• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Square-Enix gouging JP PC players of Tomb Raider : 30$ for JP language pack

C

chickdigger802

Banned
Z3M0G said:
Japanese voice actors are rock stars in Japan... so it's basically equivalent I guess. They might realize that people would be willing to pay for it.

But don't take it away from those who "accidentally" got it for free... Jesus, SE... pay for your own damn mistakes!
Click to expand...

I dont think they are paid like western rock stars though... what jobs in japan even offer good wages? Seems like everyone i know in japan no matter the job, seems to work their ass off for like no pay.
 
J

Jubern

Member
From what I understand, they'll still need to buy the pack sold separately if they get the game on Steam, no? Which would make that version actually more expensive than buying the physical Japanese version (by quite a bit probably, since a lot/most? of the resellers sell new games 10/20% under the RRP).
 
D

daveo42

Banned
ULTROS! said:
I see. So I guess if they buy the Western version (which was previously unpatched and had JP language), they'd be effectively getting it cheaper than the JP version thus SE is making a loss here? I can see why they took it out and sold it as DLC but that's pretty ballsy if you sell it as DLC.
Click to expand...

I'd think the better option would have just blocked access to it one way or another. Cutting out the language pack and then telling people to rebuy it, especially at $30, isn't ballsy, it's insane.
 
B

BKK

Member
Durante said:
Please don't call it "grey" importing, that could imply that there is anything at all wrong with it. Which there isn't. It's also not a problem for certain countries, it's a problem for certain companies.
Click to expand...

That's a term that has been used for parallel imports of video games going back to the PC Engine and Mega Drive at the beginning of the 16-bit era. It's also a term used in many other industries without any negative connotation. Still, I wouldn't use it as a term for personal imports (digital or physical), but for commercial unoffical imports.

Anyway, here's Wikipedia's description;

Grey-market goods refer to "legal goods" which are sold outside normal distribution channels by companies which may have no relationship with the producer of the goods. Frequently this form of parallel import occurs when the price of an item is significantly higher in one country than another. This situation commonly occurs with electronic equipment such as cameras. Entrepreneurs buy the product where it is available cheaply, often at retail but sometimes at wholesale, and import it legally to the target market. They then sell it at a price high enough to provide a profit but under the normal market price. International efforts to promote free trade, including reduced tariffs and harmonized national standards, facilitate this form of arbitrage whenever manufacturers attempt to preserve highly disparate pricing. Because of the nature of grey markets, it is difficult or impossible to track the precise numbers of grey-market sales. Grey-market goods are often new, but some grey market goods are used goods. A market in used goods is sometimes nicknamed a green market.
Click to expand...

Back to topic, this is quite unbelievable, and quite possibly ilegal (if they patched out JP support from a game which included JP support at the time of purchase).
 
C

chicken_ramen

Member
snap0212 said:
I'm pretty sure games are advertised and sold "as is" and that would include everything mentioned or not.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure you're sold a license to use an evolving codebase. The nature of that licensing agreement is rarely abused in this manner but that abuse in and of itself isn't necessarily breach of the terms.
 
J

Jubern

Member
daveo42 said:
I'd think the better option would have just blocked access to it one way or another. Cutting out the language pack and then telling people to rebuy it, especially at $30, isn't ballsy, it's insane.
Click to expand...

Yeah, like I said, there are actually quite a few games that are simply blocked here until release date. I remember a friend talking about how he couldn't play games like Skyrim, maybe Bioshock too? Not too sure.
The price problem is still here, but it looks more like a problem with how Steam handle the Japanese market?
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
Clearly, S-E Japan's respect for the customer is at an all-time low. First All The Bravest, now this. Outright contempt.
 
D

Durante

Member
chicken_ramen said:
Pretty sure you're sold a license to use an evolving codebase. The nature of that licensing agreement is rarely abused in this manner but that abuse in and of itself isn't necessarily breach of the terms.
Click to expand...
Whether it's a breach of the literal terms or not is irrelevant. It's exactly the type of scenario that people always warn about regarding game ownership and digital distribution, and now that it happened. This needs to be rejected swiftly and absolutely by everyone, otherwise it sets a terrible precedent.

BKK said:
That's a term that has been used for parrallel imports of video games going back to the PC Engine and Mega Drive at the beginning of the 16-bit era. It's also a term used in many other industries without any negative connotation. Still, I wouldn't use it as a term for personal imports (digital or physical), but for commercial unoffical imports.

