The return of NTSC UK?

[sj33]

For 3DS games my imports literally cost twice what I have to pay here. Price aside, I really enjoy playing games in Japanese. I don't like having to buy two lots of hardware though.

I'm a bit torn about the idea of playing games in Japanese. It makes it easy to make gaming double up as studying, but it's also resulted in me having more than a couple of uncompleted games due to most of my game playing being late in the evening when I'm far too exhausted to be reading Japanese after having to do that all bloody day.

Sometimes, you just want playing games to be a little less work.

[kryss]

That's why games like Animal Crossing and Rune Factory are a good choice. You can run around talking to EVERYONE or just quietly go fishing and make some cash.

[importaku]

Nowdays theres still an advantage to importing but not as much as like it was in the past, well unless you like Nintendo stuff. Then theres no other option unless you like been shafted as they always hold the good games back under some bull**** excuse.

It's really expensive to import so the volume has gone down with what i buy but i stil don't do domestic well not with Nintendo at least. X360 is all uk stuff as there isn't enough decent J only games to justify importing a console for it, PS3 is a mix or various regions but mostly imports for the majority.

The one thing i do love with importing is the amazing full colour manuals that come with 3DS games, so worth it with all that full colour luxury printing, err yeah

[sj33]

Many factors have resulted in importing becoming a bit of a thing of the past for the most part.

Firstly, the more timely release dates. We now might have to wait a couple of days extra for a game, rather than a couple of months (or even years for some games). Secondly, the shift towards 60Hz being standard on all games. This started with the Dreamcast, but has become basically mandatory during the HD generation. We are now in a situation where domestics game are identical to their import counterpart. Thirdly, the rather sudden shift in balance of power from east to west in terms of quality. Most Japanese developers have struggled to adapt to the HD generation, and those that have adapted well have also become more western-centric (Capcom, Konami). The days when Japanese games were the beacon of quality compared with the middle-of-the-road western games would appear to gone. This has been recognised in Japan too, where an increasing amount of attention is being given to western games. And lastly, Japanese games are no longer the cheaper option - video game prices in the UK have gone down, whereas Japanese game prices have risen. Smart people in Japan will opt to import the Asian release because prices are so bad.

The more rational, pragmatic approach to video game distribution in this generation has done more to dissuade people from importing than underhanded measures such as region locking ever did. And the region free nature of the PS3 has allowed people to still be able to import games that fall through the net. Everyone's a winner.

I just fear that this will be short lived. Nintendo have embraced region locking more than ever and continue to be useless with timely release dates, we actually have our first region locked PS3 game in the form of Persona 4 Arena (though Atlas have promised to never do this again, thanks to the backlash).

[speedlolita]

Wii U is my first PAL console, so what would you say?

Bull****. Your PS2 TV is PAL. I'm sure there are other examples too.

[dvdx2]

Bull****. Your PS2 TV is PAL. I'm sure there are other examples too.

oh oh - scooped

[J0e Musashi]

Bull****. Your PS2 TV is PAL. I'm sure there are other examples too.

Aha. It's not my TV though. I bought them for the kids.

[wakka]

A technicality if ever there was one. Also it does seem like most of the stuff you buy for your kids is stuff that mostly appeals to you (although there's nothing wrong with that of course).

Many factors have resulted in importing becoming a bit of a thing of the past for the most part.

Firstly, the more timely release dates. We now might have to wait a couple of days extra for a game, rather than a couple of months (or even years for some games). Secondly, the shift towards 60Hz being standard on all games. This started with the Dreamcast, but has become basically mandatory during the HD generation. We are now in a situation where domestics game are identical to their import counterpart. Thirdly, the rather sudden shift in balance of power from east to west in terms of quality. Most Japanese developers have struggled to adapt to the HD generation, and those that have adapted well have also become more western-centric (Capcom, Konami). The days when Japanese games were the beacon of quality compared with the middle-of-the-road western games would appear to gone. This has been recognised in Japan too, where an increasing amount of attention is being given to western games. And lastly, Japanese games are no longer the cheaper option - video game prices in the UK have gone down, whereas Japanese game prices have risen. Smart people in Japan will opt to import the Asian release because prices are so bad.

The more rational, pragmatic approach to video game distribution in this generation has done more to dissuade people from importing than underhanded measures such as region locking ever did. And the region free nature of the PS3 has allowed people to still be able to import games that fall through the net. Everyone's a winner.

I just fear that this will be short lived. Nintendo have embraced region locking more than ever and continue to be useless with timely release dates, we actually have our first region locked PS3 game in the form of Persona 4 Arena (though Atlas have promised to never do this again, thanks to the backlash).

Great post. Western devs really ran away with this gen and Japanese ones have struggled to keep up. It's a shame, as I prefer J-devved games on the whole

[Brad]

The two best games this gen are Japanese. They seem to have struggled with the hardware though yeah.

[kryss]

Which games were those?

[J0e Musashi]

Demon's and Dark Souls?

[kryss]

Monster Hunter Tri and 3rd HD you mean of course.

[Brad]

Demon's and Dark Souls?

Indeed.

@Kryss, I didn't say the 3rd and 4th best weren't also Japanese (only played Tri - which I really liked) ;-)

[QualityChimp]

Re: The return of NTSC UK?

Lost Planet 2 and EDF 2017

[nakamura]

I think as good as the production values and huge game worlds in western games. They ate often full of very questionable gameplay and mechanics. For me, the west still excell at fps and strategy games but anything with combat engine in is normally average.