Viewing Thread:
"Are we inferior as a nation of games players?"

Why are we, in the UK, persecuted by the gaming industry? Every console is launched first in Japan, then America then the UK. I can understand why consoles launch in Japan as it is a massive industry there and Sony and Nintendo are for all intensive purposes Japanese companies. The consoles are made by the Japanese so they get it first, fair enough.

Why then does it go to the US, what is so special about them which we don't have. Is our lust for games so lacklustre that it is hardly worth considering the UK market?

The UK and US versions of consoles are normally virtually the same except the launch games have to be adapted to Pal format for our TVs. So why us last then. Does it really take that long to change this as most launch games do this pretty poorly anyway, which makes you think what they were actually doing for the 6 months between the launches.

Maybe the big games companies think we like waiting over a year for Jap games to reach us in the UK. Maybe we are just seen as drooling dogs who get more frenzied by the US launch as we watch the fat Americans playing on their shiny new consoles.

I wonder what were to happen if the next big console launch after GameCube and X-box was to be a simultaneous world-wide launch. Sure it would take a lot of planning but then everyone would be happy, a media frenzy could be whipped up and hopefully by then every main gaming country would have access to high speed internet connections.

Another way that we are abused by the gaming industry due to our country is prices. The Sony PS2 hard-drive was released in Japan the other week for a price of 19,000 yen. Sounds quite high until you realise that it translates to £110.

So will we get it for around that price, umm, no not exactly, you see being in the UK we are bound by sone ancient gaming contract to pay an extra £90, nearly double the price the Japanese pay. So we can presume that ours we be better then? Nope.

When every console is launched in America for a certain amount of Dollars it is released later in the UK for the same number in pounds sterling. Yet when I went to the exchange bureau to change $299 into pounds I was a bit suprised when I recieved far less than £299. It must be a different exchange rate as far as the games industry is concerned then?

Is there actually any just reason why we are snubbed, maltreated and rejected by the gaming industry?

Maybe we are not good enough to recieve the same treatment as the US and Japan. But could somebody please explain why it is that we are an inferior people walking about in our inferior country?

If you think about it, in other countries wouldn't you think of it as Japan, USA and Germany for example.

Not strictly true, the exchange rate compares the value of the currency so if you traded $200 into pounds you would not get £200 (even without commission). What you mean is that a can of coke will cost you 50p in the UK and 50¢ in the US. This might be true but what it means is that things are slightly cheaper in America because the cent is worth less than the penny. It probably doesn't matter though, unless you travel a lot.

*TBN laughs heartilly*

Everybody says that. The fact is, the $200 = £200 relation has nothing to do with the strength of the economy at all. That would be if we were buying off America, which we clearly aren't. The price is fair, because if you were an American, $200 would make the same dent in you pocket as £200 would here. It's all comparitive. The fact that the figures are the same is just a coincidence. $200 dollars is worth the same as £200, it has nothing to do with the exchange rate.

Turbonutter wrote:
> Please, explain to me why it's not fair, so I may laugh heartily at
> your pathetic reply.

Right. I think it’s not fair in England we get charged more for things. We get conned left right and center on all things. Cars in Sweden or France are up to £10,000 cheaper! We get more expensive stuff just because of the strong pound. And that puts pressure on your economy because we are paying more for things. And cause of the pound our prices are higher so people don't by our merchandise. (More going out than coming in NOT GOOD). Also paying a pound equivalent would be fair, cause than means we get the same prices. But we don't get that, we get £2000 = $2000 deal. Which is stupid. I think if companies gave us a fairer deal we would spend more. Places like SR seem amazing cause of the prices, but really there should be more of them.

Turbonutter wrote:
> Please, explain to me why it's not fair, so I may laugh heartily at
> your pathetic reply.

Right. I think it’s not fair in England we get charged more for things. We get screw left right and center on all things. Cars in Sweden or France are up to £10,000 cheaper! We get more expensive stuff just because of the strong pound. And that puts pressure on your economy because we are paying more for things. And cause of the pound our prices are higher so people don't by our merchandise. (More going out than coming in NOT GOOD). Also paying a pound equivalent would be fair, cause than means we get the same prices. But we don't get that, we get £2000 = $2000 deal. Which is stupid. I think if companies gave us a fairer deal we would spend more. Places like SR seem amazing cause of the prices, but really there should be more of them.

Please, explain to me why it's not fair, so I may laugh heartily at your pathetic reply.

i do hate it when a console is £200 and $200, thats not fair!

Ahhhhh Chop the Fish. Great game. Never gets boring.

:)

Logan wrote:
> Actually, jap gamers are aweful. They cannot tolerate FPS- they get
> motion sickness badly.

Furthermore, they like EASY games... they
> play games and expect an easy way to acheive something... hence most
> games released in japan only have the EASY difficulty setting!

yeah probably why they prefer weird games like chop the fish

ok. End