Anyway, here's Wikipedia's description;
Click to expand...
But as you (and the article you quoted) say, it's reserved for companies reselling imports. That's almost never what happens with digital game distribution, and therefore I consider the term improper. They are simply imports.
 
D

dokish

Banned
iQ8aplyut1STW.gif


Fuck You, Square-Enix.
 
D

duckroll

Member
dose said:
I'm not sure as we need a proper translation :p
Edit: Doh, I understand now, yeh, ignore me ;)
Click to expand...

The post is about the differences between the overseas version (US/EU) of Tomb Raider and the domestic (JP) Tomb Raider release. The Japanese release will have English and Japanese voice tracks, and Japanese text, as I have explained. There are also some censorship elements where the textures of some corpses are modified, and the 3 deer corpses in the game are removed due to animal cruelty.

It has nothing to do with the Steam stuff.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Jubern said:
On the price thing: It was readily available to buy from Japan at the US price since Steam doesn't seem to support yen currency. At least, from what I can see.

IIRC, it's pretty much like the early days of Steam, when Europeans would also pay in dollars, and thus, at a lower price point, until Steam finally adapted to the market, sometime in 2007 or 2008 if my memory serves right.
Click to expand...

It's not a currency issue. There's a Western-priced Western version of the game and a Japanese-priced Japanese version of the game. The version that people have been buying is the Western version which was not intended for release in Japan. However at the time of release, Steam still allowed it to be purchased outside of Western countries with Japanese support.
 
D

daveo42

Banned
Jubern said:
Yeah, like I said, there are actually quite a few games that are simply blocked here until release date. I remember a friend talking about how he couldn't play games like Skyrim, maybe Bioshock too? Not too sure.
The price problem is still here, but it looks more like a problem with how Steam handle the Japanese market?
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, it seemed to be an issue with the package that included the Japanese language support, was the Western copy, and was available on Steam in Japan based on the explanation from earlier:

duckroll said:
Okay, let me explain how this fuck up probably happened. Please bear with me, because it's going to sound really stupid, and I'm not defending Square Enix here, only explaining the nature of the fuck up.

- Tomb Raider comes out in Japan on April 25 2013, at the price of 8000yen (80 USD).

- The Japanese release includes voices in English or Japanese, and Japanese text. This differs it from the version sold in US and Europe where the voice options are only in English.

- Somehow it appears the PC Tomb Raider release on Steam was available for purchase in Japan at the US/Europe release price of 50 USD when it was released last month.

- Additionally it appears that someone fucked up massively and included all the language content meant for the Japanese release along with the package.

- So for a period of time Japanese fans were able to buy Tomb Raider on Steam for 50 bucks, and enjoy Japanese language support, a whole month before the release in Japan.

- Someone found out, panicked, and removed the language content support so Japanese consumers would no longer be able to buy a fully functional Japanese version of Tomb Raider at almost half the price and a month before it is released in Japan.

- Now that the Japanese launch is finally arriving, they are offering the option for anyone who used the previous "exploit" to top up the 30 dollars of difference to regain access to the Japanese language options.

From Square Enix's perspective, what they were doing was closing a reverse import regional loophole, and now they are offering an olive branch to fans who used that exploit so they don't have to sit on a useless 50 buck English-only Tomb Raider. From the perspective of everyone else, Square Enix is scamming everyone.

ROFLMAO. :p
Click to expand...
 
M

Mit-

Member
Zoe said:
It's not a currency issue. There's a Western-priced Western version of the game and a Japanese-priced Japanese version of the game. The version that people have been buying is the Western version which was not intended for release in Japan. However at the time of release, Steam still allowed it to be purchased outside of Western countries with Japanese support.
Click to expand...

So the scumbag move here is not that they are forcing Japanese people to pay for their language to be in the game (because it WILL be in the Japanese release of the game) but that there was ALREADY Japanese support in the Western version of the game that they purchased earlier, for cheaper, and they patched it out of the game? Is that confirmed?

Because if there was never a Japanese language option in the Western version, this really isn't a problem.

EDIT: duckroll post explains everything. Shitty situation for Square-Enix.
 
C

chickdigger802

Banned
If it was up to me...

