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Originally Posted by bishounen_blue
I purchase all the games that I play. I must say, though, that buying ero games outside of Japan is expensive. Japanese games are expensive to begin with, and you'd expect to pay more because of international shipping, but that's not all there is to it. Places like Himeya Shop that ship ero games internationally sell them at retail price. The difference between retail price and many stores prices is much larger for ero games than for console games. For example, at ero game retailer comshop I perordered Leaf's upcoming game フルアニ for 6,580 yen, tax included. That comes out to $56.90. And it's not cheaper because I preordered it, that's just what they charge, even though the retail price is the standard 9,240 yen. At the time of this entry one US dollar is 115.65 Japanese yen. 9,240 yen is $79.90. That's the retail price plus tax. Yet, because people overseas have little choice in where they purchase their games, they can charge $95 for it.
http://www.himeyashop.com/product_in...oducts_id/4224
Then you have to pay another $19 for shipping, so you're paying $114 for a game that someone in Japan pays $56.90 for. Of course, the shipping charge is to be expected. There's really nothing that can be done about it, and you can save there by ordering multiple things at once. Still, it would be nice to see someone like comshop start offering international shipping. Oh, and comshop, as well as many other places, offer used games as well. They aren't "used" like that copy of MegaMan X I got from Game Stop in America, that would only play some of the stages. You see any game on the shelf used the day after it went on sale, if not the same day. And they are always in practically new condition. So, just another way to cut the price down another 500 to 1000 yen. So yeah, piracy is no good but the distrobution of these games overseas leaves something to be desired. |
I discussed this topic at length over at another forum, and yes, buying bishoujo games (visual novels, H-games, whatever you want to call it) is an expensive hobby if you live outside Japan (heck, even inside Japan, it's an expensive hobby).
H-game prices are usually pre-determined according to their types: a full-fledged game typically runs for the basic 8800 yen (9240 yen with tax), limited editions with bonus goodies might run for 9800 yen (10290 yen with tax), etc... But those are really nothing more than MSRPs (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price), the real street price of a game depends a lot on the game's popularity, brand, demands, etc.. Generally, nobody would ever sell a bishoujo game in Japan for the full retail price (amazon.co.jp, for example, always sells their bishoujo games with a big discount (~25%)).
International dealers like Himeya don't really have to worry about competitions, so they can sell their games at MSRP (or even above
) without worrying about losing sales to others.
But that's also why places like Palet Mail is popping up: international dealers that offer competitive pricings as well as hard-to-find (doujin) goods. To use your FullAni as an example, it's listed for $71.99 over at Palet Mail: still expensive by Japanese standards, but far cheaper than Himeya.
Hopefully, more stores like them will be popping up over time, so maybe we'll begin to see more competitive pricings.