PS3 Region lock

[KaneUK]

As I'm sure you both know, PS3 games themselves are region free, however region restrictions are still applied to DVD and Blu-ray discs.

You are correct in saying that the region could be reset to region 0 through a modified firmware, but to my knowledge it doesn't exist...yet. If you bought a US or Jap console, it will currently only play Region 1 discs.

For Blu-ray discs, Slysoft who produce AnyDVD have released their latest version, which removes region coding from Blu-ray discs (A, B, C). I haven't tried it myself in practice, as I have no Blu-ray movies, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work on PS3!

Regarding playing PAL PS2 games on an NTSC PS3 is highly unlikely this will ever be possible, due to the difference in TV standards. If you want to play PS2 games, you will have to buy the NTSC PS2 versions.