@WaltzElf: ah, so it's Akihabara and Tokyo you're talking about. Just so you know, your experience there will not equal everyone else's experience in other parts of Japan, and describing Japan as some kind of magical discounted-games place is somewhat misleading; what I described above happened during my trips to Osaka, for example.
BEST THREAD EVER future of NL >:3
[16:43] James: I should learn these site rules more clearly
[16:44] LztheBlehBird: James doesn't know the rules? For shame!!!
No, i wasn't thinking that, i was thinking if you wanna move to another country just because of games are US the best country because you get more money to buy for than Japan
Sigh. I've travelled to both countries, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Japan has the superior games culture. There's no equivilent to Akihabera in the US, the arcade scene isn't remotely as developed or interesting, and the American culture hasn't embraced gaming nearly as much as Japan has.
It's also cheaper to buy games in Japan, overall, thanks to the highly competitive retail environment they have over there. If you really are going to move somewhere for the gaming culture, Japan is the place to be. Just make sure you get a good job (though that applies to America as well, to be honest.)
Haha i couldn't dream about moving somewhere just because of games
@WaltzElf: ah, so it's Akihabara and Tokyo you're talking about. Just so you know, your experience there will not equal everyone else's experience in other parts of Japan, and describing Japan as some kind of magical discounted-games place is somewhat misleading; what I described above happened during my trips to Osaka, for example.
I'll have to look at it when I get home, but the local edition of Game Informer did a side-by-side comparison on the average prices of a few games, taking into account exchange rates etc. Overall, Japan is slightly cheaper than America, and that's not taking into account discounts, second hand sales (the video shop I went into was not in Akihabera, but the second hand games on sale there were insane - I picked up ASH on the DS for 300 yen - $3), and Akihabera.
The US is the second cheapest place to buy games in the world though, by far.
Canadians like me always complain about the same (and with good reason). There are regular sales - both online and retail - in the United States that allow them get games for half the price we pay, and even "normal" pricing gives them a 20% discount from what we see in stores. Sadly you usually can't order those games to be shipped into Canada, so unless you have a US friend or live close enough to actually go across the border in person, it's just a tease.
I understand that there are several good reasons why this happens, but it's still disappointing to see hot sales and be excluded from buying.
Canadians like me always complain about the same (and with good reason). There are regular sales - both online and retail - in the United States that allow them get games for half the price we pay, and even "normal" pricing gives them a 20% discount from what we see in stores. Sadly you usually can't order those games to be shipped into Canada, so unless you have a US friend or live close enough to actually go across the border in person, it's just a tease. I understand that there are several good reasons why this happens, but it's still disappointing to see hot sales and be excluded from buying.
If it's really upsetting you, move to Japan where you can easily find top-line, reasonably new release games for between $5 and $15. That's the cheapest region in the world on the whole.
what stores were you shopping at while you were there? or were you hitting bargain bins someplace and didn't quite realize it? i paid full American price (actually, i'd say at least $10-20 more) for the couple of Japanese games i'd bought during the times i was in Japan myself (one was a PSX game, the others were DS games). one i got from a store in a mall, the other from a local game shop, and both weren't just-released games, but they were still in print at the time and they were brand new in their packaging. unless things have drastically changed recently, the Japanese are paying just as much (if not more) than us Americans.
When I was in Japan, I didn't see a single game shop outside of Akihabera, and whenever I did see one, the games were still pretty expensive. Japan as a whole is really expensive really.
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Topic: Price at games
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