@Star Scream - you've never heard of a retailer offering select sales on a holiday?

Star Scream, you don't put high sellers on clearance sale.

I don't see the likes of DQIX, Wii Sports Resort and MHP2ndG discounted that much.

Also, there's a general consensus by Japanese posters that it's indeed clearance sale - http://hatimaki.blog110.fc2.com/blog-entry-1321.html

Why not have one of the Japanese members simply ask the retailer?

Good idea!

Anoop Gantayat from IGN:

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2009/08/11/mh3_for_cheap/

I'm not sure of the reason, but perhaps the low sell-through rate for the game's software-only version has something to do with it. The Classic Controller Pro bundles, both in white and black varieties, still carry their usual price at the shop. The black Wii bundle has been out of stock for some time now and can be found hiked up a few thousand yen at some retailers.

Looks like the bundles killed the standalone.

Not really surprised that the TC did nothing to enlighten us on this. That would actually make this thread useful and maybe lead to a conversation about how much of each version Capcom should have shipped.

I laughed.

Now that's a reason I can buy in to. The bundlenessiosity of it all.

As I've said...people want the bundles with the game and classic controller pro. Capcom shipped too many copies of the game by itself relative to the game with the classic controller pro

why is it so hard to figure out?

used game market in japan is huge
japanese retailers have to bet on the 1st week window to move new games
if games are sold out, they lose the opportunity to make money unless they can get the 2nd shipment during the weekend
on the other hand, if games are not moving, they need to slash the price very quickly so they can clear the inventory before other retailers

i bought WKC when the price dropped to 3000 yen (~68% off) three months after launch

it's surprising they started the price war that early.... two weeks after MH3 launch
people really don't want the regular version, i guess
seems like Capcom and Nintendo are not going to help retailers repackage them with controllers