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Nota Jun 30, 2019 @ 6:08am

Game Prices from Japan

Does anyone else notice games from Japanese Publishers are always 50$+

Why is that? Is their consumer market so small they just inflate their prices? I ask because I noticed it coming from obscure games like Bladestorm hundred years war, a game about 8 years old with no fan base running at a 60 dollar price.

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Originally posted by Schlappohr Pyro:

I think they market their games to a niche audience, that will buy the games no matter the cost.
They probably don't think that they can sell their games to a broader audience. So no need to lower the price.

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Showing 1-15 of 17 comments

Karakasa Jul 21, 2019 @ 7:26am

More like they don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about overseas sales. Especially on PC. Prices in Japan is fairly high and publishers think prices for other countries should be at least not less. So, yes, they inflating prices just because they can.

8ullfrog Jul 21, 2019 @ 7:37am

so they went to activision school?

Kargor Jul 21, 2019 @ 9:46am

Originally posted by Ranger_Savage:
Does anyone else notice games from Japanese Publishers are always 50$+

How many examples of Japanese games not being $50+ would you want me to give you?

I got ALL my japanese games from sales, so I don't even care what the plain price is. However, it's quite common for games to eventually get their base price lowered.

Here's the Neptunia series, for example. I haven't checked US prices for all but the latest spinoff, which lists at €41.99 for me, but SteamDB does confirm a $49.99 price tag for US. However, that was only released weeks ago. Every other game is lower...

8ullfrog Jul 21, 2019 @ 9:51am

I still don't get how games slipped from $50 to $60 to whatever they can grab.

STAR TREK THE FALLEN retailed for $50. It's a decent game, it wasn't worth that price point.

BLOPS is $40 right now, here on steam, and I still say horseshite.

And still, publishers are allowed to set the price of the game on this platform.

Hah, at this point I wonder if publishers hate me, my price point tends to be below $10.

Start_Running Jul 21, 2019 @ 10:51am

Originally posted by 8ullfrog:
I still don't get how games slipped from $50 to $60 to whatever they can grab.

STAR TREK THE FALLEN retailed for $50. It's a decent game, it wasn't worth that price point.

BLOPS is $40 right now, here on steam, and I still say horseshite.

And still, publishers are allowed to set the price of the game on this platform.

Hah, at this point I wonder if publishers hate me, my price point tends to be below $10.

They don't They just know they won't get your cash right away.

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Schlappohr Pyro Jul 21, 2019 @ 11:16am

Xaelath Jul 21, 2019 @ 12:06pm

I thought you were talking about Japanese regional pricing is inflated (which is also correct but at least they still can get the sweet discount though i have no idea why they didnt care to promote their own game digitally for their own country).

Yeah most of Their game (mainly JRPGs or Action game) are above 40 bucks disregard the quality comparison with western (but it has different standard and we're talking about niche market here).
VN are the only one that cost less or indie games ..
Otherwise if you're seeing Japanese publishers the price would be questionable if you have to compare it with AAA game.

Originally posted by Murr:
I think they market their games to a niche audience, that will buy the games no matter the cost.
They probably don't think that they can sell their games to a broader audience. So no need to lower the price.

Theres another breakdown here though,
It also depends on the discount/deals, dlcs, staying fans for the series or publisher , something like that.
One of worse Japanese games selling Publisher in Steam are Koei Tecmo, most of their games aside from Dynatsy Warriors or Dead or Alive sells less than 20k and it worsened (according to japanese weekly sales) for series such as Atelier.

Meanwhile one of the most Profitable? and copies sold from japanese publisher would be Bandai Namco, They Have western tittle such as Dark Souls, but jrpg wise they sold around 200-500k copies for their popular tittle such as SAO,Tales,Dragon Balls.

Well Weeb will conquer the world they said.

Xaelath Jul 21, 2019 @ 12:10pm

To OP

You're seeing a Koei Tecmo games, they're known to be stingy for discount and pricings,
There has been numerous complain for Port Eversince they're starting to make their games to PC.

The pricing issues is much far worse in Console and same complain isnt only in PC obviously.

You should also checkout their "DLCs" especially for DW games.

Nepgear Jul 21, 2019 @ 12:32pm

Originally posted by Ranger_Savage:
games from Japanese Publishers are always 50$+

Easily proven to be false by an existence proof...

Plantman Knows Where Plants Grow Jul 21, 2019 @ 12:47pm

AAA VIdeogames have been in the $50-$60 range at least since the 80's that I was there too see when I owned a Nintendo. Later on in the 90s RPGs came along and the save game chip + battery on the cartridge pushed the price up too $100.

30 years later games still cost the same like inflation never touched them or something and the hundred-dollar-RPG games don't exist anymore.

#10

Xaelath Jul 21, 2019 @ 1:16pm

Originally posted by The ★Plantman★ of Dojima:
AAA VIdeogames have been in the $50-$60 range at least since the 80's that I was there too see when I owned a Nintendo. Later on in the 90s RPGs came along and the save game chip + battery on the cartridge pushed the price up too $100.

30 years later games still cost the same like inflation never touched them or something and the hundred-dollar-RPG games don't exist anymore.

Need to add competition exist, inflating the price would only works if theres less game and more demands.
At this very point of game industry, theres too much game and theres less demands which mostly depends on the Series/Quality/Genres or such.

#11

Cherrycat Jul 21, 2019 @ 1:17pm

Originally posted by Ranger_Savage:
Does anyone else notice games from Japanese Publishers are always 50$+

Why is that? Is their consumer market so small they just inflate their prices? I ask because I noticed it coming from obscure games like Bladestorm hundred years war, a game about 8 years old with no fan base running at a 60 dollar price.

Wait for a sale, they reduce their prices same as everyone else.

#12

Alzuma Jul 21, 2019 @ 5:08pm

Certain Japanese developers and publishers don't use regional pricing for their games, i live in Brazil and Resident Evil 2 Remake (60$) had a lower Price than Final Fantasy XII (49$), because capcom does regional pricing to a higher pool of countries.

It really depends on the publisher.

Last edited by Alzuma; Jul 21, 2019 @ 5:08pm

#13

Nota Jul 22, 2019 @ 9:43pm

Some of you are saying instances of japanese games exist of lower than 50+ dollars, I'm well aware it was just a trend I perceived a while back that they don't seem to price their games very...low? That is to say it wasn't a blanket statement just a commonality. This isn't exclusive to some western publishers (Like creative assembly) but it really is noticeable at least to me.

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