Viewing Thread:
"Should the UK be 'Different'?"

As a whole, the United Kingdom - consisting of England, Scotland, Wales and NORTHERN Ireland - is the biggest single area in Europe, with no other country or European regions coming close to it, in terms of its sheer size. Nope, not even Spain or France are anywhere near as big as the good old UK. So when a new product is on its way to the EU, in PAL, form (perhaps a new video game, or games console...), the United Kingdom is one section that no-one could ever afford to miss-out on, or see sales 'slump' in, if they were intent on making this new 'product' a European success, overall. But like with many things today, Europeans are, in most cases, the last to get anything that arises from the Middle East - especially the latest video games from the likes of Nintendo, Konami, and SEGA. And as European gamers, boy are we not happy having to wait for a PAL version of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - SIX-MONTHS-AFTER it originally appeared in Japan!

And now with the technology emerging (just take Datel's FreeLoader for the Nintendo GameCube, as an example), we are beginning to give up on waiting for "our own" regional copies of the latest games, and instead turning towards the ways of importing from the US, and even Japan, just to save ourselves a few-months-too-many of nail-biting and hair-loss-related, anticipation.
And I believe it is also only a matter of time before we see FreeLoader-style packagaes released for both the Microsoft X-Box, and SONY's PlayStation2, along with the consoles of the future - destroying the need for us to suffer these never-ending 'PAL-conversion delays'. At a time when almost NO European gamer will perpared to wait a while longer for the PAL release, when he can just get it from the US-of-A -- 'NOW'.

It's a possibillity that I believe could quite easily become real.
There could one-day be no-need for so-many European releases, at all!
But if the big-name firms of today don't like the sound of that, then obviously, they're going to have to start doing something about it. And the sooner games are released over here after hitting Japan; the better!


Now then, one idea that recently came to my attention - and really got me thinking about it - was the idea of treating the United Kingdom, as a whole (and perhaps the Republic of Ireland, also, just for this...), as an entirely different region to that of Europe, in-hope of at least getting us Brit's a few releases much-sooner, if not the majority of Europe, in general.
Just look at Australia - another region for `PAL` games... But they're absolutley nowhere near us! Yet, they recieve the same 'coding' in their games, a little while sooner in so-many cases. How can that be fair when we have to suffer intial delays of 6-months-after the Japanese get theirs - and even those dates are prone to "slippage"!?
I bet we'd get a similar kind of treatment if we were seen as "seperate" to that of all the EU countries, in general...! And also that the "Aussies" don't JUST get their's sooner, plainly because of their "closeness" with Japan....

Just think about how it must be for the likes of Nintendo and co. now, when only the mere 'thought' of releasing a new game across Europe, comes to mind...
By plainly 'looking' at the immense size of Europe, with all those individual little countries scattered around the Mediterranian, they know they've got one-heck-of-job coming up to fill their time and hands...! They know it's gonna be hard-enough to produce enough units AND to ship-them-off to all-areas, within good time; let alone creating a new game, or console, that'll satisfy ever-last-one of those Europeans -- right down to the very-last Scandinavian and Czech'!
We all say we'd love to work in 'gaming' in the future, but this sounds like nothing-but week-after-week of 7-day 'all-nighters', if they are to get everything done on-time!
It's no wonder we have to face-up to so-many delays, time-and-time-again!!

So, why not try and relieve that intense stress, and all those possible caffine-related illnesses Japanese developers and publishers must, by breaking-up part of the European Market as it is seen, and turning the United Kingdom (and perhaps Ireland...) into anoter market, in its own right?
And, you know what...? They could even consider linking both the UK and Australia together, as one whole PAL region, seeing that we all speak more-or-less the exact same language (only with accents added ontop). And while we're on that note... - what is it exactly that makes the Americans that-much-different to us, even though we both say "Hello" when answering the telephone?!?
We've heard it all before about how translating into all those different European languages can be a daunting task that takes up perhaps too-much time, and it's something that helped defat the cause for the likes of Animal Crossing to gain a European release, with a seqel already on-the-way. But with the UK out-of-the-way, they'll all only really have a bit of Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and perhaps Russian to add into each-and-every new game. OK, so that still may sound like a lot of work, but on a different time-scale, it's still less-work for them.


