So its all too easy to say "well its only this much a month"..because thats a saving that ps3 owners are making and can put towards those extra things like dlc and still get an equal gaming experience online. Plus its not like Microsoft survives on my £3 a month alone.. they rake in millions in the double figures each month for a service where they dont even provide dedicated servers..so its no wonder they're laughing. And its not like the multi million poud service doesnt have faults when the value of it is needed the most..remember christmas? it was down for FIVE DAYS.

I just wish that Microsoft would enforce a regional filter for online gaming.. it would make the quality of gaming so much better, and it would be such an easy thing to do for a developer as its not like most games that hit the pc dont have filters when finding online games.

As for region locks in software..i wish Microsoft did adopt region free like the ps3, it would make buying games alot cheaper. Rockband for instance costs £180 here...its £80 in the states... thats £100 difference using an excuse of tax. It would cost around £20 to import from America.. so if it was region free you'd actually make a saving of £80 and of had it flown to you..crazy.

what????
i didnt understand about the part where you say about charging about consumers and the cod 4 thing



Also i fine with paying 60 dollars a year for a better online service. Also people if you dont know a thing about business dont make anything up. Its take a lot of time and money to do a single thing like updates which you think are so simple. End the end Microsoft has superior oniline service, games, and a console. PS3 may be a lil bit more effiecient and hardware impressive. However the 360 makes more out of its hardware. It is more innovative built so it is able to churn out better graphics...go look it up to see who can churn out better graphics. dont go to amateurs take it from pros...360 has a better GPU that can do better graphics.

360 ALL THE WAY...

FEEL PROUD 360 OWNERS for you have a better service, community and CONSOLE...also the best company ever....MICROSOFT!!!!

I would apply efficient with the 360, because of the GPU and I think they split even in hardware impressiveness category. As a matter of fact, that probably goes to the PS3 when you count the standard HDD, Blu Ray and the Cell. I do believe the 360 has a better GPU, but the PS3 is certainly no slouch in that regard either and gets some impressive support from the CPU. It has proven many times over that it can match and even exceed the 360 graphically.

It really all comes down to the developer anyway.