I don’t celebrate Christmas, but if I am sure many of you
who did got some boxed games as presents.
We love displaying our possessions and having something tangible to
claim ownership of. This goes double for
avid importers because just having a game that won’t be out in other parts of
the world makes you the envy of those around you (and in my humble opinion, superior
to them in almost every way). You can’t
do unboxing porn of a digital game after all.
And owning something marked with scrawling foreign characters just looks
cool.
But I have to wonder if, going forward, opting for digital
might not become a more popular choice for importers. I know many people who choose digital as their
preferred way to get access to Japanese games on the Vita. This is thanks in part to the system and
network not locking people out from accessing Japanese content. In addition importers can get access to the
games they want on the day of release rather than waiting up to a week or
having to contend with pricey mark-ups from dedicated import resellers.
There are increasingly fewer downsides to importing
digitally as the services become more robust; during the PSP days and the
inception of PSN many titles never made it to digital; some titles like Crisis Core and Kingdom Hearts are still conspicuously absent. This is still the case with PS3 games today. However Sony has taken efforts to ensure that
games for the Vita (and PS4 going forward) all get digital counterparts. Digital versions of games are also coming
packed with their own pre-order goodies (FFXHD
coming with FFXIII-3 DLC for example)
meaning that you don’t miss out as much by not going for a boxed copy or
retail; retail being problematic when your closest Yodabashi Camera is an ocean
away. Pricing for games on the JPN PSN
has also been quite fair with prices being around 1000 yen lower for digital
copies and cheaper in real terms (cheaper than retail).
I’d say the biggest hurdle that puts importers off digital is
the poor cost:value ratio for Vita memory cards (read: they are insanely overpriced)
and the relatively small size of many PS3 HDDs.
It’s true; storage space is a concern for digital importers who don’t
want to deal with the inconvenience of moving content onto their computers or
PS3s. But this got me thinking…given
that the PS4 requires all games to be fully installed (including disk based
games) doesn’t that make space a non-factor in choosing whether you import
physically or digitally? That 40GB digital
game sitting on your HDD is ultimately going to take up the same amount space as
the physical version is after it finishes impressing the shape of its install arse-print
into the HDD upholstery. Some people
might have capped download limits which make going digital impractical given
that PS4 games are in the region of the tens of gigabytes. But assuming you don’t does this impact your
choice to choose digital for importing?
I look forward to the release of Ryuu ga Gotoku Ishin! for the PS4 as right now there isn’t a whole
lot to play for the system. It is going
to be the first big Japanese PS4 release and one that looks like it will be a
lot of fun going by the trailers. This I think would mark the first time the RGG
series has had a digital release on a home console (given that a digital
release is all but a foregone conclusion).
Sure, I don’t get resale value but I’d imagine for many
importers selling their games on isn’t something they ever had in mind. And for those collection enthusiasts who love
to display their games physical might still be their preferred choice. For many though, between the convenience of
downloading, the increasingly wider availability of digital games and the fact
that storage is not going to be a consideration, they might well start opting
for digital importing.
At least, for home console releases I know I will.
Now…if we can only see about getting Sony to work on
allowing us to use Paypal to pay off our purchases on the Japanese PSN so we
can do away with the points cards middle-men.
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