Why Can't I Play My Friends In Iraq/Afghanistan On The PS3?

There's a little known yet very disappointing fact about the Playstation Network that we're going to share with you today. If you have a friend who lives in a different country, then its possible you will not be able to add them as a friend on your PS3. The reason why is that if you register your PS3 in a specific country, your Playstation Network is limited to that region. I have yet to confirm this for the rest of the world, but it is currently the case in the United States. So, if my friend from the United States registers his/her Playstation 3 while they are on tour in Iraq/Afghanistan, then I will never be able to add them as long as I'm a US resident. This is extremely disappointing, Sony.

[TheTimeDoctor]

it makes sense, psn is a private network and the US government wouldn't want to allow any message to pass between these two nations. its kind of a no brainer.

[sackboy says hi]

sackboys says since when did they play ps3 were they are fighting war.... :/

[TheTimeDoctor]

i hate you

[LoVeRSaMa]

Its true, why would you be playing on a PS3 in Iraq/Afghanistan?

If your at war, your at war, no time to play COD 4, COD 4 in real life MENGS!

[kevin1112]

you think they dont play games there? trust me they do.

[JsonHenry]

We do get downtime over seas you idiots.

[season007]

because i play eye of judgment and i am from Hong Kong o well...and yes i use an american PSN account

[incogneato]

i dont know what this guy is talking about, i play and have friends added from other countries.

[DarkBlood]

though it makes sense and no sense at the same time if that was true then wouldn't our internet be limited to region if so then all the games should had been cross region by choice of course

[badz149]

the games are region free but online gaming is not region free for all games. I don't know about now but I bought AU version of Motorstorm and I can only login to AU/NZ and EU servers only which ultimately limited the chance to play with players from other region. then I bought Minna no Golf JPN version and all I can play is in JPN room with Japanese players! not that I have problem speaking Japanese but it would have been nice if we are allowed to play at the global scale which means more players and more interactions between gamers! I bought Kratos from AU PSN store and tried to apply it to the JPN version but it doesn't work! luckily it was just under AU$2 but still these things piss me off!

don't let me even start with address and credit card registration! My country is not even in the list! so how the hell would I buy things from PSN if I can't even put my address? then no PSN cards!! DAMN Sony, you can do better than this!!

[Fishy Fingers]

You seem to have a large number of gripes with the PSN, such as your address problem. Rather than moaning here at N4G have you tried moaning to Sony and see if you can get any of your problems resolved?

You'd be surprised where a little harassment can get you ;)

[shine1396]

I'd listen to fishy fingers... also contact the playstation blog... and I'm not sure but I think they moniter the official forums so try there as well.

[sackboy says hi]

sackboy hates u to... ;-D

[SixTwoTwo]

I live in Cali and I've got friends on my friends list from all over the world including the Middle East.

BTW the link is broken.

[WAR_MACHINE77]

I'm in the US and I have a couple from Europe. maybe its just specific places that have this problem.

[Voozi]

Yea I scratched my head at that line too cause...

I have a couple UK friends, 1-2 AU friends, and like 10 JP friends, then rest are all from USA or Canada

(I'm from USA)

[proArchy]

Link is probably broken because the article has no foundation in reality. You can add PSN users from anywhere in the world, but playing a game with them is the tricky part. Developers are given the choice whether to include cross-regional play or not. The only way Sony could address this issue is making mandatory all online games to include cross-regional play. But developers don't care for 'requirements' much.

[Fishy Fingers]

Broken link and still approved?

[Lumbo]

You should take a look at some of the approving accounts .. they exist solely to login and approve stories, mostly 10+ in one go .. i smell a multiple personality here ;)

[shine1396]

maybe it broke after it was approved?

[Jackthepwnsaur]

Sony locks down the servers from becoming worldwide, except for a few games like resistance 1. this is one of the bad things about the PSN. Although Sony has a better console, they dont have a better network. IF they want to win this generation, they must keep evolving the PSN faster.