But obviously, the French, the Italians, the Spaniards, and all the others getting "left-behind" would have a fair few moans-and-groans to make in the direction of the men who can make it all happen. But for the sake of the future of European gaming; they need to start thinking about this, and how any obstacles can be overcome.
Seperating Great Britain away from the rest of Europe may not be the 'ideal' solution, but something needs to be done to at least break-down the mighty-size of the EU.
But unfortunately, I don't think George W. Bush and the rest of the US "nuking" Iraq and its surrounding neighbours is gonna do us any help (....not that it has anything to do with gaming, at all, or anything...).


I believe that our 'Kingdom' deserves the chance to stand 'United', on its own...!

I doubt the UK would ever be made its own region in gaming terms. If that happened then sales in countries surrounding it would rapidly slide. I buy most of my games from English websites because it is cheaper than buying games here. If the added incentive of getting games earlier were to also be thrown into the mix then very few people would actually buy games here at all. We could get them cheaper and earlier in the UK by simply taking a trip across the border that would roughly be the same amount of time for most as spending the afternoon in town, or just go on the internet.

Notorious Biggles wrote:
> Hedfix wrote:
> AgentFrodo wrote:
> Solskjær wrote:
> As a whole, the United Kingdom - consisting of England, Scotland,
> Wales and NORTHERN Ireland - is the biggest single area in Europe,
> with no other country or European regions coming close to it, in
> terms
> of its sheer size. Nope, not even Spain or France are anywhere near
> as
> big as the good old UK. So when a new product is on its way to the
> EU,
> in PAL, form (perhaps a new video game, or games console...), the
> United Kingdom is one section that no-one could ever afford to
> miss-out on, or see sales 'slump' in, if they were intent on making
> this new 'product' a European success, overall. But like with many
> things today, Europeans are, in most cases, the last to get anything
> that arises from the Middle East - especially the latest video games
> from the likes of Nintendo, Konami, and SEGA. And as European
> gamers,
> boy are we not happy having to wait for a PAL version of The Legend
> of
> Zelda: The Wind Waker - SIX-MONTHS-AFTER it originally appeared in
> Japan!
>
> And now with the technology emerging (just take Datel's FreeLoader
> for
> the Nintendo GameCube, as an example), we are beginning to give up
> on
> waiting for "our own" regional copies of the latest games,
> and instead turning towards the ways of importing from the US, and
> even Japan, just to save ourselves a few-months-too-many of
> nail-biting and hair-loss-related, anticipation.
> And I believe it is also only a matter of time before we see
> FreeLoader-style packagaes released for both the Microsoft X-Box,
> and
> SONY's PlayStation2, along with the consoles of the future -
> destroying the need for us to suffer these never-ending
> 'PAL-conversion delays'. At a time when almost NO European gamer
> will
> perpared to wait a while longer for the PAL release, when he can
> just
> get it from the US-of-A -- 'NOW'.
>
> It's a possibillity that I believe could quite easily become real.
> There could one-day be no-need for so-many European releases, at
> all!
> But if the big-name firms of today don't like the sound of that,
> then
> obviously, they're going to have to start doing something about it.
> And the sooner games are released over here after hitting Japan; the
> better!
>
>
> Now then, one idea that recently came to my attention - and really
> got
> me thinking about it - was the idea of treating the United Kingdom,
> as
> a whole (and perhaps the Republic of Ireland, also, just for
> this...),
> as an entirely different region to that of Europe, in-hope of at
> least
> getting us Brit's a few releases much-sooner, if not the majority of
> Europe, in general.
> Just look at Australia - another region for `PAL` games... But
> they're
> absolutley nowhere near us! Yet, they recieve the same 'coding' in
> their games, a little while sooner in so-many cases. How can that be
> fair when we have to suffer intial delays of 6-months-after the
> Japanese get theirs - and even those dates are prone to
> "slippage"!?
> I bet we'd get a similar kind of treatment if we were seen as
> "seperate" to that of all the EU countries, in general...!
> And also that the "Aussies" don't JUST get their's sooner,
> plainly because of their "closeness" with Japan....
>
> Just think about how it must be for the likes of Nintendo and co.
> now,
> when only the mere 'thought' of releasing a new game across Europe,
> comes to mind...
> By plainly 'looking' at the immense size of Europe, with all those
> individual little countries scattered around the Mediterranian, they
> know they've got one-heck-of-job coming up to fill their time and
> hands...! They know it's gonna be hard-enough to produce enough
> units
> AND to ship-them-off to all-areas, within good time; let alone
> creating a new game, or console, that'll satisfy ever-last-one of
> those Europeans -- right down to the very-last Scandinavian and
> Czech'!
> We all say we'd love to work in 'gaming' in the future, but this
> sounds like nothing-but week-after-week of 7-day 'all-nighters', if
> they are to get everything done on-time!
> It's no wonder we have to face-up to so-many delays,
> time-and-time-again!!
>
> So, why not try and relieve that intense stress, and all those
> possible caffine-related illnesses Japanese developers and
> publishers
> must, by breaking-up part of the European Market as it is seen, and
> turning the United Kingdom (and perhaps Ireland...) into anoter
> market, in its own right?
> And, you know what...? They could even consider linking both the UK
> and Australia together, as one whole PAL region, seeing that we all
> speak more-or-less the exact same language (only with accents added
> ontop). And while we're on that note... - what is it exactly that
> makes the Americans that-much-different to us, even though we both
> say
> "Hello" when answering the telephone?!?
> We've heard it all before about how translating into all those
> different European languages can be a daunting task that takes up
> perhaps too-much time, and it's something that helped defat the
> cause
> for the likes of Animal Crossing to gain a European release, with a
> seqel already on-the-way. But with the UK out-of-the-way, they'll
> all
> only really have a bit of Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and
> perhaps Russian to add into each-and-every new game. OK, so that
> still
> may sound like a lot of work, but on a different time-scale, it's
> still less-work for them.
>
>
> But obviously, the French, the Italians, the Spaniards, and all the
> others getting "left-behind" would have a fair few
> moans-and-groans to make in the direction of the men who can make it
> all happen. But for the sake of the future of European gaming; they
> need to start thinking about this, and how any obstacles can be
> overcome.
> Seperating Great Britain away from the rest of Europe may not be the
> 'ideal' solution, but something needs to be done to at least
> break-down the mighty-size of the EU.
> But unfortunately, I don't think George W. Bush and the rest of the
> US
> "nuking" Iraq and its surrounding neighbours is gonna do
> us
> any help (....not that it has anything to do with gaming, at all, or
> anything...).
>
> Thats a very good Idea
>
> Not trying to get your word count up are you? :)
>
> And what you are not?

