Anyone think importing has hit a decline?

I've noticed the import scene isnt as big as it has been in the past, does anyone else also think it is hitting a decline?

 

That's because theres nothing worth importing at the moment. For me Retro exporting is very popular. I seem to get more and more orders each week. It's always like this though. Games always die off in September and October then pick up again near the end of November.

Yakumo

 

It's hit a low for me on account of having no money.. :smt009

Oh wait, I never did have much to begin with. Silly me. :smt043

 

I think the fact that today's consoles requiring boot discs and mods to play imports is the reason for declining import sales.
Back in the day, you could get by with just a cart port extender or alteration to the cart slot. Today, you need to have your console chipped or modded to play imports, unless you enjoy swapping discs each time you play. I guess today's games are also somewhat less knowledgeable about imports as more and more games are released domestically each year and whatnot.

 

I think the importing scene was HUGE during the PSX days due to the immense popularity in the console here in the USA and Japan. I think Final Fantasy 7 also played a major role in it too ;-).

Out of all the friends I knew that had a PSX, all except for 5 (out of 14 total) had their console chipped or did the swap disk trick. They all had either DBZ: Final Bout, or some RPGs.

 

I think that importing current games form Japan has declined for a number of reasons.

1 Modchips have made games more of a hassle.

2 Most games are more language and text intensive nowadays. I know some people don't mind but the idea of read a faq to get through the game just doesn't appeal to me.

3 Turnarounds are faster. It use to take a year or more for games to get released overseas. Now with the exception of RPG's it's usually 1 to 3 months. Just not worth the extra money to people.

4 Games the that never would have been translated before now do. It started during the 32bit era but even then you would have never seen games like Steel Battalion, Katamari Damacy, Taiko Drum Master, Seaman, ect released overseas. I really credit this to Sony and the Playstation. They showed that games like PaRappa and Xenogears could sell in the US. Sega also played a part with games like Samba de Amigo and Seaman.

5 Games are less likely to be altered for localization. Anyone remember the very first Ranma 1/2 game for the SNES? Nuff said.

If anything nowadays I think you'll see more importing coming from the US than from Japan. Gamers in Europe still get the shaft from time to time and since more Europeans speak English than Japanese it's easier to import from the US.

With the exception of the occasional unreleased game and special editions I expect importing for current systems to continue to decline. I suppose one could say that this is a good thing since it means that we aren't being treated as children anymore.

As for importing games for older systems I think it has only gotten more popular due to both Ebay and the internet allowing for connections to people like Yakumo.

 

I think importing isn't really declining it's more on the move.
Most people i know still import games (mostly because we in europa have to wait on average 6 months for most titles or even 2 years in the case of animal crossing)

But the trend is not to buy japanese import but usa import because they offer instant playablity and don't need a guide to play.

Also sites like dvdboxoffice etc make it really cheap for people in europe to buy usa import i mean their prices for a new game are almost 50% cheaper at times then games are here (new games cost a standard price of 59,99 euro's how's that for a rip-off).

 

You know im shocked people in europe dont ussually import directly from here in the U.S., since i know british pounds are worth twice as much as a U.S. dollar. So if it's $50 here, then it would be 25 pounds in europe(not sure what parts of europe use the british pound since i know the euro exsistace) but that explains why the price is so much cheaper on places like dvdboxoffice, since they are not ripping you guys off and matching the price based on that market plus import fees. Here in the U.S. importers mark up the the price from $10-20 on import games, while systems i belive its somewhere from $60-120.

 

The pound is only used in england, the rest of europe uses the euro 59,99 euro's = 75.6908 USD for the lastest ps2, x-box and gamecube games.
So you can see that's it's really dirt cheap for us to buy games from the USA.

 

Importers flat out gouge on system prices at launch. I remember when Dreamcast was selling for $700.00+ right after the Japanese launch.

 

I remember the PS2 import machines going at about 1100 euro's, the dreamcast was also alsmot 1000 euro's for a jap machine.

 

I wiould have thought the "British pound" was self-explainitory, as in it is used in britain, which isn't just England, it includes some nicer places too :smt082 (and for the English here, that WAS a joke :-D )

Rich

 

I dare say that importing will pick up by next year: Resident Evil 4, Final Fantasy 12, GCN Zelda, and so on.

 

Importing declining??

Hehe not in this household, theres not a month that goes by without somthing from japan arriving at my doorstep.

Just ask Yakumo :smt043

 

Maybe importing is in decline for new stuff.

Back in the early 90s importing SuperFamicom/Famicom, MD, GB etc was at a much higher rate than it is now for PSone/two,Xbox,GC...

But for old stuff, importing is the way. Where else can I get quality PCEngine/Saturn/DC/Neo/PGM games.....

 

Retro fanboys are surely at an alltime high.

 

Ah so even the euro is worth more then U.S. currency, but i have to agree retro importing has been on the rise, heck i thank yakumo for getting me some imports that are at times badly marked up here in the U.S. Although i remember ncsx mentioning that their highest period for import sales was durrring the saturn and dreamcast days.

 

You guys ever thought that the reason people import less is that more games these days are released in all regions? You can buy Newtype in English for goodness sake.

 

#4 on my list.

 

You can buy Newtype in English? Never knew that. Is it the same as the japanese release or altered for the western taste?

Yakumo