| shams said: stof said: ioi said: Markets such as Hong Kong effectively import machines from Japan and repackage them etc - these sales will be counted within Japan sales. A-HA! So Japan does include more than just Japan. The plot thickens! But this is "different" - you can't include imports as another market. Only places where shipments are sent directly should be counted as a market. I'll be *very* surprised if HongKong doesn't warrant shipments in its own right. I was there for a couple of days at the start of the year, and little games shops are EVERYWHERE. Heaps of stock for sale - most of it does seem to be the Japanese version (most games don't get released in Chinese/Mandarin do they?). It could be possible they are all imports - but I would be surprised. Sony had a HUGE presence in HK, I have never seen so many people walking around with PSPs (all of them hacked/warez no doubt ;). Was also a huge amount of software available, etc. If the units are imported from Japan, Im almost certain they would have to be at the wholesale/retail level - rather than being purchased, and then re-sold (many of the units I saw were cheaper/same price as normal retail in Japan). I suppose the only real question is whether these units are "counted" in the Japan sales figures - I saw no, they aren't. So we should try and get some figures and track these down?  |
Most of the games, especially those text-heavy games, will not see a Chinese language release because the size of the market is quite small compared to the others (7 million people), and many players have learned enough Japanese to understand the game. Even if they don't, there are always gaming magazines providing walkthrus. :p Piracy seems to add to this factor, too. But as of now, more and more games get a Chinese-language release. Blue Dragon is going to get a Chinese version (whether it is fully voice-acted in Chinese is in question, due to many players' concern about the quality of Chinese voice-acting), Mass Effect is going to get one too.
Yes, there are shipments to Hong Kong when a game was released in Japan, but I think these shipments counted in the "Japan" figures, because it is just the packaging that is different, anything else is the same. But that's just my opinion though...
Sony had a huge presence in HK because of Sony's long-established brand name. Being a portable multimedia device, PSP is THE fad there. (also in mainland China, which is why HUGE amount of PSPs - possibly 3-5 million - are illegally imported there.)
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