Like the PSP, the PlayStation 3 is region free for gaming when it comes to PS3 games. All games available for the PlayStation 3 are region free, however backward compatibility modes (i.e. PlayStation 1 and 2 games) are region locked. Blu-ray Disc and DVD region codes are also enforced.[5] While the PS3 does have hardware regional lockout support,[3] Sony apparently has no intentions to use it.
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The PS3 is region free, that means that you can play PS3 games from any country, on any PS3. I have a UK PS3, and imported Rock Band from the US to get the game before it was released in England. The game works fine.
The only issue I had was with downloads. The downloadable content (songs) showed as already bought, but could not be redownloaded or anything. In the end I got a UK version of the game which sorted that out.
So while there are certainly other factors to think about (eg DVDs, BLU-Ray, Voltages, Downloads etc) you may not want to write off the idea completely yet.