I was just checking the g-collection website when I noticed that Japanese games are twice as much expensive than English titles.
First I thought that maybe it was because the Japanese titles were more recent but even if this is true, English titles can be considered recent for their consumers, so this answer didn’t convince me.
Do you have an explanation for this ?
Explanation, not really. Possible reasons, sure…
Target markets come to mind. Most of the English market probably won’t buy games at $80 to $90 price tags, so they reduce them to current market standards. (The majority of computer games out in the US usually list for around $40 or so when they first come out for example.) They’re probably selling at a major loss, when you figure in quantities sold and conversion costs.
Of course then that raises the question of why not reduce the price of the Japanese titles they display and in that case I’d guess that again, target market, plus there’s probably some licensing or legal issues if they try to undercut Japanese market prices. (After all, with the internet, it wouldn’t be that hard for a Japanese consumer to try and buy from a US retailer.)
I’m sure the much brighter, more intelligent people on the board can think of a few other things.
Yep, i was thinking the same thing… its targeting the audience… these days for games we normally pay about $50, and when we pay more its usually for collectors editions for an extra $15 which usually come with soundtracks, posters… name it.
But if they were to release games at to much more than they do for less of a product, you would see an even bigger increase of piracy. (the first few Ultima games are perfect examples) they wanted more money for less.
It’s true that regular games cost around $50 on the “English” market and it might make sense to sell bishoujo games at a similar price, but does this mean that regular games cost around $100 in Japan ???
Or maybe g-collection are selling japanese games at a higher price than in the japanese shops ?
quote:
Originally posted by Stephan:
It's true that regular games cost around $50 on the "English" market and it might make sense to sell bishoujo games at a similar price, but does this mean that regular games cost around $100 in Japan ???
US$1 ~= 122 yen as for today, October 1st, 2002.
So 8800 yen ~= US $72.00. That's what will cost in Japan, but, hey, we are not in Japan! (Certainly, I am not!)
I won't apologize for G-Collection's prices, but even if you order them from Japan, you still have to pay shipping, and EMS is quite expensive. So, choose the lesser evil, Himeya or G-collections.
actually, 99% of all japanese games are in the 8000+ range, and this value is actually printed on the game package; it’s just the way it works in Japan…why? I am not too sure myself, maybe it’s because things in general are expensive in Japan and how high the living standard/cost is in Japan etc.
so to answer Stephan’s question, yes, that’s the retail price in Japan.
nods
Some exceptions exists anyway:
olf_le_fol told in the other thread about some special bargain-titles, that are older and right now at a price of 2200 yen.
However, most of the currently new titles have a price in the range from 7800 yen to 9800 yen.
[This message has been edited by Unicorn (edited 10-02-2002).]
You also have to remember that all prices in Japan are without the tax in. If you buy your games directly from Japan, you have to add a 5% tax! The reason why most games in Himeya are declared as costing 9240yens (8800 + 5%) ~ $75.00
Then, as fxho-san said, you have to add the shipping… which is very expensive in Japan!
(and it’s 2800, not 2200 BTW)
[This message has been edited by olf_le_fol (edited 10-02-2002).]
quote:
(and it's 2800, not 2200 BTW)
(edited 10-02-2002).][/B]
Gomen nasai.
quote:No prob. And FYI, AliceSoft does so as well... Many of their old games (and rereleases of old games) are at 2800yens... You should check their homepage.
Originally posted by Unicorn:
Gomen nasai.
It’s the same reason why anime dvds over there are $50+ for 2 eps. There’s actually alot of reasons, one of them is the way the distros system is run in japan with all those middlemen getting a piece of the pie you need to up the prices. Then there’s also the fact that there is alot of price fixing in japan. Finally you can also argue that there is a larger market base here than in Japan since we have a much larger population so they can try to make up the profit by selling to more people (of course this doesn’t work with anime or bishoujo games since it’s such a niche market)
Ok enough of my long winded theories and back to lurking
Isn’t there a much simpler asnwer to that? The English games are just cheaper because they are already made. The story, art, interface, etc. are already done. And those things are the most expensive to do. For the English version they only need to translate the game and change some graphics.