Don't do all this dlc nonsense, just quietly raise the price of the game. Eat the $30 for like the 10 people with a gaming pc in japan. Who the fuck even uses steam in japan anyways? You can't buy smutty eroges on Steam!

There has been pricing errors for shit before in the world, just suck it up and try not to make the same mistake later.
 
B

BKK

Member
Durante said:
But as you (and the article you quoted) say, it's reserved for companies reselling imports. That's almost never what happens with digital game distribution, and therefore I consider the term improper. They are simply imports.
Click to expand...

Oh for sure it's an improper term in this case. Just clarifying that there shouldn't be any implication that there is anything wrong with actual grey importing either.
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
Alright place your bets.

Will game journalists as a whole:
1. Not cover this
2. Defend it
3. Say it's disgusting


Also, what's the TTE on this one? (Time To "Entitled")
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
chickdigger802 said:
If it was up to me...

Don't do all this dlc nonsense, just quietly raise the price of the game. Eat the $30 for like the 10 people with a gaming pc in japan. Who the fuck even uses steam in japan anyways? You can't buy smutty eroges on Steam!

There has been pricing errors for shit before in the world, just suck it up and try not to make the same mistake later.
Click to expand...

Well there are ex-pats in Japan who would want to buy the Western version.
 
K

kuroshiki

Member
1. This doesn't affect PS3/X360 Japanese version of the game.

2. If you buy PC version of Tomb Raider in Japan, you don't have to buy DLC since JP language is included.

3. Only people who already purchased Tomb Raider via Steam (which is not even out yet in Japan) are affected.



I agree $30 DLC for language is fucked up, but vast majority of JP players won't be affected by this.
 
M

Mit-

Member
duckroll said:
Okay, let me explain how this fuck up probably happened. Please bear with me, because it's going to sound really stupid, and I'm not defending Square Enix here, only explaining the nature of the fuck up.

- Tomb Raider comes out in Japan on April 25 2013, at the price of 8000yen (80 USD).

- The Japanese release includes voices in English or Japanese, and Japanese text. This differs it from the version sold in US and Europe where the voice options are only in English.

- Somehow it appears the PC Tomb Raider release on Steam was available for purchase in Japan at the US/Europe release price of 50 USD when it was released last month.

- Additionally it appears that someone fucked up massively and included all the language content meant for the Japanese release along with the package.

- So for a period of time Japanese fans were able to buy Tomb Raider on Steam for 50 bucks, and enjoy Japanese language support, a whole month before the release in Japan.

- Someone found out, panicked, and removed the language content support so Japanese consumers would no longer be able to buy a fully functional Japanese version of Tomb Raider at almost half the price and a month before it is released in Japan.

- Now that the Japanese launch is finally arriving, they are offering the option for anyone who used the previous "exploit" to top up the 30 dollars of difference to regain access to the Japanese language options.

From Square Enix's perspective, what they were doing was closing a reverse import regional loophole, and now they are offering an olive branch to fans who used that exploit so they don't have to sit on a useless 50 buck English-only Tomb Raider. From the perspective of everyone else, Square Enix is scamming everyone.

ROFLMAO. :p
Click to expand...
This should be in the OP honestly. People are overreacting for the most part.
 
W

wildfire

Banned
antitrop said:
If you're entirely accurate....
Click to expand...

frwdw.png


Agreed

duckroll said:
Okay, let me explain how this fuck up probably happened. Please bear with me, because it's going to sound really stupid, and I'm not defending Square Enix here, only explaining the nature of the fuck up.

- Tomb Raider comes out in Japan on April 25 2013, at the price of 8000yen (80 USD).

- The Japanese release includes voices in English or Japanese, and Japanese text. This differs it from the version sold in US and Europe where the voice options are only in English.

- Somehow it appears the PC Tomb Raider release on Steam was available for purchase in Japan at the US/Europe release price of 50 USD when it was released last month.

- Additionally it appears that someone fucked up massively and included all the language content meant for the Japanese release along with the package.

- So for a period of time Japanese fans were able to buy Tomb Raider on Steam for 50 bucks, and enjoy Japanese language support, a whole month before the release in Japan.

- Someone found out, panicked, and removed the language content support so Japanese consumers would no longer be able to buy a fully functional Japanese version of Tomb Raider at almost half the price and a month before it is released in Japan.

