The price of computer games may fall following a landmark court ruling that allows Australians to buy cheap computer games overseas and play them on modified TV game consoles.

The High Court ruled today that it was legal to "mod-chip" Sony PlayStation game consoles so as to play games sold outside Australia.

Mod-chips are electronic devices that can be connected to consoles such as the PlayStation, allowing the use of games with non-Australian regional codes.

The consumer watchdog has argued in the Federal Court that the games industry unfairly uses regional coding to set different prices in different parts of the world.

Sydney businessman Eddy Stevens had fought a four-year legal battle against Sony, which claimed mod-chipping breached its copyright and circumvented technology within the PlayStation console to prevent the use of what it called unauthorised games.

In 2001, Mr Stevens sold unauthorised copies of PlayStation games Croc 2, Medi Evil, Motor Races World Tour and Porsche 2000. He also sold mod-chips and installed them on PlayStation consoles.
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A lawyer for Mr Stevens said today: "All six judges of the High Court held that widely-used 'mod-chips' were legal, with far-reaching implications for the manufacturers of computer games [Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft] and consumers.

"Mod-chips allow gamers to ignore manufacturers' regional coding systems and purchase cheaper games designed for markets outside Australia."

The High Court found playing a computer program on a PlayStation did not involve reproducing it, so copyright law was not breached.

"The price of computer games may fall following a landmark court ruling that allows Australians to buy cheap computer games overseas and play them on modified TV game consoles."

Don't bet on it. I expect the industry to respond by raising prices in other markets so that everyone is paying the same inflated price.

Games are already way too expensive. Most new PS2 games are...what?...$40-60. Why would I pay that when I can wait 6 months to a year and get it for $20...or better yet, used for about $10.

The games industry suffers from the same overpricing affliction that affects the record industry. The only difference is that games prices eventually drop, whereas that doesn't happen with most music.

Greed is an ugly thing.

Obviously you've never gone to an arcade and plopped down $5-$10 in quarters.

$40-$50 is cheap. Especially considering you can play it again, and again.

I've written music, and I've written software. (never written a game) Music is much more easier to get a finished product than a game.

If you had the wrong line in a lyric sheet no big deal. If you have one plus instead of a minus inside 1 function that's called once during the whole game, you've got a BIG problem.

Don't get me wrong. I'm totally for the use of mod chips. For home made code, and being able to use over seas roms.

I get where you are coming from the-erm. Reward the work that is done. I just hate it when I shell out a ton of money for games that turn out to suck. Even if the game doesn't suck per-se, the playability of it may be of a type that I don't enjoy. So it sits on the shelf unplayed or gets traded at a considerable loss.

Sure I used to go drop $5-10 in quarters back in the 80's, when most games were a quarter per play. That made for a nice afternoon of fun, which was as much of a social thing as it was getting a game-fix. Plus, you got to choose from a variety of games. Of course, my big thing was pinball. Back then, you could easily win free games and keep playing all afternoon on a dollar or two.

I guess, for me personally, they aren't worth that much because I just don't have enough time to invest in playing anymore.

Also, I know the game industry works a lot like the music industry. The big companies rake in the money while their employees are treated like sweatshop workers. I've heard many a tale of how programmers are offered a seemingly large sum, only to find out they will basically be working 24/7 for months on end. After all's said and done, what seemed like a great paying job turns out to be about $6 per hour.

Anyway, as I stated above, I figure the big game companies will fight this by raising prices universally so soon those $40-50 games will be in the triple digits.

BTW, which do you prefer, writing music or software?

A collection of great quotes from others I picked up that aren't really directly on topic with this post, but I wanted to post it here, since this is the top post and will get read more:

"I dont buy as many CDs as I used to in the past 4-6 years because:
my health insurance has over doubled
gas prices have over doubled
my electric bill is nearly double
my heat bill has doubled
my grocery bill is close to double
cable TV bill again near double
my income has NOT doubled"


"Have the record companies even thought this might have a slight effect on CD sales? Also I tend to purchase DVDs more now because they are as cheap or cheaper than music CDs. Why don't the RIAA sue the MPAA for stealing sales?"

"When and why is that DNA can not prove someone's guilt while an IP address can?"

"After enough erronious and harassing lawsuits, the courts will see that the RIAA cries wolf a wee bit much when they are the wolf to be protected from."

"The problem solves itself in time. Judging by the number of people getting targetted and fighting back (X out of 14,000), the day will come in the near future."

"If you ever get a call from one of these legbreaker thugs representing the RIAA, make sure you ask for the name of the employee and the name of the firm he/she works for. That way you can sue both the RIAA AND the collection agent thugs under RICO statutes. Also make sure you have a wireless device (that you can blame for being wide open) or claim you were infected with a trojan that allowed your PC to be used by music pirates. Just make sure you don't have any physical evidence on your PC. IP's aren't fingerprints...they can point the RIAA in the right direction (on occasion), but they do not meet the burden of proof. A seized hard-drive full of MP3's...well...that's another story."

My own comment on that last sentence: Get Truecrypt http://www.truecrypt.org/ free, open source. Encrypt your HDD where you have all your stuff stored (has to be blank drive, unformatted), and feel confident that if your HDD's get confiscated by anyone, that they will be working on trying to crack them with cryptanalysis up until Christ returns to Earth. =)

I think that's the true spirit, because I think that the region coding on the DVDs and video games are unfair, because what if I want that japanese game that never made it here in the US? If consumers import games from other countries, that's showing that consumers are interested in these types of games overseas.

I like to purchase CDs from artists overseas, like Turkish artists and so fourth.

Which is why they want regional coding on everything. They wouldn't want us Americans introduced to music from another country.

I love overseas music. It's more fluid than what you hear over here in the US.

And responding to the article, I simply see Sony, et al changing the mainboards of their systems to prevent modding. They've tried this already, but the modders found a way around it by adding a on/off switch to the chip. All the console makers have to do is change a setting or a chip somewhere on the mainboard to detect if a chip is turned on and the modders will have to go back to the drawing board.