Play “PAL” Games on an “NTSC” Xbox 360
If you own an Xbox 360 and happen to travel out of the country now and again, or spend time perusing some of eBay’s international sites in search of deals, you may have asked yourself the following question:
“Will a PAL game play on my NTSC Xbox?”
The short answer is yes, but the long answer contains a few caveats.
When playing an Xbox 360 over a hi-def connection using HDMI, Component, or DVI cables, the game’s encoding format really does not matter. However, if you are playing a game using a standard definition interface, the encoding does matter – you must buy the proper game for TVs used in your part of the world.
Additionally, to play a “PAL” game on an “NTSC” console, the game must be listed as “Region Free”. This means that the game has not been coded in such a way that it is locked to a particular part of the world. It also helps to ensure that the game contains the proper information for your language as well.
So in the event that you find a Region Free, PAL version of a game you really want, you are playing over a hi-def connection, and the game specifies that it has English language tracks, go ahead and buy that import disc – it should play just fine.
*Disclaimer: This is information that I have been told by reliable resources. Your mileage may vary.
21 Responses to “Play “PAL” Games on an “NTSC” Xbox 360”
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This somewhat in relation to this topic. I live in Australia and plan on moving to America to be with my fiance soon. I don’t want to have to buy all the games I already own again, so would my PAL 360 work on NTSC TVs? I know that most televisons here are NTSC compatible, are most TVs in the states PAL compatible?
If not, what other options would I have?
If possible, reply to my email address.
Ben,
As long as you are using a Hi-def method to connect your Xbox to your Hi-def TV (HDMI or Component), you should be good to go.
Now, that is going on the information given to me by others at xbox-scene.com, but it should be the case.
Actually, if a game is region free you will not need to worry about what region it’s from. If you play it on a PAL xbox it will output as PAL, NTSC will be NTSC, etc. Let’s say you take the US retail version of “Saints Row 2″ which is known to be region free and insert it in an Australian xbox 360. The game will boot up the same as any other 360 game and play in PAL.
It’s just a matter of knowing the region code for each game. Some games work in 2 different regions, some work in only one, and some work in all of them.
..i have a question…u mean..when i play xbox 360 with HDMI cabel..there’s no regional code?
I have a NTSC Xbox 360 and i find some multi-regional games where i live(Dubai). But i would like to know, is there any way that i can change my NTSC Xbox 360 to work with both pal and ntsc or at least work with pal?
thanks.
Justin,
You cannot change your Xbox’s region code, but as long as the game is played over a Hi-Def connection (HDMI or Component), you should be fine, as PAL nor NTSC signaling is not used in Hi-Def.
That said, your game must be appropriate for the region where your Xbox was produced. You will need to determine if your games are “Region Free”, or at least applicable to your Xbox’s original region “NTSC/U”If so, you are good to go.
There are places around the web where you can verify if a games region matches that of your Xbox. If you were super worried, you could first rent a game and run the disc through the ABGX360 software to see the region coding.
Hope that helps.
sooooooooo if we use HDMI cable and play PAL games in NTSC 360 it will work isnt it
yes bit do PAL games Work on an NTSC consol. if yes then that mean if i play by the HDMI cable through to my TV i could play it anywhere in the world on any TV?
So I bought Army of Two quite a while back, and it doesn’t play on either of my 360′s. I bought them in Singapore. When I insert and play the game – which reads “Army of Two (EU)” – it says my regional code is incorrect. That means I’ve got an NTSC console, yeah?
The problem is that I bought the game a long long time ago and they’re definitely not giving me my money back. So, how do I make it work on my console? Is there any way I could ‘unlock’ my game or xbox without physically modding anything?
Cheers.
Yeah, it sounds like you have a NTSC console – I may have been wrong in my original assessment (again, informed by other sources) – you may need to modify the DVD drive before playing games from another region. I will see if I can find out anything else.
how do i know if the games are free region? Do i ask the cashier guy or what?
thanks (if you answer)
Ben,
If I recall correctly, the region coding *should* be listed on the back of the game box if you look at the fine print and such closely.
Can you tell me where I find the region code, exactly? *
I have a NTSC-J xbox 360 and HDMI cable but there are no ways that PAL games be played on my xbox. I’ve checked a lot !! unfortunately my favorite games(bioshock2 – badcompany2….etc.) are in PAL version. Do you think I should buy a PAL console and have 2 consoles ?
Arash,
I may have been given bad information regarding Region Free games and the Xbox. You may have to have an aftermarket firmware version installed to take advantage of PAL games that happen to also be Region Free.
I understand and I think the only answer is REGION FREE!
why does every thing have to be in PAL and NTSC ?!!
PS3 has blue-rays for God’s sake…!!
):((
Well, the display specification (NTSC vs. PAL) is still required because not everyone uses an HDTV. The older specifications still need to be supported until the number of individuals using standard def sets is so low that game sales will not be affected – I have no clue how long that will take, but seeing how long and confusing the process of simply moving from analog broadcasts to digital broadcasts here in the US was, I can imagine the NTSC/PAL issue will be around for quite some time.
As far as region coding is concerned, I hope that this issue too fades over time. The DVD drives in the Xbox are required to have a region coding since people can play DVDs in them. From what I understand, the drive requires a requires a region code in order to play discs created for a certain region, but discs are not required to have a region code to play in certain region-locked drives. Hopefully over time, everything becomes region-free so we don’t have to fuss with all this mess.
As far as Blu-ray are concerned, I am not sure if region coding comes into effect or not. Technically Sony controls the specification, so there is no existing precedent as to what needs to be supported by the standard. That said, most blu-ray players do play regular DVDs, so I presume some sort of region locking still exists.
I have an NTSC-J (Asia) X-Box 360 which I brought to the UK which is PAL region.
I connected it to an HDTV but still can’t play PAL games. frustrating
The odd thing is that the TV system in Singapore is PAL (same as UK) yet the XBOX 360 in Singapore is designated as NTSC-J (note the -J).
My Fracture game is designated PAL, but works fine (bought in Singapore)
My Modern Warefare 2 is designated NTSC (without -J), and works fine (bought in Singapore)
So the whole region thing is very confusing.
I am taking my NTSC-J XBOX 360 to the UK soon. Let’s see what happens…
So if the x-box is NTSC,
And that game is PAL and NOT region free,
is there any way to make them work?
Not in any way that I am aware of. Sorry.