E3!, The gaming event of the year! Options

[CommieBastard]

I only download games that I've either once owned and now lost (Dungeon Keeper, Civilisation II, etc) or that can't really be found anywhere anymore, at least from any "official" source (NES games etc).

[Mata]

I have occasionally used bootleg games, but this is only when I cannot afford to buy one. If I really like something I will usually go out and buy it anyway.

I had the album 'Earth V.s The Wildhearts' on tape for about ten years before I got around to buying a copy, but I got there in the end!

[Jonman]

Heh, nice idea. In the UK it takes about three or four years for a good title to drop the US$20. The 'low price' of a decent game is usually around £20 (c. US$37), new games are usually £40ish (c. US$75). This is why I haven't bought a new game for ages.

The last game I bought was Project Zero 2: Crimson Butterfly for the PS2. That was £6 in a very rare actual-clearance sale at HMV (rather than a 'we ordered 300 copies of Hulk and need to shift some of them' clearance sale). Usually I have to spend around £15-20 to get a game, even a year after release.

Importing is appealing in some respects, but I don't like the idea of not being able to walk into a shop and buy something on impulse if I really wanted to.

But you don't lose the ability to impulse purchase with importing. You walk into a shop, see what's on offer, then go home, and buy it for half the price (Ebay is your friend, as is DVDBoxOffice). In all honesy, that's what I do for most of my PAL games anyway, given that I can buy them cheaper online. Only time I buy games in shops is special offers (2 for 20 quid kind of thing), or brand new day of release games (and I can't remember the last time I did that). I shudder to think how much more the lifetime costs of owning my xbox and gamecube would have been if I'd bought them in this country.

Let's do some maths:

Import set up costs:
Power Transformer: £20
Imported mahcine: costs the same + ~ £30 shipping + import tax at ~£50 (guesses those numbers).

So you're looking at about 100 quid set up cost at the front end of importing. Tops. If the exchange rate is decent, you might even save some on the initial cost of the machine. For software, sites like DVDBoxOffice do free delivery worldwide. So you're not looking at paying any shipping on new games. You'll save just under 15 quid on each new game you buy if you're buying from the US ($50 for a new game vs £40 for a new game). So if you buy 8 new games over the lifetime of the machine, you've broken even. Any more than that and you've saved yourself money. And you'll save a few quid on each older game too. How many new games have you bought for PS2 over the last 4 ro 5 years? Our friend Ebay allows us to resell the games on too once you're done with them.

Plus you don't have to wait an extra year for the PAL release.....

Once thorny issue might be online support though - not sure if my US Xbox would work on Xbox Live in this country. That will probably continue to be a problem for next gen machines too....

[Mata]

Yes, the online aspect certainly does add a new layer to the complexity of the issue. I'm sure that somewhere will work out a way around that, although places that do chipping have been being shut down by people like Sony and Micro$oft. It they wanted to stop imorting then they should sort their release schedules out and charge us all the same price. Until they do that then they've really got no reason to complain about people getting their machines chipped in my opinion.

[Jonman]

Yes, the online aspect certainly does add a new layer to the complexity of the issue. I'm sure that somewhere will work out a way around that, although places that do chipping have been being shut down by people like Sony and Micro$oft. It they wanted to stop imorting then they should sort their release schedules out and charge us all the same price. Until they do that then they've really got no reason to complain about people getting their machines chipped in my opinion.

Did I tell you I made a friend online who works for SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe)? His exact words (pasted from his email) from us talking about us Europeans getting shafted by the PSP release schedule.

If we could simultaneously release around the world we would, believe me. Unfortunately it's just not possible to make the liitle fellers quick enough - plus releasing it over the sunny summer would be a bad idea as most of europe basically goes on a two-month long holiday.

The upside of the delay is that the first wave of euro games will be super-polished and feature-heavy...trust me, they will be worth waiitng for...

<snip>
True, we are lumped in with Europe despite being native tongue-twins <with the US> - the EU has all manner of business rules I won't bore you with that make it hard for the UK to operate independantly of the rest of the continent, alas.

Localisation is a big bottleneck as you rightly notice, plus software release dates are set by the publishers who have their own odd agendas surrounding share prices, marketing budgets and so on that tend towards delaying titles - things are better than they were though - a top-rank game is usually only a few weeks behind the US release nowadays (unless its on a Nintendo of course, heh heh).

On the plus side again the hardware delay will let our tech boys in Japan iron out those funny little quirks that first-run consoles have always had...not that the PSP is bad in this respect, considering its breakneck pace of R&D

[emphasis mine]

See, that's something I'd not fully understood - "...software release dates are set by the publishers...", so after launch, the fact that we have to wait months to get the games is little to do with the console manufacturers.

[Mata]

(Yep, you did gleefully mention your Sony friend. I'm getting third person freebies, remember? )

I'd realised that there was most likely that as a factor. After all, they want to start getting revenue from their product as soon as possible, and the time spent during localisation could merrily be putting dollars and yen in the bank, however, it still strikes me as bizarre to penalise those who wish to import their games. I suppose that Sony has to protect their interests of its publishers who want to release to the UK (and Europe) later but we still pay a lot more for a game than the rest of the world. Is it purely taxes? I know we have higher taxes than the US, but does that really account for the doubling of prices?

We might get some more features after localisation, but I doubt that is more often the case than not. The Metal Gear series is the only one that I recall to have added anything for Europeans lately.

I do understand the business reasons for it, but it's hard not to feel a little cheated anyway. Higher prices and delays for the (in the majority of cases) the same product that has been available in the US for months? Who wouldn't feel a little put off. Even if the release schedule does eventually become co-ordinated, the pricing is still a ligitimate gripe, and potentially one that will get worse with the next generation of games.

One of the reasons that I've always liked Sony is the Platinum range, but even that seems to have been put on a back-burner recently. Certainly, you can't blame publishers for wanting to keep their products at full-price for as long as possible, but the leap in sales after a price-drop should certainly send out a clear message for the spending habits of consumers.

Of the few games that I have bought 'new' in the last few years, I don't think I've ever paid the full-whack for them, £30 is pretty much my limit because I just can't justify to myself £40 on a game.

This has always been the situation really, but it's in my mind at the moment because I suspect it's going to get worse soon.