Famitsu is reporting the USA version of Gears 2 being imported into one of japan's Akihabara game stores and selling well due to the usa version being region free.    Most people weren't even aware about this game being for sale but it was just word of mouth that spread out and the que formed to about 120 people lining up just to buy this game from one store.  I guess they can't wait that long for the asian version of Gears 2.

http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1219576_1124.html

It looks like they are just going about their daily business as though this game isn't even banned.............

Ignorance and rebellion in this case is bliss...............

Good for them

Will sales count towards NA?

they count as Sold in the US.

after a third party comes in it's count as a sell.

Dude this is crazy. That is the LOAX game store in Akihabara, Tokyo. It was the only store in all of Akihabara (the gaming mecca of Japan) that sold imported copies today. First they sold the US version which came in early and sold out right away. Its region free so it can play on a Japanese X-BOX. By the time I got there it was already out so I waited for the imported Asian NTSC-J version which was released today in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. I lined up at about 12:30pm and was probably the 10th person in line. At 2:30 when the shipment came in there was a huge line that spread from the register, around the fifth floor of the shop, and down the stairwell. Everyone there really wanted that game, and Im sure it sold out shortly after I left.

A lot of people think that the Japanese have forsaken the X-Box 360 but its not the case. It is slowly gaining momentum here, especially after the price drop. Its 50 bucks cheaper than a Wii, half the cost of a PS3, and only slightly more than a DSi.

It would be doing much better if it got all the games here and on time. So many titles take forever to be localized. GTA4 only came out last week. Still there are enough current quality games to keep it going.

Nice. This is the first time I seen Japanese importing a game from U.S.

have fun killing locusts.

It is very rare. Only a few specialty stores in electronic and gaming centers like Akihabara handle imports.  Most are the Asian Versions (NTSC-J for Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong) since they are usually released at the same time as European and American versions.  This is done to help reduce the circulation of pirated copies.  The Japanese version of overseas games however usually come out much later after the American and European ones. Sometimes after half a year or more.  The original GoW came out here in Feb., not Nov. It is really lame for the Japanese consumer and it is one of the reasons the X-BOX has not done so well. Another problem is the lack of marketing late games get.

Totally sucks the JPN won't adopt western games. After all we have fully embraced their games for decades. The Xbox team needs to start releasing a load of Jpn specific awfulness in order to succeed over there. Start with courtroom drama, kissing, dating sims and baby raising genre of games (I'm not kidding). Stay well clear of Mass Effect and the Gears of this world.

P.S Don't forget the schoolgirl knickers shot(s) + J pop soundtrack.

Good for them!

This reminds of how LittleBigPlanet got sold when it's not supposed to.