Japanese Xbox Live Marketplace/XBLA

[FoxNtd]

I've been reading around and learned that some people used to register secondary gamertags in other regions so that they could sign in as those on the 360 to get to another region's marketplace, but I hear this method has been blocked now.

They say you can run your networking through a proxy server located in the country whose region you want to access so your external IP shows up as that region instead of where you really are. What I can't confirm is what happens after you do this and download something? (In my example I'm in USA and want to see Japanese XBL.) First, can you use points already on your account or do you need to add points from over there? (I hear Wii Points are regional so they may have done the same on XBL too.) Second, once something is downloaded, can it be used? (The console is US 360, but I'll ask the same if the console is Japanese 360 as well.)

I don't know if anyone's tested this but I'm curious what can be done or if every possibility ends up in being screwed over by forced, imposed region locks somewhere down the line.

This occurred to me when I thought, "Can I get Rockman 10 instead of Megaman 10? Wonder if it would work..." but more importantly, they surely have content posted that we don't even see or get here...

Thanks to anyone who can report their findings after testing these things...

[Cryomancer]

I'd like to know this as well. Especially if this would mean we could somehow get Japanese games on demand to get import-only titles. Someone go buy IDOLMASTER or something and let us know.

[Nico87]

The Japanese Marketplace is lackluster. For example there's no OutRun and no HD remix of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. There's really not much of interest, unless you have Japanese games you want DLC for or whatever. They're pretty good in that department.

Other than that, the Japanese Marketplace (obviously) gets demos of Japanese-made games before we do, unless it's a simultaneous release between the different regions.

Games On Demand isn't possible, as far as I know. I got a Japanese 360 and a Japanese account, but still doesn't work. It _might_ work if you can manage to use a Japanese IP from wherever you're located, but I can't confirm/deny this.

[The 1 2 P]

I too wish I could get some of the Japanese XBL marketplace content.