And why are they so much more expensive in Japan? Just because it’s a bigger market there. The people there are willing to pay for it.
The real reason the prices for games, or most other things in jaoan are so high is because the Japanese are used to high prices on all other things they buy, so the publishers can ask 8000 yen for a game. While there are somethings that ddo have a high cost to produce in Japan,(food, housing, et cetera), most stuff in japan could be sold at US prices, and still have a large profit margin. The Japanese are just used to paying high prices, and bussinesses exploit that fact. But there is another trend. The Japanese are not price savey shopers. But One of the fastes grown chains in Japan is the 100 yen stores, which are like US dollar stores. This shows that trend is changing, partly due to the decade long ressesion Japan has been experincing.
Now they just need a japanese version of Walmart, to drive prices down further.
Well, I think that’s the last thing we would want. Those who are not familiar with Walmart, they exploit their workers pretty badly, force them to work overtime and then modify their books to get away from not paying them their deserved overtime pay, and pay terrible wages. Frankly I’m not fond of America’s model of businesses, they will do everything to maximize that bottom line by providing any dubious in-kind benefits before they raise wages.
It just the standard of living. The cost of living in Japan is high. More than half of one’s income goes to rent and living expensives. (Food, water and so forth) Because the cost of living is high so is everything else. However. Relatively speaking. The price of the games there to their average income is about the same, if not cheaper. For example 50USD a game to US person maybe 5% of their monthly income. However, 8800 yen (75USD) may only be about 3% of their monthly income. (please note I only using these figures as examples. But I know my friends in Japan 8800 yen is very little disposal income.)
Ok enough for my economic class. The bottom line is; you can’t compare one economy to another. You have to look at the economy at a whole.
I also find it curious that Japan DVD games tend are cheaper in some cases than the same CD version of the game. Example Ciels Soul Shinobi, or Xuse’s Kaze to Daichi no Pageant. Wonder why that is.
I was in Japan for a few weeks visiting friends this summer and noticed that a lot of the dvd anime releases come with extras, like a figure or something. I threw down 5000 yens for a DVD that came with a cute fish girl figure and all the other ones around it had some little extra too. Also, games (bishoujo) are kinda real expensive there. Comic Party, ToHeart, were about 130,000 yens altogether for me. I even did a bit of shopping too and that was about the cheapest I could find them. A friend of mine was in Osaka, in a store called Mandrake and said they had a “bargain bin” of sorts with a lot of older games in there for relatively cheap prices. He bought me a copy of Harem Blade for 2500 yens
I think your best bet why they are so high is ebcause they have a smaller target audience than a console game. They don;t sell nearly as many copies as a console came developer would so in order to stay in buisness you would need to be be making a pretty heavy profit off the games to make pay to your employees competitive, etc… A lot of the time you do get bonuses which adds to the cost of production a few hundred yen.
A lot of times though, its not the actual game company making the omake, but actual retailers of the games. Softmap for example is a great place to buy new games, because they always have special things made up, Ex… cups, pillows, shirts, telecards, clocks and so on. Thats to make you buy the game from them of course
Anyways, like I was saying before though, the company has to turn a profit, otherwise its going to get swallowed by other companies.
On another note, I finally received my waklthrough for Kiss Yori… today. I FINALLY GOT A GOOD ENDING#$&*( #%#$^&#&%^
I’m jsut really happy right now.
quote:
Originally posted by Bigdog:
Wonder why that is.
I have two possible reasons, I can suggest as answers:
a) to attract more people of the smaller target audience, who was reluctant and missed the original PC-Version
b) to compensate for the inconveniences, incoherent to DVD-games (writing down and typing in those terrible save-codes)