I'm friends with a Tsutaya manager here in Japan and I talked to him for a bit about the market. He had some interesting things to say. Well, interesting to me at least. First of all, he mentioned that he's not excited about the PS3 because he's worried about hardware glitches like with previous PS models. It was a nightmare for them to handle all of the problems created by the first generation PS2. That's a huge warning for resellers here in Japan like me. I know the PS3 will have no region coding, but I never thought about what to do if I sell 10 units, ship them, then find out that there is a recall. He said that profit margin for consoles in Japan is about 10-15%, which is better than the -5% margin for US retailers. The XBOX 360 is dead to him. He hopes that the new 999 game an help to get some of his hardware stck out the door so he doesn't have to keep lowering prices. If you've ever been in a game store in Japan you'll see no less than 10,987,384 Playstation 2 titles on the shelves. I mean they have more different titles than I've had Playboy Playmate fantasies in my entire life. For each store the manager has to hand pick the quantity and selection. That might seem obvious, but to think that he has to guess demand for so much product type all on his own is insane to me. Maybe you just have to see it to understand. The new ban on used electronics sales is having little to no impact on him. That's all I can think of right now...
No doubt on everyone's mind (even consumers that have a memory that lasts 5 years or longer). If I'm not mistaken, Sony is 0/3 on launching a relatively hassle-free piece of game hardware. Shadowlayer: Your avatar is just wrong, man.
Everyone knows 360 has an icecube's chance in hell in Japan. The only way they can make it work is if they allow porn games on it.Dojin H games could save 360.
Well, I think if MS were brave enough to allow "full" H games to be ported onto 360 they could be onto something. Not only would it associate the brand with a certain sub culture, obtaining a pretty devout following, but it would also be appropriate given the rise in H games that need a decent computer to run. Eg, fulltime's エロ医 or certain stuff from Illusion. It might even spur on the genre! The problem with porting normal H games is that, they do not have the "H" anymore. So they usually just bung in a extra scenario or new character (cf. greengreen) to make the people who already have the game buy it again. So that is not going to be a money maker in anyone mind. (of course they then port the new console game back to the PC with new H to make people buy it that 3rd time!) So normal Adv games, maybe not a savior. But they could gamble on a whole new audience, who would like to see Battle R or Raprei with Rumble Rose quality graphics... There is no solid reason not to, these games run on Microsoft Windows, so why not other MS products?
To be honest that is not your problem. It's one of the risks a person takes when they import. By the time people get into importing they should knowledgeable enough to know that factory service is a thing of the past when they import. Not to mention the risks you take when buying a Sony system. As long as you're upfront about not being responsible for factory defects (maybe a FAQ about the risks of importing on your website) you should be fine.
Not only that but also old school games. If they release a series of NeoGeo collections (with faceplates and all) you can bet its going to be a must buy among japanese gamers.
You can say that, but if someone imports and it is DOA it is the seller that has to take care of things. Don't want to do it? Well then, the buyer can simply call for a charge back. -hl718
Hmm, I never really thought of that. I was thinking more along the lines of DRE and failings over time. If I were the seller to prevent that type of situation I would offer to check the system before shipping. However I'd make it clear that if the customer does not want the package opened then they take the risk.
And considering that this Blu Ray drive will have only been on the market for a few months when PS3 launches, lord only knows how that move will pan out in the first batch of consoles.
