I’m writing this post in case anyone else out there wants to know what will happen to a European XBox 360 (in my case, from Ireland) if it’s moved to North America (in my case, Canada). [update] The story started out not particularly great, but now, a few updates later, it is significantly better. By purchasing a new power supply, you’ll have everything you need. And although games are marked as region-specific, it turns out that many of them are not, and so by checking them against a list, you’ll find you can purchase many games in the shops, even those that are marked as “NTSC only”!
So here’s the run-down.
Buying new games in the shop: You can NOT buy North American games and play them in your European XBox360. XBox360s do not play games that were purchased in other regions, as per this. [Update: It looks like the North American versions of some XBox360 games will work with a PAL (European) XBox360! Thanks to John in the comments for the link to VideoGamesPlus at Blogspot where they test North American games in a PAL system and list the ones that work. And here's a chart at Wikipedia of Region-Free 360 titles.] For titles that aren’t region-free, you’ll need to have them shipped to you. Solution: make some friends before you leave. And maybe give them a few Euros for future postage.
Buying games through XBox Live and XBox Live Arcade: This continues to work just fine and you can purchase new XBLA games using this method. I had to change my Region from Ireland to Canada before I could sign in to Xbox Live. It updated my console before I was able to sign in (this could have been a routine update, I’m not sure).
PAL/NTSC 50Hz/60Hz: My European XBox works fine on an NTSC TV.
Watching DVDs: You can ONLY watch DVDs from the XBox’s home region. So my console rejects Region 1 (North American) DVDs.
Power Supply: The European power supply — you know, that LOUD, GRAY BRICK sitting behind your TV? — DOES NOT WORK in North America. If you use an outlet adaptor to physically plug it in, the unit will not accept as input the 110V power from North America. Trust me, I tried; the power supply gives the amber “stand by” indication, but the XBox360 console itself gives you a flashing red ring. The European XBox power supply requires an input of 200 to 240 Volts from which it will generate an output of 203 Watts for the XBox at 12V / 16.5A. Think about that for a second. 203 Watts is the equivalent of, like, 5 light bulbs.
If you go looking for a voltage adaptor that will step up the North American voltage from its native 110 or 120 volts to the required 200-240 volts, most power adaptors you’ll find will produce around 60 Watts, which is adequate for a toaster or a microwave, but not your XBox360. It sounds like this guy, Mike, had better luck finding one than I did when he moved the other way across the Atlantic.
Your alternative is to pay a fortune for a North American XBox360 Power Supply (I got mine from Future Shop.) They are scarce though, so call before you go. Mine cost $99Cdn. Ouch.
So here are the options, as far as I can see:
Option A: Buy a new XBox360 power supply in North America for ~$99Cdn. Keep your old games. Buy region-free games, and have games that aren’t region-free shipped to you.
Option B: Buy a new Xbox360 core system in North America for ~$299Cdn. Don’t bring your core system with you. Take out the hard drive. Keep all peripherals. Sell your old games that aren’t region free.
If you have any questions about this or suggestions for me, I’d be grateful to hear from you. I have it up and running now, and confirmed that I can play an NTSC title on my PAL XBox (Project Sylpheed, which specifically says on the package it is for NTSC only), but other than that, I haven’t had the time to do any gaming since I’ve been back.
BONUS LINK: If you’re interested in embarking on a cross-Atlantic move in either direction with your XBox360, you should also read Mike and Rion’s guide.
BONUS #2: On a simpler note, here’s my guide to moving a European Nintendo DS to North America: (1) Play it on the plane. (2) Go to store and purchase game for $24Cdn (approx. 16EUR) instead of 49EUR. (3) Keep playing.
Mazinaw Lake by Night →← Waiting for Goatzilla
JakeB says
Im retarded. I just had to switch the xbox back to tv I had it on hdtv still. Thanks again.
