European & Saudi gamers jilted: PS Store available in "select markets only"

[Gamer From '78]

"PlayStation Online Store Problems Across Europe
And Saudi Arabia too!
26 Mar 2007Link to this: http://news.spong.com/article/12140

According to numerous posts on the official European PS3 boards, PS3 owners across Europe and Saudi Arabia are experiencing problems connecting to the online PlayStation Store via their shiny new PS3s.

It seems, according to these sources, that PSN is not working for gamers in the following countries:

• Greece
• Israel
• Saudi Arabia
• Bulgaria
• Slovenia
• Iceland
• Turkey

The first forum post on the official boards, from an irate Greek gamer, simply states:

“Sorry for the off-topic here but i couldn`t find any more suitable forum. So the problem here in greece is that we have bought the playstation 3 60 euro more than most european country and to our surprize sony have made angry. After coming home and creating account to playstation network when we tryied to log on to the ps store to download grand turismo HD and buy tekken we were informed that the ps store is not available in our country Greece.Does anyone has the same problem?
I would like personally to thanks sony for :
1.Make us pay 60 euros more than other EU residents
2.Ban us from Ps store”


It would seem that this is far from an isolated problem – with gamers from Iceland all the way down to Saudi Arabia experiencing similar issues when trying to log on to PSN.

SPOnG has spoken with SCE’s PR reps in the UK this morning to find out more about why these problems are occurring and what is being done to fix them, so stay tuned to hear back on this as soon as we do."

Wow...not only do Euro-gamers get a gimped-out Emotion Engine-less PS3 and no option for a cheaper 20-gig model, they also get screwed because the PS Network isn't supported in their country. :thumbsup:

[PapaSmurf]

When I see something like this it amazes me that the first thing that comes to my mind is how TLW will counter it.

[Glockstar]

Greece; Israel; Saudi Arabia; Bulgaria; Slovenia; Iceland; Turkey don't count!

[folken001]

Yea, there is just NO WAY to fix this. People in those countries are so doomed. At least their PS3 will probably work for a long time. It sure as hell won't be like 360 and its faulty hardware. Oh no. No way.

[Mochan]

What else is new, Philippine gamers have been jilted since time immemorial, I don't care. These Greek gamers act as if this is the first time they've been marginalized, I'm sure they've experienced the same kind of issues in the past with their PCs and probably even their PS2s if they wanted to play Socom.

[Gamer From '78]

Yea, there is just NO WAY to fix this. People in those countries are so doomed. At least their PS3 will probably work for a long time. It sure as hell won't be like 360 and its faulty hardware. Oh no. No way.

Typical Sony fanboy response. Attack something else because your "can-do-no-wrong" master Sony botched yet another item on their Euro launch. Ignore the facts, bash something else.

It's ok Folken, you can now return to sobbing about losing Devil May Cry 4 as an exclusive. You better get that one out of your system, because I'm sure the Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid announcements are forethcoming. :thumbsup:

[ilnadmy]

Boohoo my country can't access everything that the Americans can. Deal with it. I've been living with this bullsh** for my entire life now, and I've kinda come to expect it. This is nothing new.

[Glockstar]

It's ok Folken, you can now return to sobbing about losing Devil May Cry 4 as an exclusive. You better get that one out of your system, because I'm sure the Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid announcements are forethcoming. :thumbsup:

Hee hee!

[Gadfly2317]

Greece; Israel; Saudi Arabia; Bulgaria; Slovenia; Iceland; Turkey don't count!

These countries were excluded for being part of the axis of evil.

Well, except Iceland, which market research determined was too drunk to figure out how to use the network anyway.

[slade]

Actually, there is a way around this. I, myself, have membership to the japanese and u.s. psn stores. It's useful for downloading stuff that is not available across the board. As for buying stuff, I've read that you can use mastercards in certain countries as well as use giftcards from some online sites.

It's not a perfect solution but better then nothing at all. The japanese store has some content that the other stores don't like two direct feed DMC4 vids and what appears to be a demo of HSG5.

I'm typing this on my PS3 webbrowser BTW.

[Cuddly Knife]

I do the same that slade does, except on the 360. It's as simple as creating a new account with the region you want.

[Gadfly2317]

I'm typing this on my PS3 webbrowser BTW.

Cool! I posted here with my Wii once. Though writing with the Wii is like. . . peeing in the snow. System Wars is the snow on which we pee.

[slade]

Typing with the PS3 pad isn't so bad. The Predictive Dictionary is very helpful. It still takes three times longer then on a keyboard though. I'm thinking of hooking up a USB keyboard to the PS3 for times when I'm under the weather (like now) and stay in my room for long periods of time.

[PapaSmurf]

I posted here with my PSP once. Only for the novelty, I'll never do that again. It is quite fun to read the posts with the PSP though, that's not a problem.