http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/21/ps2_mod_chip_win/
This is technically old news, but crikey, I had heard nothing of it until someone told me about it.

This is crazy. The import scene is important to this country, due to sony strangling us for release dates. This, and meeting their inept, stuck-up PR is all I need to dislike them mildly.

Yeah, I heard about this a while ago. I noticed yesterday that the website where I got my PS2 chipped has been replaced by some generic search engine, so it's obviously making it a lot trickier to get your PS2/Xbox chipped.

Not great news, really.

The import scene is important Love that.

Seriously, making mod chips and the like illegal would only be acceptable if
a) you could buy NTSC consoles in the normal shops for a normal price
b) PAL adaptions did not suck compared to their NTSC versions, which is not the case at the moment, often PAL games are released a lot later, with graphics problems and (not in the UK, but generally) with messed up translations.
c) Every game released in North America was also released in Europe/Australia. Which is not the case.

Now, I don't know how a) applies to the UK, but the above reasons are why I absolutely prefer NTSC games over PAL. :(

Buy an NTSC console here in the UK? Well, it may be possible to buy an already modded PS2, but I am not sure how many places will do this now with the chip being declared illegal.

Someone needs to invent some sort of universal gaming module.

I know of a few people that don't even buy PAL consoles anymore. They just import everything.

I am actually considering buying my PS3/Xb2/NR from Liksang, paying the extra and just sucking it up and buying american games as they come out. It doesn't seem worth it anymore over here.

I would do the same if I gamed half as much as I used to. Alas, I don't... A shame, because there are a number of top titles in the States I'd like to drag out over here to play.