November 2, 2009vicz says
hi, i really need some explanation in something: i normally live in england but i went to bolivia in south america for a while and i connectect my xbox360 in a normal NTCL tv, soo, all went well but the video showed only in black&white. does this mean i need to buy a new cable or something, i would really like some help. or can you change the software from PAL to NTCL. thanks
December 27, 2009Chris says
I was wondering if a quropran wireless adapter will work on a north American xbox I’m I. Austria now and from Canada??
July 2, 2010erlend says
I am from Norway and I live in the USA. I just bought the new xbox 360 slim in europe to have it when I move back. I have figured out the games, tv’s and elecricity.
I just have one question about xbox live. Can I buy xbox live in the US to an european xbox?
If anyone knows something about this please let me know.
August 7, 2010LFLFM says
I am from Brazil, and I’m going on vacation to London where I plan on buying an XBOX slim with Kinetic (yes I know its only coming out in November, but guess when I’m going…).
August 19, 2010Anyway, the reason I plan on buying it over there instead of here (this country is 110v (like US) and about 98% of all imported games are from US), is the fact that this site exists: http://www.shopto.net its cheaper to buy games from there and have them come here then buying games here… there are plenty of games that are actually cheaper than prices I found in US online stores. Its also where I buy most of my PS3 games (my PS3 is US, but its games are region free).
I wanna know, however, if the xbox has the same problem as the PS3… downloadable content is region-locked! So my UK CoD5 couldn’t use the maps I bought with a US PSN account… since you said you had to change your region to canada before you were able to connect; seems I wouldnt have the option to create a UK xbox live account…?
Resuming my post:
a. when outside the UK (also seems good when inside): http://www.shopto.net (cheap and arrives fast (in my experience, way faster than play-asia, but if you go for play-asia, use my link please!: http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-glcn-49-en.html)).
b. Can I buy DLC for UK games using non-uk Live accounts (or can I create UK live accounts outside the UK)?
Tim says
Heading to California from Ireland, Based on this I Will take the X-box and get power supply there , cheers
August 28, 2010Manuel says
Hi
i am going to be moving to Spain next summer, i currently live in florida, and i was wondering if i could use the power adapter and the hdtv ike you gus have said but in the reverse way. i just bought the new xbox and i dont want to have to sell it already.
thank you
August 31, 2010Manuel says
and also what would be the voltage of the power converter that i need to buy?
August 31, 2010thank you
Alvin says
hey, i just got here from spain and i bought an european xbox 360, i got my powersupply to be shiped today from ebay. should i have to buy the HDMI too? i understand that it will work with defenetly with the USA power cord. just wanna make sure.. and GREAT BLOG guys! i been looking to make sure for like 2 weeks now, i even call xbox support.
September 23, 2010Alvin says
hey, i just got here from spain and i bought an european xbox 360, i got my powersupply to be shiped today from ebay. should i have to buy the HDMI too? i understand that it will work with defenetly with the USA power cord. just wanna make sure.. and GREAT BLOG guys! i been looking to make sure for like 2 weeks now.
September 23, 2010Tim says
Yes you will need HDMI cable
September 28, 2010iLoxy says
This is a great article, with many helpful tips.
October 5, 2010I was directed here by @mediacat1978.
I move to Florida, USA in November from Leicestershire, UK, and have well over 100 UK Xbox360 games. For me, I’m deliberating between the selling up & repurchasing of a US based unit…or the psu & hdd solution!
mohammed says
yesterday i got my fully american xbox 360 slim and travelled to lebanon and power there is 220 volts and i got a transformer that transforms 220 volts to 110 volts to fit my xbox 360 and prevent it from burning but i forgot to use the transformer so i plugged it to the 220 volts electricity and i here a pop . so my question is what part of the xbox got ruined and can it be fixed and if i buy a new power brick will every thing work al right? please reply guys
October 17, 2010Devin says
Hey,
I just moved from canada to finland and i had a 26w-1600w power converter but once i pluged in my xbox too it, it instantly fried my american power bar. If i was to buy just a new european power bar from a store would it work? or would that just fry my 360 too?
