Are PlayStation 4 digital games region locked?
Best answer: No, Sony has removed region locks for all PlayStation 4 games, which includes digital games. However, any DLC you buy will need to match the region of the game.
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What is a region locked game?
Regional lockouts, or region coding, is a type of digital rights management that prevents the use of a product in certain regions. In games this typically means a game purchased in a specific region won't work in other areas.
How exactly does region affect PlayStation?
Officially, both digital and physical PS4 games are not region locked. That said, Sony does encourage games and consoles to be from the same region "for best performance."
Additionally, even though PS4 games aren't region locked, DLC is tied to your regional store and PSN Online IDs from other regions won't work on the PlayStation Store.
What does this mean for my games?
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If you were to travel from the U.S. to the U.K. with your PS4, any games you bring with you will continue to work (assuming you remember to bring a power converter). However, you wouldn't be able to make purchases from the European PSN store until you set up a new account for the EU region. If you attempt to sign in on a different region's PSN store you'll receive a message stating your account information doesn't match the locale in the URL. You'll then be given a link to your home region's site.
Once you set up a new U.K.-based account, any games you buy from the European PSN store will work on your console under either account. However, if you buy DLC for games you brought with you from the states, the DLC won't work.
Relax and enjoy your travels
Region locks are unlikely to get in your way as you travel with your PS4. Just remember to keep track of where you bought your games if you plan to get DLC for them.
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