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[Skyr]

I used to import them a lot back in the day, as a lot of games would be censored here for violence.

Nowdays they don't really do this anymore. Except for Nazi symbolism (Wolfenstein)

 

[Badlucktroll]

I bought Silent Hill 4 on Japanese PSN on Ps3. Does that count?

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I bought Silent Hill 4 on Japanese PSN on Ps3. Does that count?

Has subs in english?

 

[Badlucktroll]

Has subs in english?

Yes you can switch the text to english and the voices are already in english.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Imported for Vita stuff, the Yakuza 0 Business Edition and for Saturn stuff.

I have occasionally imported for a better price, such as Allience Alive HD for half the price and PSP games that we never got for a great price as well.

 

[D.Final]

Sometimes yes.
But really rarely

 

[Orenji Neko]

Growing up in Japan: no, my father could get western games at the base store if one interested me. Cannot think of any examples however. Mainly older computer games I think.

Living in US as adult: Relatives on my mother’s side of family, Japanese, can pick up what i want to buy and send me when I am between visits. I prefer to play in Japanese so if dual language not available I wait to get it later.

 

[alf717]

I do. Some stuff still only comes out in Japan. I know Capcom with Switch games they will do physical in Japan and half half junk here in the states.

 

[Azzurri]

There really is no point anymore. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s I did because we didn't get a lot of good games Japan did, but now it's not like that anymore.

Hell, we get more games than they do now.

The only ones I do are collectible games from the 16bit era.

 

[Gurgeh]

Demon souls is the only game i've ever imported

 

[EightBit Man]

Yes. Some of the Switch games I have are import titles, and a large portion of my PlayStation Vita collection consists of import games, mainly from the US (some of which got a official EU release after all, lol)...

 

[kraspkibble]

the only games i've ever imported were the old pokemon games like gold/silver/crystal. but for the last ~20 years there's really been no need as most games are available here. importing is more expensive so wouldn't do it for any savings.

if i were to import any game today it'd be Persona 5 Scramble but i don't read japanese so that makes no sense plus it'll probably get released here at some point anyway.

 

[German Hops]

yeah, from Australia, UK, and Japan

 

[MayauMiao]

I change my Steam ID to Japan region with VPN just to download DOA Xtreme 3.

Does that count as import?

 

[wyvern_bloodfist]

I've been importing games since the 90's; some from the UK some from Japan. mostly for games that never released here in the US or games with crap localization.

 

[Soodanim]

I imported one game. It was Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System (Japanese), bought for the sole purpose of patching into English.
I probably played 10 hours before it was lost in the backlog, then the HD port was announced and it was doomed to never be touched again.

I have bought one different region digital game, and that was Hard Edge (PS1) from the Hong Kong PSN. Japanese text, English VA, and easy enough to get through without reading the language. Fun RE style game.

 

[T_LVPL]

Used to import all my games from America between the late 90s and the late 2000s when HD came in. My Wii is american and loaded with all the classics on the virtual store in NTSC, and my PS3 has a US account with all the squaresoft/capcom classics in NTSC.

It was expensive and annoying. Im glad those days are over.

 

[Ban Puncher]

I have been importing since the Super Famicom.

It would be crazy to stop now.

 

[sublimit]

It has been a long time since the last time i imported.If i remember correctly these are all the games i've ever imported from Asia/Japan:

Front Mission 2 (PS1)
Popolocrois Monogatari (PS1)
Hungry Ghosts (PS2)
Demon' Souls (PS3)
Initial D Extreme Stage (PS3)
Boku no Natsuyasumi 3 (PS3)
Yakuza Kenzan (PS3)
Ico/Shadow of the Colossus HD Collectors Edition (PS3)
Dark Souls With Artorias of the Abyss Edition (PS3)
Dark Souls 2 Collectors Edition (PS3)
Armored Core Verdict Day Collectors Edition (PS3)

And also from NA:
Chrono Cross (PS1)
Armored Core Master of Arena (PS1)
Drakengard 3 (PS3)

I really want to import a lot more especially from NA,since a lot of games that really interest me from the PS1/PS2 eras were never released in Europe.

 

[Mista]

I stopped importing bro since god knows when. I think last time I imported was the DS days. Now everything is easier to do digitally even with Japanese only games. All you have to do is make a Japanese account and thats it

 

[Rattlehead121]

Of course. It should be a requirement to own Okami, and Ff7 + Ff8 physical on Switch.

 

[D.Final]

Of course. It should be a requirement to own Okami, and Ff7 + Ff8 physical on Switch.

True

 

[teezzy]

There's too many games available in the U.S. as it is. No need to import anything.

I did buy a PAL exclusive Buffy game for DS off Amazon once though. It sucked ass.

 

[Strider311]

I used to import back in the PSX and PS2 days. Not much of a need for it anymore, in my opinion.

 

[IfuckinghateReddit]

Some people import, some people are lucky enough to live abroad as gamers. I did a video about what it's like to go shopping for games in Hong Kong. Take a look!