Not what?

Hedfix wrote:
> AgentFrodo wrote:
> Solskjær wrote:
> As a whole, the United Kingdom - consisting of England, Scotland,
> Wales and NORTHERN Ireland - is the biggest single area in Europe,
> with no other country or European regions coming close to it, in
> terms
> of its sheer size. Nope, not even Spain or France are anywhere near
> as
> big as the good old UK. So when a new product is on its way to the
> EU,
> in PAL, form (perhaps a new video game, or games console...), the
> United Kingdom is one section that no-one could ever afford to
> miss-out on, or see sales 'slump' in, if they were intent on making
> this new 'product' a European success, overall. But like with many
> things today, Europeans are, in most cases, the last to get anything
> that arises from the Middle East - especially the latest video games
> from the likes of Nintendo, Konami, and SEGA. And as European
> gamers,
> boy are we not happy having to wait for a PAL version of The Legend
> of
> Zelda: The Wind Waker - SIX-MONTHS-AFTER it originally appeared in
> Japan!
>
> And now with the technology emerging (just take Datel's FreeLoader
> for
> the Nintendo GameCube, as an example), we are beginning to give up
> on
> waiting for "our own" regional copies of the latest games,
> and instead turning towards the ways of importing from the US, and
> even Japan, just to save ourselves a few-months-too-many of
> nail-biting and hair-loss-related, anticipation.
> And I believe it is also only a matter of time before we see
> FreeLoader-style packagaes released for both the Microsoft X-Box,
> and
> SONY's PlayStation2, along with the consoles of the future -
> destroying the need for us to suffer these never-ending
> 'PAL-conversion delays'. At a time when almost NO European gamer
> will
> perpared to wait a while longer for the PAL release, when he can
> just
> get it from the US-of-A -- 'NOW'.
>
> It's a possibillity that I believe could quite easily become real.
> There could one-day be no-need for so-many European releases, at
> all!
> But if the big-name firms of today don't like the sound of that,
> then
> obviously, they're going to have to start doing something about it.
> And the sooner games are released over here after hitting Japan; the
> better!
>
>
> Now then, one idea that recently came to my attention - and really
> got
> me thinking about it - was the idea of treating the United Kingdom,
> as
> a whole (and perhaps the Republic of Ireland, also, just for
> this...),
> as an entirely different region to that of Europe, in-hope of at
> least
> getting us Brit's a few releases much-sooner, if not the majority of
> Europe, in general.
> Just look at Australia - another region for `PAL` games... But
> they're
> absolutley nowhere near us! Yet, they recieve the same 'coding' in
> their games, a little while sooner in so-many cases. How can that be
> fair when we have to suffer intial delays of 6-months-after the
> Japanese get theirs - and even those dates are prone to
> "slippage"!?
> I bet we'd get a similar kind of treatment if we were seen as
> "seperate" to that of all the EU countries, in general...!
> And also that the "Aussies" don't JUST get their's sooner,
> plainly because of their "closeness" with Japan....
>
> Just think about how it must be for the likes of Nintendo and co.
> now,
> when only the mere 'thought' of releasing a new game across Europe,
> comes to mind...
> By plainly 'looking' at the immense size of Europe, with all those
> individual little countries scattered around the Mediterranian, they
> know they've got one-heck-of-job coming up to fill their time and
> hands...! They know it's gonna be hard-enough to produce enough
> units
> AND to ship-them-off to all-areas, within good time; let alone
> creating a new game, or console, that'll satisfy ever-last-one of
> those Europeans -- right down to the very-last Scandinavian and