- Now that the Japanese launch is finally arriving, they are offering the option for anyone who used the previous "exploit" to top up the 30 dollars of difference to regain access to the Japanese language options.

From Square Enix's perspective, what they were doing was closing a reverse import regional loophole, and now they are offering an olive branch to fans who used that exploit so they don't have to sit on a useless 50 buck English-only Tomb Raider. From the perspective of everyone else, Square Enix is scamming everyone.

ROFLMAO. :p
Click to expand...


This should be crossposted in the always online thread for people who keep defending it. If this is the case I can understand why they wouldn't want to suck up the loss. Too bad its going to just make a lot of people angry or annoyed because they have the power to do this unilaterally without any form of negotiation.
 
Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
duckroll said:
Okay, let me explain how this fuck up probably happened. Please bear with me, because it's going to sound really stupid, and I'm not defending Square Enix here, only explaining the nature of the fuck up.

- Tomb Raider comes out in Japan on April 25 2013, at the price of 8000yen (80 USD).

- The Japanese release includes voices in English or Japanese, and Japanese text. This differs it from the version sold in US and Europe where the voice options are only in English.

- Somehow it appears the PC Tomb Raider release on Steam was available for purchase in Japan at the US/Europe release price of 50 USD when it was released last month.

- Additionally it appears that someone fucked up massively and included all the language content meant for the Japanese release along with the package.

- So for a period of time Japanese fans were able to buy Tomb Raider on Steam for 50 bucks, and enjoy Japanese language support, a whole month before the release in Japan.

- Someone found out, panicked, and removed the language content support so Japanese consumers would no longer be able to buy a fully functional Japanese version of Tomb Raider at almost half the price and a month before it is released in Japan.

- Now that the Japanese launch is finally arriving, they are offering the option for anyone who used the previous "exploit" to top up the 30 dollars of difference to regain access to the Japanese language options.

From Square Enix's perspective, what they were doing was closing a reverse import regional loophole, and now they are offering an olive branch to fans who used that exploit so they don't have to sit on a useless 50 buck English-only Tomb Raider. From the perspective of everyone else, Square Enix is scamming everyone.

ROFLMAO. :p
Click to expand...

This is hilarious and at the same time dick-ish. I remember when someone mispriced Sleepy Dawgs on Steam so it was with a 91% discount or such and lots of people bought it at that discounted price. S-E didn't force them to pay any additional payment.
S-E Japan are Evil lol.
 
K

kswiston

Member
Square-Enix should not have included Japanese language options with the western release, and if they did by accident, they should have eaten the loss on their mistake. I understand that they want to prevent people from getting the game for $50 (and in reality, $28-40, since GMG had several discounts on their Tomb Raider pre-order and subsequent release which registers on Steam) from the west when they plan on selling the same title for $76 in Japan. However, this was their own fault, and the bad PR is certainly not worth a few extra dollars from what was probably a 3-4 digit number of Japanese PC gamers.
 
B

BHZ Mayor

Member
Htown said:
Alright place your bets.

Will game journalists as a whole:
1. Not cover this
2. Defend it
3. Say it's disgusting


Also, what's the TTE on this one? (Time To "Entitled")
Click to expand...

Normally, I'd say 1 and/or 2, but since this is a Japanese company, 3.
 
K

Kikujiro

Member
Htown said:
Alright place your bets.

Will game journalists as a whole:
1. Not cover this
2. Defend it
3. Say it's disgusting


Also, what's the TTE on this one? (Time To "Entitled")
Click to expand...

Journalists should do what Duckroll did, research the issue and explain it.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
duckroll said:
Okay, let me explain how this fuck up probably happened. Please bear with me, because it's going to sound really stupid, and I'm not defending Square Enix here, only explaining the nature of the fuck up.

- Tomb Raider comes out in Japan on April 25 2013, at the price of 8000yen (80 USD).

- The Japanese release includes voices in English or Japanese, and Japanese text. This differs it from the version sold in US and Europe where the voice options are only in English.

- Somehow it appears the PC Tomb Raider release on Steam was available for purchase in Japan at the US/Europe release price of 50 USD when it was released last month.

- Additionally it appears that someone fucked up massively and included all the language content meant for the Japanese release along with the package.