[proArchy]

Not true, as i said before, its developer controlled. COD4/Warhawk/Battlefield:BC/So com are all international, I've played South Africans, Irish, British, Egyptian, Japanese, Indian etc. Army of Two/Hot Shots golf/UT3(as far as I know) are not international, and those were decisions made by the studio not Sony. Just trying to make sure we know where we need to direct our complaints because Sony will just say 'So what, not our problem' because its not.

[Jackthepwnsaur]

thanks for telling me that, i did not know that, bubbles up.

[slave2Dcontroller]

MAVERICK!

[Mr_Luke]

I'm the only one who is really happy about the PSN? I play with a lot of ppl all over the world, my portuguese gf too (and i'm italian).
Or this is another attempt (with broken link..) to throw craps at Sony again? ;)

[slave2Dcontroller]

I love PSN 2.

[juuken]

It won't be the first time Sony's bashed these days.

[Iraq Resistance ROM]

for not supporting the killers and oil suckers by isolating them in these war zones, these killers doesnt deserve to play at all, they shouldnt infect the others with their evil sight and deeds that they done and doing in my country!!

no one should make any friendship with these baby and women killers!!
they bomb an entire building that many families live in just because one resister was hiding in it or just passed by it!!

once the US soldiers blew a hole house and a family live in it just that they suspected there was a fighter in it!!

shows how savage these people and they dare say they r fighting for iraqi people and came to save them from saddam!! saddam never did like wats going on in iraq!

[karlostomy]

Those terrorists that attack and snipe while hiding behind women and children (or in their houses) are the true murderers.

Innocent Casualties of war are a terrible thing.
Innocent Casualties of war as a consequence of harbouring terrorists are unnecessary and a terrible thing

The Solution: if you're a civilian, DON'T HARBOUR TERRORISTS OR YOU DIE!

Is that simple enough?

[theKiller]

if i were u i wouldnt take bush and the media words for granted, they lied so many times, and they made up many things in this war and about muslims etc

so i suggest u to make a little search from not american sources before u open ur mouth with anything!

[Iraq Resistance ROM]

first not anyone who holds a gun or sniper against US invading army is a terrorist, infact its the US army that is terrorizing the civilians and destroying their entire country, what u saying is something like that "if iraq invade USA then anyone who resist is a terrorist" what a joke u r

second if a fighter/terrorist was running around ur neighbor and by chance passed by ur house or made a turn around it does that mean its ok for the Big Terrorist to blow u and the fighter/terrorist and ur entire house with ur mom and dad and cousins and brothers and sisters inside the house?

besides who told u that the fighters using people as human shields? CNN? the resistance have their own house, cars districts etc, what do u think they r stupid?? they know hiding behind civilians means nothing to the big terrorist invading army, human shields is useful only if the other side value their lifes, but do u really think thats the case in iraq?? LOL!! what a kid!!

and if what u say is true
"innocent Casualties of war as a consequence of harbouring terrorists are unnecessary and a terrible thing"
then the iraqi people r terrorist!! so then why do u want to invade a terrorist nation and save them from a bad guy?? do u love these terrorist nation that much so u shed blood and money for??

any way USA is losing 100's of billions in iraq and they deserve it, ur economy is crashing, collapsing, ur income becoming worst every year, ur health insurance is getting worst(60 million dont have),ur education is becoming worst(students graduate from high school and they know sh*t, even a child in iraq knows more), God punishing u every months by hurricanes and costing u billions every year!! i wont be surprised if there will be huge earth quakes and volcanoes in the future in america!!

there is no freedom in USA, u cant say anything bad about holicost or u will be prisoned, u cant say anything bad about jews or Zionist or u will be jailed or killed, u can only say the things that Bush allows u to say that all!! when there was democracy in Palestine and people choose Hamas USA backed israel and the traitors from Fateh to take over Hamas by force and by not allowing food to enter Gaza!!

u failed u failure Nazi

[juuken]

I see that the government has you brainwashed already.

Seriously, where ARE those weapons of mass destruction? Why do I keep hearing about innocent civilians getting killed in Iraq on a daily basis ?

