Stranglehold becomes region-free (as it should be)

by Andrew Yoon { Aug 4th 2007 at 9:00AM }

With its $30 million budget, Stranglehold may be one of the most expensive games ever made. Ever since we played the game at E3, we've been somewhat enamored by this John Woo-inspired effort. The PS3 Collector's Edition, which includes a Blu-ray version of "Hard Boiled," is what we're keeping our eye on.

After upsetting some of its fan base by announcing the game would be region protected, Midway has listened to the consumer and has removed region protection from the PS3 version of the game -- even the version with the movie on it! "Please be clear that the Collector's Edition with the movie is only available in North America, so if you live elsewhere, you'll have to buy it as an import. I guess the higher ups do listen to you guys on the forums!"

[Via NeoGAF]

Tags: hardboiled, midway, regionprotection, stranglehold

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

phattie @ Aug 4th 2007 9:14AM

30 million isnt that much.. MS is paying $50 for episodic content... FF7 was 40 million back in the day on a PSone.

Zack Brandenburg @ Aug 4th 2007 11:58AM

Midway has definitely done the right thing here. They gained some major points in my book for this.

Dahk @ Aug 4th 2007 1:10PM

I'm very impressed. Even though it doesn't totally affect me, this is one example of a company that made a big decision solely based on what the forums wanted =).

Parker @ Aug 4th 2007 1:14PM

Am I mistaken because I was sure movies were required to be region coded. This was due to the protection of the movie studios' copyright and distribution rights (ie their profits)

lucky6877 @ Aug 4th 2007 2:27PM

Does this mean the Movie will play in UK PS3's? If son, where can I order the collectors edition since Amazon.com do not ship to UK?

The Clunge @ Aug 4th 2007 4:52PM

Excellent news, region locking is not the way forward. Great decision, with perhaps some heavy pushing from Sony behind the scenes.

Ang @ Aug 5th 2007 9:31AM

Midway thank you, thank you for not punishing fans that are prepared to support and purchase your products.

Big Companies need to get it through their thick heads, Region coding only hurts the fan that is prepared to pay for the REAL thing no matter which country they live in. Region Coding only helps the pirates sell illegal copies.

I can now import the Collectors Edition and play it AUS.