Hurray! You Can Play US Xbox 360 Games On UK Consoles!

Ages ago, I almost bought an Xbox 360 in the US to bring back to the UK. The reason? The US always seems to have more games -- and sooner plus cheaper -- than the UK. Get a US machine, and I could play the US regionally coded games.

I actually did buy a US Xbox 360 at Target (ah, Target....) about a year ago to bring over. However, I returned it almost immediately after seeing the massive transformer wasn't 110/220 switchable. I have a step-up converter that I could have used, but it's a pain. I decided to give up and just get a UK console.

Skip forward to this past week. When I was in the US, I found a copy of Ridge Racer 6 for $16. Hell, let's gamble, I thought. I bought it to try over here. Yesterday, I popped it into my UK machine, expecting it not to work. Instead, it worked great (plus, it's a lot of fun to play!).

I don't know if all US games will work, of course -- and I'm not sure if I want to risk it for a $60 US game. Looking around, this forum thread pointed to this Xbox 360 Regional Compatibility Guide. Hey, "Battlestations: Midway" works! That chart is one for the bookmark list.

As far as I know Microsoft does not lock Xbox 360 games to a region, it's down to the games publisher.

Gamertag: Zufoo

Comment by Zufoo | June 11, 2007 12:24 AM

Pretty cool. If you need someone to race against to rack up your gamerpoints, let me know. I still have a few achievements to finish on that game too. The first few are pretty tough (more like time consuming), but they are doable.

So does a US game on a UK box connect you to US servers or UK servers? Is there a difference?

Comment by Jason Murphy | June 11, 2007 10:06 PM

Most Xbox games are P2P, so whoever starts the game acts as the server.

As for the main Xbox Live servers, I think they do have a UK data centre so would think you are connected to which ever is fastest to your location at the time.

Comment by Zufoo | June 12, 2007 1:24 AM

well i just bought an xbox 360 in the states and I can't get it to work here in the uk. the light remains orange. I have a step up transformer. Can you help me? or tell me where to go?

Comment by pats | August 16, 2007 10:00 PM

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