I told you your Nazi avatar was distasteful.

[TheMART]

Juukie

WHere did he talk about weapons of mass destruction? Yes USA and UK have gone there under the wrong reason, on the other hand, Saddam Hussein was killing his own people with different kind of biological and chemical weapons.

Yes every day people die there. Yes, they also did before USA was there, but just specific groups in the country, now its more general. BTW its because of the Al Quaida kind of extreem religious bastards that the bombs are still placed everywhere.

Couldn't they just get you in a plain to let you shiat on those terrorists? If your poo is as big as the ass it would be a major hit!

[ravinshield]

the whole playstation is disappointing

[juuken]

Mart...why are you such a f*cking idiot?

I used that as an example. That's one of the many, many lies Bush has used to justify the war in Iraq. I may live in this country but I don't agree with innocent people being killed on a daily basis.

[karlostomy]

Look at all the people jumping on the anti american bandwagon.
You guys that curse America are not seeing this in context.

I have done quite a bit of research on this topic and most of you are so uninformed it's not funny.

Far from being American influenced, I have observed that the american army is indeed bound by strict rules of engagement. What's more the WORLD's MEDIA is observing America and judging its every move!

Never before in history have there been LESS civilian casualties than in THIS war. However, does that mean I condone civilian casualties? NO!

What fails to get acknowledged is that prior to the iraq war it was the IRAQIs themselves who were doing most of the killing of civilians.
The IRAQIs themselves have killed MILLIONS of their own innocent civilians in civil wars, religious wars and just outright power games.

The sunni and shiite religions have been trying to wipe each other out since the word dot. Were it not for the presence of a controlling force, the country would revert to Hussein style dictatorship (with civilian murders) or outright civil war, which would kill millions of civilians.

The situation is not as simple as once again blaming the 'damn americans' *sighs*

The bottom line is thus:

There is a war going on.
America has occupied Iraq (for whatever reasons) and is trying to make it somewhat independent by introducing a capitalist democratic system. In the meantime , terrorists are trying to kill american soldiers! NOT the other way round!

If those 'terrorists' involve civilians in their combat actions, then those civilians also become combatants, by definition.

To demonstrate further, picture this:

1. there is an american tank in your street, shooting at no-one.
2. A woman with a child harbours a terrorist combatant in her house with a sniper rifle trying to shoot the guy on top of the tank
3. The sniper shoots and kills the american guy on top of the tank
4. The american tank then destroys the building and kills the sniper who was hiding next to the child.
5. Sadly, the child, next to whom the sniper was hiding, is killed!
6. There is outrage, by simple minded idiots, at the tank for killing the child which was sitting next to the sniper.

WHY IS NO_ONE angry at the idiot sniper who hid like a coward behind a woman and child?

Strikes me as ironic, considering the history of Iraq, the iran war, the sunni/shiite religious killings (over hundreds of years), the repeated gassing of kurds and the murderous regime prior to the invasion, the entire history of middle eastern muslim conflict and killings, that we are making the americans out to be the biggest ars3holes in history.

Get a grip!
Consider the big picture!

Stop looking at the situation with myopic personal prejudices and bandaid, short term idealism!

BTW. I am not American, nor am I pro war.
I do not like anyone getting killed ever.

But if someone points a gun at me I will defend myself, just as the average joe American grunt is forced to do every day.

[MetalFreakMike]

I play people from other countrys all the time on PSN. Ever try to play a game with someone that keeps on speaking french or whatever language they use? It is very annoying! Also when i play russians, they seem to like to laugh alot.

[Vip3r]

"If you have a friend who lives in a different country, then its possible you will not be able to add them as a friend on your PS3."

Wrong. I have people from Spain, Austrailia, Canada and the US on my friends list and everything works fine.

[SPECTRUX]

Its not completely locked because I have Brits on my friends list and I play on European servers. (I live in NY)

[jtucker78]

Likewise. I'm a Brit and I've played a few guys from the US and got a few on my friends list.

