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"The source of our Gaming troubles."

I find it extremely distressing to find that again the Europeans are being pushed into a back seat. I enquired recently, to Square-Europe, when is Final Fantasy 9 going to be released, and it looks as though it is going to now be delayed until, next year, the reason, translating the game is such a huge task…So what language have the Americans been speaking? Japanese! What a pathetic reason why we have to wait, yet again to play a game. I know that the rest of Europe might have to wait to have the game translated into their languages but why should we have to wait? So having been knocked back quite a bit by the news I will be spending Christmas without FF9 I had hoped to get import versions of Chrono Cross, and Final Fantasy Anthology seeing as once again Europe where to miss out on some great games. I soon realised that the likeliness of this happening was small as I was quoted, £50 for Chrono Cross, £60 for FFA, and £30 to have my PS chipped. I know that we have heard these arguments before, but the fact remains that when it comes to gaming Europe have been continually treated badly. The preorder of Playstation 2 just highlights the situation. But at least it is better than a few years ago… or is it has it actually improved, I don’t think so. In terms of gaming we seem to have fallen further and further behind America and Japan. Why well perhaps it is the fact that Europeans can’t afford to buy as many games as Americans. We have a lower average income yet we have to pay more for our games. The Developers point to the government placing high taxes and transportation costs. So suddenly it is clear. We can’yt buy many games as they are so expensive, the games can’t get much cheaper because of political reasons. So we again are left dragging behind. America had free Internet years before we even heard talks about it. So it suddenly dawns on us, the reason we can’t play games is not necessarily the game developers fault. It will continue to happen until something changes. I can’t realistically see that happening. Fellow gamers, our only saving grace may come in the form of Microsoft. With world-wide release dates, and multi regional games we may at last hav a chance to play games at the same rate as the rest of the world. If it comes to fruition, which we can only hope. We could at last be treated with the respect that European gamers deserve.

So roll on X-Box because we can't wait to be treated fairly

Sav Guy, don't expect to win with one post!

How many times have we heard about how games companies such as Nintendo, Sega etc whine about the importers. Personally I don't often buy a game on import but I know plenty of people that do. I remember when Tekken 3 was released over here - apparently it didn't sell too well because people had already bought the thing on import months ago rather than wait for a ridiculous amount of time for it to come here and who can blame them ? Its so frustrating to read a magazine about a game that your dying to play (which is available in just about any country but ours), only to find out "oh, sorry all you English gamers, but hey ! At least you get to play it in a year or so while the rest of the world is playing the sequal !". Then these companies have the cheek to wonder why importers are making so much ! Unless they start changing their ways they will lose more and more money because people will turn to import all the time. Its not just games, its the consoles too - Remember the SNES ? That was out in Japan for ages before it ever hit our shores. We seem to get mugged of more money for games than any other country and we always seem to be a year behind Japan and the U.S in release dates ! Having a girlfriend in the states, while I was there I saw the prices of games and no joke, I picked up Resident Evil 1, 2 and 3 for the equivelent of around £45 ! Bearing in mind Res Evil 3 had only just been released ! Its not the retailers such as Special Reserve and others that are to blame for these prices - they have to buy the stock in and its not cheap. A video game shop in my opinion is probably one of the hardest businesses to run and I give credit to any that succeed. The competition is extremely large, you make very little profit on a game so you really have no choice but to buy in bulk and small shops can't afford that. Dreamcast owners will know about this - Metropolis Street Racer. A game that was in magazines before the console was even released - And we are still waiting for it ! Not to mention Shenmue ! I know people that have gotten so sick of waiting for games to come out that they've sold their console and bought a different one cause they couldn't stand the boring tripe that was being released while the American and Japanese public were enjoying a large number of top releases that we were left to drool over. That is surely another area companies are losing money over that could be solved by giving us decent release dates. Personally I'm sick of enquiring about games I really want to play only to hear "no sorry, the release date has been put back another 2 months". As I said with the money we pay as customers and retailers, we deserve a bit more attention when it comes to release dates - maybe even more than countries such as the U.S that are paying less. Afterall, when I pay for a flight to the U.S with Virgin, if I were to pay around £2000 I would expect business class, not an economy seat !

Savatt

To include the words Microsoft and fair treatment in the same post may prove to be a very dangerous idea.

I think that Microsoft will attempt to use the X-Box to monopolise the gaming sector and it wont work. They will sell for as much as they can get away with and I cant see them making games that are mutiregion otherwise we would all buy US versions and save money.

Anyway, I agree with majority of your post. It is about time they stopped screwing us over. All the companies make a lot of money from the European market and we deserve better treatment.

I am just a bit wary that you see Microsoft as your Saviour!!

I find it extremely distressing to find that again the Europeans are being pushed into a back seat. I enquired recently, to Square-Europe, when is Final Fantasy 9 going to be released, and it looks as though it is going to now be delayed until, next year, the reason, translating the game is such a huge task…So what language have the Americans been speaking? Japanese! What a pathetic reason why we have to wait, yet again to play a game. I know that the rest of Europe might have to wait to have the game translated into their languages but why should we have to wait? So having been knocked back quite a bit by the news I will be spending Christmas without FF9 I had hoped to get import versions of Chrono Cross, and Final Fantasy Anthology seeing as once again Europe where to miss out on some great games. I soon realised that the likeliness of this happening was small as I was quoted, £50 for Chrono Cross, £60 for FFA, and £30 to have my PS chipped. I know that we have heard these arguments before, but the fact remains that when it comes to gaming Europe have been continually treated badly. The preorder of Playstation 2 just highlights the situation. But at least it is better than a few years ago… or is it has it actually improved, I don’t think so. In terms of gaming we seem to have fallen further and further behind America and Japan. Why well perhaps it is the fact that Europeans can’t afford to buy as many games as Americans. We have a lower average income yet we have to pay more for our games. The Developers point to the government placing high taxes and transportation costs. So suddenly it is clear. We can’yt buy many games as they are so expensive, the games can’t get much cheaper because of political reasons. So we again are left dragging behind. America had free Internet years before we even heard talks about it. So it suddenly dawns on us, the reason we can’t play games is not necessarily the game developers fault. It will continue to happen until something changes. I can’t realistically see that happening. Fellow gamers, our only saving grace may come in the form of Microsoft. With world-wide release dates, and multi regional games we may at last hav a chance to play games at the same rate as the rest of the world. If it comes to fruition, which we can only hope. We could at last be treated with the respect that European gamers deserve.

So roll on X-Box because we can't wait to be treated fairly