> Czech'!
> We all say we'd love to work in 'gaming' in the future, but this
> sounds like nothing-but week-after-week of 7-day 'all-nighters', if
> they are to get everything done on-time!
> It's no wonder we have to face-up to so-many delays,
> time-and-time-again!!
>
> So, why not try and relieve that intense stress, and all those
> possible caffine-related illnesses Japanese developers and
> publishers
> must, by breaking-up part of the European Market as it is seen, and
> turning the United Kingdom (and perhaps Ireland...) into anoter
> market, in its own right?
> And, you know what...? They could even consider linking both the UK
> and Australia together, as one whole PAL region, seeing that we all
> speak more-or-less the exact same language (only with accents added
> ontop). And while we're on that note... - what is it exactly that
> makes the Americans that-much-different to us, even though we both
> say
> "Hello" when answering the telephone?!?
> We've heard it all before about how translating into all those
> different European languages can be a daunting task that takes up
> perhaps too-much time, and it's something that helped defat the
> cause
> for the likes of Animal Crossing to gain a European release, with a
> seqel already on-the-way. But with the UK out-of-the-way, they'll
> all
> only really have a bit of Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and
> perhaps Russian to add into each-and-every new game. OK, so that
> still
> may sound like a lot of work, but on a different time-scale, it's
> still less-work for them.
>
>
> But obviously, the French, the Italians, the Spaniards, and all the
> others getting "left-behind" would have a fair few
> moans-and-groans to make in the direction of the men who can make it
> all happen. But for the sake of the future of European gaming; they
> need to start thinking about this, and how any obstacles can be
> overcome.
> Seperating Great Britain away from the rest of Europe may not be the
> 'ideal' solution, but something needs to be done to at least
> break-down the mighty-size of the EU.
> But unfortunately, I don't think George W. Bush and the rest of the
> US
> "nuking" Iraq and its surrounding neighbours is gonna do
> us
> any help (....not that it has anything to do with gaming, at all, or
> anything...).
>
> Thats a very good Idea
>
> Not trying to get your word count up are you? :)

And what you are not?

That's rubbish, it's to do with cultures rather than actual placement.


For example, why is England a Western country if it's in the middle?

Hedfix wrote:
> Unless he's used to a non-standard map. One where east is west and
> west is east. Or a map where the country the map was made in is at the
> centre and everything else becomes easterly or westerly in relation to
> that country.

Okay, I challenge anyone to find a map which places Japan anywhere that could be called the Middle East.

Practical Magic wrote:
> Out of the original post, this bit;
> "But like with many things today, Europeans are, in most cases,
> the last to get anything that arises from the Middle East"
> seemed most intriguing... I thought the only thing of value from the
> Middle East was black, flammable and came in barrels.
>
> Surely you mean Japan ?

Unless he's used to a non-standard map. One where east is west and west is east. Or a map where the country the map was made in is at the centre and everything else becomes easterly or westerly in relation to that country.

UrkiE-UK wrote:
> it takes a long time for a small convoy of donkeys to get to britain
> y'know....

Did you mean 'a small convoy of donkeys' or 'a convoy of small donkeys'?

"How can that be fair when we have to suffer intial delays of 6-months-after the Japanese get theirs?"

it takes a long time for a small convoy of donkeys to get to britain y'know....

>>>>>OK

:)