[DELTABOY04]

i'm in south korea and i can play with friends in the states. Dont know about iraq..last time i was there i only had my 360. Ps3 should work the same.

[WAR_MACHINE77]

I just remembered that I have a guy on my list from Saudi Arabia thats in the US for school and he brought his PS3 over from home.

[DoctorXpro]

Were da hell they gonna buy a ps3 in Iraq/Afghanistan????

[Egzekutor]

Who has friends in Afghanistan LOL ??

[shovelbum]

Soldiers and Marines need downtime too whether in war or not. You'd be amazed at the number of consoles residing in the desert. I know that there were at least a hundred 360's at Camp Anaconda when I was doing archaeology near there a couple years back. It is strange that you can only play with others in your region if this is indeed true. I've never traveled with my PS3, just the 360 so I know it works fine. Could be a Middle East situation where they are limiting impressionable access to radicals recruiting on servers much like what has happened on WOW. Doubtful though.

[PainisCupcake]

Can't play people in Durkadurkastan? Well then servicemen should set their country as their original UK or US and not Iraq.

[typikal82]

lmao, so insensitive but hilarious

but true, why not use your USA home address? wouldnt that solve the problem? BRILLIANT.

[Taz X14]

I dunno about this one. Right now I'm in China and I have my american console and I play with my friends here(who are on Chinese ps3s) my family (Canadian PS3s) and my other friends(from Japan and US on the same countries' ps3s) and we have no problem connecting or playing anything together.

Only time I can see this being a problem is depending on your NAT type and even then sounds odd. Only thing I'd suggest is if it's an absolute priority or they really want to set it all up, setup a proxy and you'll be fine.

Now my 360 on the other hand is useless here. Not only can I not buy games for it (due to region coding), but if I play a game I have to play them on their respective servers (NA game, NA server) minus a few exceptions (GeOW, Halo3) which have international servers. I'm glad almost all the ps3 games have the international servers though. Only one that has bothered me so far was my home beta but that's a totally different story, lol.

Regardless, hopefully they can get it up and running to play games with their families and friends! Can tell ya from personal experience using the ps3eye has saved me tons as that's how I contact everyone nowadays aside from email.

[enjoi187]

because its free and it sucks.

lol Durkadurkastan

[cellfluid]

Its all a stage game these guys r playin with the general public the world trade center was a false flag don't believe. look at (loose change) on youtube the full version. bush is a devil worshiper and so is abama they r actually related and are freemason. And o yes aliens r real and they been here since the begining of time how do u think im leavin u this message its there technology we r using. but that's another conversation

[KiNg_TED_PRIZE]

im originally from north iraq bro , im kurdish. im not arabic, although saddam did some bad things to kurds out north!!!saddam had iraq under control. look @ it right know it looks like sht m8 because of americans, americans went to afghanistan which has no power modern war tool they still can't find the so called " osama " ....america will fall hard and UssR will be back in power, bush has single handley corrupted this state of unions, the zionist jews cunt who is running the american government bunch of neocons and bankers!!!the 700 billion dollar bailout, just shows the government has no power.... will karlos ..." if you were in my face and called me terrorist cuz i dont support the war or cuz im kurdish / muslim. i would EFF you back to mexico EFfin mess-xicanz

[Jackthepwnsaur]

Mexicans dont talk like that. Smart-Asses with Nazi Avatars do.

[wwwkilla]

I have a lot of friends that I chat with on the psn from uk eu africa also

[Cynical-Gamerzus]

Im gonna be totaly honest here and brutal!!!

We are at WAR !

[TheMART]

Its not about Afghanistan only Sony fanboys.

If you can't get outside USA or the other way around, from Europe to USA, that means I wouldn't be able to play to friends there.

That's pretty sad. On my 360 XBL reaches all around the world.

[HairyBrownSack]

poooooooor terrorists :(

[micro_invader]

But I've got people from all around the world on my friends list (Aus, USA, UK, NZ,). Are they saying that if you're from Iraq or Afghanistan, you can't have friends from other parts of the world?

It's not very clear.