Which PSN Region should you buy the FF7 Remake in?

The long-awaited Final Fantasy VII Remake finally releases on Friday, April 10. While a lot of people are no doubt excited, gamers in the Philippines have no choice but to go digital to be able to play the game on release day; this is because physical video game retailers in the country are currently closed because of quarantine measures to stem the COVID-19 outbreak.

Herein lies a conundrum. While PS4 consoles and PS4 games are officially sold in the country, the Philippines is not officially supported in the PlayStation Network; this means Pinoy PS4 gamers need to create accounts in another PSN region to play multiplayer, as well as update and buy games. To buy games digitally, Pinoy PS4 players must buy digital wallet codes as most Philippine credit/debit cards do not work on the PSN in most regions you use.

If you’re a PS4 owner in the Philippines, chances are you already have a PSN account, be it Singapore, Hong Kong, or the USA (three of the most commonly-used PSN regions in the Philippines). Though if the FF7 Remake will be the first time that you’re gonna buy a game on the PSN, or if you just want to know which region offers the best deal, we’ve got you covered! Here’s a quick guide/comparison on which PSN region you should buy the Final Fantasy VII Remake in.

For the purposes of this comparison, we’ll be limiting the options to SG, HK, and US regions, given that the three are the most commonly used (and have the widest digital code availability in the country). The recently-launched Datablitz Digital Store will be used as the pricing reference for PSN wallet codes, given that the store offers some of the cheapest deals compared to similar sites (from what we’ve gathered that is).

Regional Pricing

First up, here are the prices of the Final Fantasy VII Remake (base version) on the SG, HK, and US PSN Stores:

L-R: SG, HK, US

Now here are their (estimated) prices when converted to Philippine Peso:

SG: SGD 80.10 = around PHP 2,826
HK: HKD 468.00 = around PHP 3,064
US: USD 59.99 = around PHP 3,045

Going purely by price, the PSN SG store offers the best deal on the Final Fantasy VII Remake, with the game being priced at over PHP 200 lower compared to the HK and the US pricing. The prices of the other two regions are only separated by around PHP 20.

Wallet Denominations

As most Pinoy PS4 gamers won’t be able to pay for the FF7 Remake via their credit/debit cards, the alternative is to buy PSN digital codes online to load up their account wallets. The codes don’t come in the exact denominations that the FF7 Remake is priced at though, so Pinoy gamers will have to spend a bit more to get the game.

The PSN SG digital codes come in SGD 15 and 40 denominations in the Datablitz Digital Store. So if you’re going to buy the FF7 Remake for SGD 80.10, you’ll need to buy 1x SGD 40 and 3x SGD 15 codes, costing a total of PHP 3,480. You can get away with buying 2x SGD 40 cards (for PHP 3,390), provided you have 10 cents on your PSN SG wallet.

Of course, you can try your luck in other sites which have more SGD denominations, but 1x SGD 40 and 3x SGD 15 is still generally the cheapest combination.

For PSN HK, the digital codes are available in HKD 80 and 200. To buy Final Fantasy VII Remake for HKD 468, you’ll need 2x HKD 200 and 1x HKD 80 for a total cost of PHP 3,585. At the minimum, Pinoy gamers will have to spend around PHP 100 more on digital codes to buy the FF7 Remake in the PSN HK store.

While it’s a bit more expensive, PSN HK should accept most Philippine debit/credit cards. While it’s not officially supported, some users have reported that they can buy games via credit/debit cards on their HK accounts.

Finally, the PSN US digital codes come in the most denominations, from USD 10 all the way to 100. For the FF7 Remake, 1x USD 50 and 1x USD 10 will work, for a total price of PHP 3,345.

Based purely on the minimum digital codes needed to buy the FF7 Remake, PSN US is the cheapest. Of course, this comparison doesn’t take into account the remaining wallet balance for SG and HK which can be used for other PSN content such as DLC or PS4 themes. Though given the fact that PSN HK users can use credit/debit cards on their account, PSN HK is also a winner here.

Availability and Support

While PSN SG offers the best deal on the FF7 Remake price-wise, SG digital codes are often the first ones to sell out. For instance, the SGD 15 denomination in the Datablitz store is currently sold out. In other sites such as Play Asia and some Lazada stores, SG digital codes are also sold out. As for HK and US, wallet codes for those regions do not sell out all that often.

On the flip side, if you ever have a problem with your PSN account, you’ll likely receive the most support when you have an SG account. While there’s no guarantee, SG PSN account holders may have best chance of getting responses for customer support considering that it is Sony Interactive Entertainment Singapore that has been conducting majority of official PlayStation events and activities here in the Philippines.

Verdict

Considering all the factors we’ve laid out above, we recommend getting the Final Fantasy VII Remake on the PSN SG store. Not only does the SG store offer the best deal on the game, having an SG account will also give Pinoy gamers the best chance of getting customer support. Sure, it’s not the absolute best deal when it comes to digital code denominations (PSN US beats it by a hundred pesos), but you can at least spend your extra couple of SGD on PS4 themes.

The only thing to consider with buying FF7 Remake is availability of digital codes. If PSN SG digital codes are unavailable, that is the time to create a PSN HK account, which is another great choice considering that most Philippine credit/debit cards should work on it. Finally, a US account is also a decent option considering the convenient denominations and wide availability of digital codes.

We hope this helps you decide which region you should buy the FF7 Remake. If you’re just about to buy the game, remember that you can already download the game files (which is massive at nearly 100GB) so you are ready when the game releases on April 10.

Buy the game now at:

Quick sidenote, if you are going to buy the FF7 Remake on the SG or HK store on your PS4, make sure that you get the English/Japanese version of the game (which we linked above). There’s a Chinese/Korean version on both stores so make sure you do not accidentally download those (unless you’re a fluent Chinese/Korean speaker that is).

Interested in more FF7 Remake content? Check out our quick video on the game here:

(Last updated: April 6, 8:00pm – added PSN HK credit/debit card support info and game version clarification)