Ok, I understand that most people reading this blog probably couldn’t care less about my gaming habits or insightful comments on Japanese vs. western gaming culture, but I feel a need to address this topic again.I am getting increasingly uncomfortable with how Japanese gaming companies are ripping off the Japanese gamers in their pricing on domestically produced games. Ok, I can understand that a game such as the recently released Final Fantasy 13 cost tons of money to produce, but charging close to 8,000 yen for it (~$80USD) for it when God of War 3 that just came out goes for almost half that price (~$50USD) is just offensive. Similarly, Bioshock 2 is sold for ~$50USD and released with little lag in Japan, but the next installment in the 無双 (Musou “Dynasty Warriors”) series which just rehash gameplay for at least 3-4 games each year and then having the nerve to charge ~$80USD for each "new" game just pisses me off. Not to mention that the most recent installment in the Japanese strategy game Nobunaga's Ambition carried a retail price of almost $100USD
But then again, the fact that the Japanese gaming crowd actually don’t seem to mind to pay up these amounts for these domestic games is the big mystery. I shouldn't really complain since my preferences go more to the Western games since Japan have fallen behind in recent years when it comes to creating great games, but as long as the people are happy to pay twice the price for bland rehashes of old franchises, it hardly pushes the industry to focus on creating great games...
(Oh, and if you really want to get your hands on Battle Raper 2, hurry up and buy it off Amazon.co.jp since they only have 4 copies left in stock!)
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8 comments:
Actually, I've always felt the opposite. Why should every game cost the same amount, no matter the content?
Hamster Wheel 3 and Pokemon 18 both cost $30 on the DS... Why? Not because HW3 has the same production values or cost as much to produce, but because everyone expects all DS games to come out at $30.
Despite the fact that they are all 'clones' and there's half a dozen a year, the Musou games continue to get better with every release. Bioshock 2 on the other hand... -yawn-. I loved the first one. The second one just isn't as good.
(Obviously I made up 'Hamster Wheel 3' and 'Pokemon 18' isn't quite out yet... Unless you count all the colored versions, and then it probably is.)
Publishers price their games in bands however the retail market quickly devalues games which won't sell at recommended retail price. In Europe, anyway.
CDs and DVDs are also ridiculously expensive in Japan compared to the UK, so I suppose the Japanese distributors have a kind of captive audience and can charge what they like.
OTOH Japan has very good second-hand and rental shops so perhaps a lot of customers go there and it is only the real hardcore users who actually pay full retail.
Japan is in many ways a market unto itself, cut off from the rest of the world. This is just an example of that.
In Aust our games are often much more expensive than overseas, and despite the industry's propaganda they are just trying to rip us off. We can order from the interweb though, sometimes that is much cheaper.
Haha, wow, I think I got some fellow gamers as readers!
William - Theoretically I 100% agree with you, not all games are created equaly but I think that Rmilner has a point there with the second hand market since the prices of those mass market Musou and FF games usually gets really low quite quick after they're on the market.
But my point is that (regardless of quality and preferences) GoW3 and Bioshock 2 are huge budget games, hardly any home made indie cheap stuff. But again, I'm the winner here because I bought both these games but wouldn't pick up a Musou game even if I got it for free...
Aimless - Yeah, no joke. I was on vacation in Sydney not too long ago and actually was thinking of picking up a game or two, but the prices were really offensive!
Many things like that cost more in Japan.
e.g. airfares, the same flight with BA or JAL is usally 30-40% cheaper if you buy it in UK (UK-JP-UK rather than JP-UK-JP, of course flights are identical just opposite order)
Also on the Playstation Network site for PSP, you can create a login for US server and see the same game 30-40% cheaper than the Japan server.
A final example would be food, fresh ingredients are usually really not fresh (even locally produced potatoes) and 4x price of "rip off Britain" UK. Probably 20x price of philippines/mexico etc where most items are shipped from.
I guess this is a good place to own a business.
Id love to play hamster wheel 3 lol it could use the wii fit controls. Also you have to love the freedom a society has that allows games like battle raper 1and2 to thive.I live in so called free england where our fears rule over whats acceptable (sigh).Thanks as always for your great blog salaryman say "hihi" to mrs sunshine/salaryman for me lol.
As to pricing for games in england they are about the same price as yours seem tobe with DS games being a lot more expensive here than anywhere.The new zelda game spirit links is 38 pounds which is 5281.24 yen atm But thats ok imo cos some games are cheaper like ps3 and PC games are quite a lot cheaper here compared to say the U.S.The most expensive ps3 game is FF 13 which is 36 pounds/5003.28 yen and PC games are 35 pounds maximum
Jlp - Well, that pricing differs across the world is nothing particularly strange, but it is true that Japan charges quite a bit more than prices in the West, but this is usually due to the larger support structure needed for service and support here in Japan. But it can still be quite annoying...
Anonymous 1 - Well, it does seem like Battle Raper is quite a mediocre game, so I don't think you're missing out on much... Glad to hear you like the blog and Mrs. Sunshine says hi back.
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