135w ago - According to French site PS3Gen.fr (linked above), Sony may be planning to region-restrict upcoming PS3 video games using the new 3.50 SDK.

To quote, roughly translated: "While Sony had surprised everyone by not only zoned games on PS3, unlike the PS2 or the PS1, it seems that this idea can be challenged in the near future.

Since the advent of the SDK 3.50, it is possible for official developers restrict their PlayStation 3 games at a specific region.

For information, be aware that verification of the region of the disc was in fact quietly implemented since the 3.30 firmware but was not yet usable by the studios.

Here are screenshots from a PlayStation 3 when trying to launch a drive to a "bad area"... following an audit of this same disc into console development.

If any games yet so far does this "feature", however it is likely that it will be in the coming months."

DrEB states: "Some people said that the region restriction is old and already used with some demos, but it's wrong! This feature was added in 3.30 SDK and cannot be used with previous software versions. The very few demos using that kind of region lock in old firmwares had nothing to do with that new feature.