Hey, so for those of you who don't already know (probably most of you) I live in Japan right now, teaching small children their abc's. I've been thinking about this for awhile and wanted to make a thread about it, so here goes.
Games in Japan have a lot of quirks that they don't in the States. One of the big things is that games are not released with universal pricing. An example: Mario Tennis Open for 3ds, that just came out recently, is priced at 4080 yen (yes gaming is expensive here) and Kingdom Hearts is somewhere around 5000, depending where you look. Games appear to be priced based on their perceived quality or range of audience, so a game like let's say, Rayman Origins, that tons of people would buy for 40-50 dollars but not the full 60, may be appreciated under the Japanese system of pricing.
Also, since I've been here I've seen a few games that seem to have purely fallen through the cracks in America. One big one that stands out is Final Fantasy Type-0. Apparently that game has been out here for a while now, and if my memory serves me it got mentioned and then never heard of again in the states. There are also some big, triple a budget games here that literally have never been talked about in the states that really surprise me. and of course, there are tons of gundam games, some of which are quite good.
so i guess, discuss? what do you think of the variable pricing model for retail? if you guys have any questions about certain games or anything that i've seen/not seen i can look into that for you too. does anyone else have experience with these differences?