Well I'm originally from London, but I've recently taken a vacation to the Philippines.

So I'm here to report on the status of games in this country.. just coz I'm bored.

1.) Piracy here is unbelievable. Hardly anyone buys or sells any original X360, PC, or Wii games because they can simply get a copied disc for like $1. They have guys all over the malls modding X360's, Wii's, PSP's, and DS's for a modest fee of around $5.

2.) The PS3, however, because of blu-ray (which doesn't really exist around here yet), has escaped this mass piracy thing. The video stores don't even sell blu-ray movies, but they do sell blu-ray games, which is a plus for Sony because their competitor's games aren't even being shown on the shelves.

3.) The PS2 has been selling here as completely modded for a number of years. The hardware and software of this old machine is still on the front shelf. It's still coming off the shelves coz of the wealth of titles one can choose from, each selling at only $.50 apiece.

4.) They don't get limited editions or pre-order bonuses here.. Which sucks pretty badly coz I'll be here till November.. Which means I won't be getting anything extra from my Littlebigplanet purchase. Actually, preordering doesn't even exist here.

5.) But they do get the games on time. A store clerk that I've come to be familiar with tells me that they get the games at the same time as the US does. Pretty impressive, considering that Sony doesn't even have the Philippines as a listed country in the PSN.

6.) The big retailers are scum. Here, their versions of Gamestop and Best Buy are called Toy Kingdom and DataBlitz. Of course we know games are supposed to be $59.99, but these swindlers actually sell the games at around $70-80, sometimes even $90 for new games. Oh and they have no clue what "greatest hits" means. Luckily, there are these small retailers that i've mentioned that sell them at the correct price. Unfortunately, the mass buying market isn't aware of these places, and are instead swindled by the big retailers.

7.) The hardware is also very much overpriced. A PSP here goes hovers around $250, even in the small retailers. They do have some interesting bundles though, like their PS3 comes with two original games of your choosing, including any existing title when you buy it.

Well these are some of the things I've noticed so far. Comments welcome :D

This is not a wonderful world. It's hard to lower prices when everything is modded.

Welcome to the sad reality of third world countrys

^I agree unfortunately.

oh yeah, the piracy thing says a lot about how nintendo and especially microsoft intend to deal with the issue.

they intend to do nothing. apparently, all software of any kind has been in the loving hands of pirates here for the past ten years, and no company (or government) has stepped up to try to control them.

so i see an interesting play here.. here, sony has a console that cannot be pirated, so sales of their hardware are relatively low while sales of their software will be pretty high. on the other hand, the x360 and the wii will have sold more hardware, but hardly any software.

interesting place, this is.

Ho, that's nice to hear - I'm considering sendin my PS2 to relatives down there and was worried region locks would get in the way! 

I believe yushire lives in the Philippines, if he has anything to add, maybe...

Btw, why the Philippines of all places? I visited winter 3 years ago since both my parents are filipino, so I've got tons of relatives there, sounds like you're staying for quite a while though. I was hoping to head there this winter but it just costs way too much 

Haha.. I was just there in March. My cousins have PS2s, GBAs, PSPs and Wiis.

All the games I've seen there are Bootlegs (either on burned CDs or DVDs) the GBA cartridges are those 100 in 1 type of deals.

The way the economy is, I don't blame them. Money doesn't come easy over there.

I kind of miss the Philippines now, thanks for bringing it up. u_u

Lots of people there are poor and everything is simple. Living in the US, you forget about simple life and get careless with money. There are lots of slums there, looks like people live in junk yards. It's scary at first, but you get used to it.

My cousin works under the Chief of Police in Manila. He says it's hard to keep people from doing crime. The easiest way to stop people from doing crime is by killing them. Stabs in the heart by three people with Army Knives or sealing them in cement barrels and throwing them into a river. This scares people into not becoming criminals.

They have cracked down on a few bootlegging operations, but it isn't really top priority. I think it's all just done for politics. I don't think they care if people own illegal copies. Drugs is one of the main focuses. Drug dealers get instant death I heard.

@pbroy

you make it sound like its so bad around here :P

actually it isn't too bad. it's pretty peaceful actually. filipinos are among the nicest people i've seen. yea the poverty is pretty bad, but the crime rate is pretty low honestly. we don't get crazy people with shotguns going into public schools.

@c0rd

i went here for university :P

so your Filipino?

I have crazy stories, what do you expect? Every time I'm around my cousins all they want to do is get drunk and tell crazy stories. Quite a few words in Tagalog are hard for me to understand, but I can figure out what they are saying. I can understand Ilonggo pretty good though. I did move from the Philippines when I was 4. I'm surprised I can understand as much as I do.

The crime rate is pretty low now in Manila compared to before. That's because the Mayor hired only Killers as the Cheifs of police in each district. They wanted to only have people that killed to be in charge, so they aren't scared to run the place. The police force needs to be feared. I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. >_