- So for a period of time Japanese fans were able to buy Tomb Raider on Steam for 50 bucks, and enjoy Japanese language support, a whole month before the release in Japan.

- Someone found out, panicked, and removed the language content support so Japanese consumers would no longer be able to buy a fully functional Japanese version of Tomb Raider at almost half the price and a month before it is released in Japan.

- Now that the Japanese launch is finally arriving, they are offering the option for anyone who used the previous "exploit" to top up the 30 dollars of difference to regain access to the Japanese language options.

From Square Enix's perspective, what they were doing was closing a reverse import regional loophole, and now they are offering an olive branch to fans who used that exploit so they don't have to sit on a useless 50 buck English-only Tomb Raider. From the perspective of everyone else, Square Enix is scamming everyone.

ROFLMAO. :p
Click to expand...
OK that makes at least partial sense. Thanks.
 
LiquidMetal14

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
duckroll said:
Okay, let me explain how this fuck up probably happened. Please bear with me, because it's going to sound really stupid, and I'm not defending Square Enix here, only explaining the nature of the fuck up.

- Tomb Raider comes out in Japan on April 25 2013, at the price of 8000yen (80 USD).

- The Japanese release includes voices in English or Japanese, and Japanese text. This differs it from the version sold in US and Europe where the voice options are only in English.

- Somehow it appears the PC Tomb Raider release on Steam was available for purchase in Japan at the US/Europe release price of 50 USD when it was released last month.

- Additionally it appears that someone fucked up massively and included all the language content meant for the Japanese release along with the package.

- So for a period of time Japanese fans were able to buy Tomb Raider on Steam for 50 bucks, and enjoy Japanese language support, a whole month before the release in Japan.

- Someone found out, panicked, and removed the language content support so Japanese consumers would no longer be able to buy a fully functional Japanese version of Tomb Raider at almost half the price and a month before it is released in Japan.

- Now that the Japanese launch is finally arriving, they are offering the option for anyone who used the previous "exploit" to top up the 30 dollars of difference to regain access to the Japanese language options.

From Square Enix's perspective, what they were doing was closing a reverse import regional loophole, and now they are offering an olive branch to fans who used that exploit so they don't have to sit on a useless 50 buck English-only Tomb Raider. From the perspective of everyone else, Square Enix is scamming everyone.

ROFLMAO. :p
Click to expand...

PREASE

BE EXCITED

TO PAY MORE!

I can't agree with the business practice and as I noted earlier, horse armor was one of the first catalyst's to get us on this path.

People gobble it up enough or companies do it because they can.
 
K

KePoW

Banned
What duckroll said actually kinda makes sense.

I don't care either way, but it's cool that he gave a clear bullet-point breakdown.
 
R

RedNumberFive

Banned
Based on their pricing of iPhone/iPad games, plus the rumors of FFX/X-2 DLC, this comes as no surprise. This isn't the awesome Square from back in the SNES and Playstation days, this is fuck you, give us money, here's more Lightning, please be excited Square-Enix.
 
M

Myshkin

Member
I opened the thread expecting that 300¥ got translated as 30$.
Instead, I find the price of the DLC is not even the story.

Guess I need to hurry up and play FF4complete, before they start removing content.

-
@Valnen
Maybe Cheetah mode can come back as 30$ DLC.
 
S

scitek

Member
RyougaSaotome said:
Yeah. The bigger problem, correct me if I'm wrong, is that the original western Steam version had Japanese language and subtitle options, but SE patched them out, leading to this DLC.

So yeah, if you bought the JP version on Steam, there'd be no problem. This is for Japanese people who own a western copy of the game.
Click to expand...

So are they using this to try and fight overseas key sellers or something?

EDIT: Just saw duckroll's post. So, they kind of are.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered | Review Thread
Analysis Review
17
3K
winjer replied
Square Enix NFT Art Project ‘Symbiogenesis’ Reveals Main Visual Teaser Trailer
News Game Dev
17
1K
TransTrender replied
Square Enix's stock falls by 30%
5 6 7 8 9
432
20K
Punished Miku replied
As of February 2024, Stardew Valley has sold over 30 million copies across all platforms, with over 19 million copies sold on PC alone
Sales-Age
8
685
Edgelord79 replied
Tomb Raider Remastered Trilogy is the Best Way to Remaster Old Titles
9
604
Con-Z-epT replied
Top Bottom