Can a new NTSC PS3 Game come with a PlayStation tear strip

[master_hayabusa]

I am interested in buying some brand new sealed PS3 games of a vendor who has a whole bunch. All games seemed legit until I noticed an ESBR rated NTSC game (King of fighters XII) with a 'PLAYSTATION' tear strip encircling the game case. I thought these strips were only exclusive to PAL PS games? Really confused. Looked for the same game on Ebay, new & sealed and again only the PAL versions have tear strip, all the American ones (T for teen) have no strip.

Is he selling me a resealed game? Is this even a thing fake tear strips?

first one is a PAL game listed online

Second one is a NTSC game listed online

Third one is the game from the vendor (suspect)

[Twisted]

It's most likely a FAKE! V-BLANK games just released in 2022 new printed NTSC printed copies for SHAKEDOWN HAWAII and RETRO CITY RAMPAGE and just like in previous NTSC releases, there are NO "tears" for the NTSC US MARKET.

However, for the ASIA and MIDDLE EAST markets, the ESRB ratings are used as well in most cases..and they receive releases that can have tear strips with ESRB rated logos..but those were never officially intended for North America..those were "WORLD RELEASES" for countries such as SAUDIA ARABIA and U.A.E. and MALAYSIA.

In the earlier days of rating games..the "Middle East" and some Far East ASIA countries NEVER had official government sanctioned game ratings..so they just relied on the USA game rating system as being adequate.

So you have THREE options here: 1...it's a FAKE "RE-SEAL" or 2.it's official but an ASIA release game with ASIA information buried on the back art of the cover artwork. 3, or it's a CUSTOM artwork cover print AND a "at home re-seal" with another game that was carefully unwrapped and then this game was re-inserted and re-glued from the top!?

it is definitely NOT a NTSC USA/CANADA release..there's no "such thing" as a tear strip for North America because piracy is not sanctioned or as rampant as in other countries and the monochrome tear strip was at that time an attempt to slow down counterfeit copies..but technology has caught up for those pirates.

[master_hayabusa]

Thanks for the detailed explanation.

It’s very interesting because he said one of his supply sources is Dubai. So could be a middle east version. However, the back of the game looks exactly like a North American one I see selling on Ebay. Same bar code numbers too.

I didn’t want this game. I was just trying to establish if he was a trustworthy vendor. He has a lot of sealed PS3 games that I wanted. I don’t see why, if he wanted to sell re-sealed games as original factory sealed games he would choose PAL games with a tear strip when he could just simply reseal American non tear games. Adding a tear strip is just a lot more work. So I concluded that the games he has are the real deal and this one might have been passed on to him as he is a vendor after all and does buy games of customers too.

[Twisted]

the interior warranty card information will feature middle eastern addresses and phone numbers..because even though the games feature ESRB ratings, the customers in the middle east must contact local SONY offices for defective game discs or warranty repair, and that information is posted on a paper slip inside the sealed game case..so technically speaking these are still NON North America versions of games intended for the middle east market...they could be genuine..but there NOT games that were sold in US brick and mortar stores...they were always sold in DUBAI, QATAR, KUWAIT etc.