November 16, 2010Devin says
I just moved from canada to finland and i had a 26w-1600w power converter but once i pluged in my xbox too it, it instantly fried my american power bar. If i was to buy just a new european power bar from a store would it work? or would that just fry my 360 too?
sorry for the repost i want it to email me when somone responds.
November 16, 2010Soypapo says
Hey Chris…
November 19, 2010A friend of mine is bringing a 360 from europe to mexico, I already got a 360 @ home but mine has to red lights now, so my question is, can use my power brick with the one from england. wait for ur comments
Eamon Winters says
North American power pack does not fit a u.k xbox!!!! i moved here with my u.k box but cant power up!!! i need help!!!
December 20, 2010steez says
thanks man very cool to see some of my questions answered!
January 20, 2011i’m moving from UK to US , so i can use this!
enrique says
hey i am from spain i have a pal xbox 360 i will be moving to the US if i understood correctly from everyone’s posts all i have to do is just get an american xbox 360 power supply and if i also understand correctly if you hook it up via hdmi cable you avoid the ntsc/pal problems correct?
January 30, 2011nick says
Ya enrique just follow that and it will work!(As long as you have a flat screen TV) The only thing is getting new games as they come out, that is where it gets tricky… I came from Europe a few years ago to the US and now I have to order my games from Europe and ship them to the US…
January 30, 2011enrique says
ok thank you nick i have a friend over here he is the one that convinced me to buy the xbox 360 since i wont be moving back to the US till july i figured why not and i got a really good offer on a new xbox 360 but yeah back home in america i have a flat screen tv my friend also has told me he plays american games on his xbox 360 so im hoping some games arent region locked
January 30, 2011nick says
ya some games are not locked like call of duty modern warfare 2 (a US game on a PAL european xbox!!
January 30, 2011enrique says
awsome!!! yeah i mostly play halo/call of duty im still gonna have my ps3 back home but now i get to have the joy of being able to get european dvd’s and be able to play them in the US and have hte ps3 for games/bluray lol. do you have any problems running the xbox live in the american servers? also how does the xbox live work?
January 30, 2011Steph says
Me being a bit stupid, set up my xbox account from an old email address with an american address on it (im in the U.K) now when i try to buy xbox points to download a map-pack its in $. Any idea how i change my region? Called xbox support they said it can’t be done, i seen above you said you changed your region tho. How was this done?
February 8, 2011James says
Hey everyone,
I think you’ve mostly answered my questions already, but I’m hoping somebody can answer me something definitively before I go and spend a fair amount of cash on a new TV.
I have a UK Xbox, and brought it to Brazil with me, where, with a combination of a power adaptor, the blue/green cable switched to HDTV (not a HDMI cable), and a Samsung Series5, LCD TV, everything’s been working fine.
The Samsung though is 50/60 Hz, and I’m wondering if that has anything to do with it all working, because the Sony Bravia I’m getting on Monday is only 60 Hz!?
Will that exact set-up still work on the 60 Hz TV? Will I have to buy a dedicated HDMI cable to make it work?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Many Thanks.
February 11, 2011Marcelo says
I have a question and really need some help. I lived in us now i moved middle east and brought my xbox 360 ntsc with me. I bought recently the slim version (Pal). I started buying some pal games and tested them on my old ntsc xbox in my Samsung Pal LCD, the majority worked perfect. The thing is if this pal games will work in a ntsc console using a ntsc tv. Can someone help me?
Thanks
May 2, 2011enrique says
the ntsc shouldnt affect it if you connect it through HDMI or through the VGA plug in i think….not sure man
May 2, 2011Marcelo says
thanks, i used here a converter to connect my ntsc xbox and ramdomly tried some pal games and worked. I want to take some to sell and wasnt sure if they could work on a ntsc tv.
May 2, 2011thanks anyway
enrique says
not all pal games work on ntsc just like not all ntsc work on pal i live in the usa too but i moved to madrid for a while so i bought an xbox over here when i move back hopefully all i have to do is buy a powerbrick from the usa and just keep getting pal games or the ones that are open region
May 2, 2011