Same with me. Square Enix I don't feel too strongly about either way... as long as I get my main entries into Dragon Quest and a few spinoffs. Would really love Dragon Quest X for the US. Loved playing the beta using a Japanese VPN server... but I can understand why they would not want too from a business standpoint. As for Maxis... they took too long to make a new SimAnt. I was really excited for the new SimCity... I literally would have paid full price just for an HD remake of simcity 2000 with added features.
For immediate worldwide releases, there is somewhat a valid issue/reason for that. It's primarily the economic issues and wealth disparity between countries. In certain countries, games can be as much as 75% cheaper (My experience) compared to US retail prices. This is due to income/economy in those countries, if you put the price any higher, no one can afford it, and thus will probably pirate it. But then if you do that, what's stopping other people from importing that game into US to sell? (Like G2A is doing with digital downloads) sadly their immediate solution means region locking.
And then there's the companies bringing out english versions of incredibly niche (and likely to stir up trouble) titles like "Crinimal Girls". Which end up needing to be slightly censored in the end because of course they do.
Considering EA have really been slack on the classic game re-releases especially SC2K. I got the game on Origin when it was free and I am sure glad I didn't pay for it. Just the dos copy with included Dosbox to play it with sloppy controls. I would of thought they would of used one of the CD versions or updated the controls and graphics a bit at least. Unfortunately I have long said that another video game crash is coming. And with the way developers / companies are treating their IP's and offering ways to milk more money off gamers be it with on disk DLC or stupid costume packs. Also with games that are now becoming more and more like mobile phone and Facebook style games that require you to play everyday to farm crops (I'm looking at you WOW and your garrisons) the future of real / classic gaming is dying very quickly.
There won't be another video game crash, majority of the gaming market is too evolved. Gaming was more geared towards children and consoles being toys. It's now bigger than the movie industry, so unless there's a movie crash, there won't be a gaming market crash.
If a crash were to come, it wouldn't be like the last one - but gaming is at an all time high at the moment, propped up massively by F2P and casual gamers.If they lose interest, then whole house of cards could fall down. But like you say, it's unlikely to happen overnight and there's enough money in the industry at the moment to shift the market again.
Yeah, because apparently Americans' heads would explode if there were a boob, but not when heads explode (see what I did there?). But on that note, games like Phantasy Star Online 2 don't need to be censored or anything more than translated (and for PSO2, having servers in the States would probably help). I think there's a legitimate chance we see a AAA crash, if games keep getting more and more expensive to make, and get released half-finished, I doubt the core audience (people who buy more than say, 5 $60 games a year or whatever) will keep paying for them. Something similar did happen in movies in the late 70s and early 80s, when studios gave filmmakers blank checks to do whatever they wanted and audiences tuned out. Movies got smaller and cheaper, for a while.