(Sorry for the thumbnail, Youtube chose it for me)

 

[Laconian Sword]

Now that digital distribution is mainstream, what obstacles are there to simply making all games available in all regions without having to create, say, a Japanese account?

I assume it's mainly ratings and/or licensing?

Localization shouldn't be an issue as long as there's a "Japanese language only" warning.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Now that digital distribution is mainstream, what obstacles are there to simply making all games available in all regions without having to create, say, a Japanese account?

I assume it's mainly ratings and/or licensing?

Localization shouldn't be an issue as long as there's a "Japanese language only" warning.

Ratings and licensing, but also price control. These companies want to be able to sell the game at a profitable rate on a country's storefront while also covering any business taxes/fees and operating costs. Letting customers in a country do business with another country's version of your store probably removes the incentive of having a storefront (even a digital one) in that country in the first place.

 

[Spukc]

in europe basically al my ds games are from murica.
because back in those days we had to wait for like 8 months or something retarded to play some games otherwise.

and the US boxes are cooler

 

[DrumNBassDanTTV]

I used to back in dreamcast days, no more though as no real need.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

and the US boxes are cooler

How is that possible? I thought you guys got the same artwork.

 

[Mr Hyde]

During PSX-era I imported lots of Jrpgs that didn't come to EU, such as Parasite Eve, Xenogears and Brave Fencer Musashi. Nowadays I only import if it's something I really want. Switch has got a couple of physical releases that I've bought overseas, such as FF VII & VIII twin pack, Blasphemous and Thimbleweed Park. Switch in general is a pretty fun console to collect games for.

 

[Spukc]

How is that possible? I thought you guys got the same artwork.

the actual box
european is like tupperware shit
vs black thinner murican box

 

[TKOFromTokyo]

I import games most often for getting physical copies, Okami HD, Bayonetta Infinite Climax, Rockman collections, etc.

However, I’ll buy some exclusives like Super Robot Wars or the Famicom and Super Famicom minis.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

i did man in europe basically al my 2ds games are from murica.
because back in those days we had to wait for like 8 months or something retarded to play some games otherwise.

and the US boxes are cooler

Big RPG player?

I remember seeing a lot of 3DS RPGs suffer from long delays in Europe, especially ATLUS stuff.

 

[Spukc]

Big RPG player?

I remember seeing a lot of 3DS RPGs suffer from long delays in Europe, especially ATLUS stuff.

Yuuup

 

[Happosai]

There were some fairly decent games on the Super Famicom that were never ported to the SNEs. I was importing about 8-years ago for the Super Famicom, Saturn, and Game Gear. I stopped as soon as retro collecting got boring. After selling most of my retro lot, I still held onto most of those Super Famicom titles.

 

[infinitys_7th]

I've been doing it recently to get physical copies of games, e.g. Okami, the Ace Attorney trilogy, all the Mega Man collection games on Switch (because the MMLC2 and MMXLC2 were download only because Capcom sucks ass). I just got the Vita Trails in the Sky Evolution games as well because I've wanted to play that series forever and the PSP releases got cut off after the first game. Playing long RPGs on consoles/PC is really hard for me.

The first game I imported was Valkyria Chronicles 3, followed by Ace Attorney Investigations 2. Both were worth it the hassle, although I could never get AAI2 to patch correctly and ended up having to download it lol. Even with the stilted translation and recycled maps VC3 was miles better than VC2. It's such a shame games like those got stuck without western releases.

the actual box
european is like tupperware shit
vs black thinner murican box

Shit, I didn't even think about European imports. You guys are to blame for my The Last Window copy looking off on the shelf next to Hotel Dusk

 

[V4skunk]

Used to for PS1 games. Ntsc and jap imports then burn them to blank cds.

 

[Barakov]

Used to import JP games because of bad English voices and the long stretch between JP and US releases but now most games have dual language support and most are released in a reasonable time frame.

 

[fran.fernandez]

I use psn America, sometimes I import from amazon.com

japan prices are too high and no gore

 

[BlackGauna]

I imported Yakuza 5 when a western telease was still a distant dream.

 

[Kupfer]

In Germany, until recently, you had to import games dealing with violence and/or the Second World War if you wanted to play the original version. You will not find swastikas in the German versions of call of duty, medal of honor, wolfenstein, blood rayne, übersoldier etc., sometimes animations like the Hitler salute or even the beard of Hitler were removed (Wolfenstein The new Colossus). Here one does not play against Nazis, but against "the regime". Also the level of violence would often be drastically reduced for the German audience, so in soldier of fortune 2 there are no human opponents, but human-like robots. Often the ragdoll model or blood splashes and textures are missing, in unreal Tournament 2003, for example, green instead of red blood splashes.
Even in the last of us the gore effects were removed in the ps3 version in multiplayer.
There also is no gore in fallout 3 for example.
Thank god this has improved in the last years, the level of violence is now often completely present and with Wolfenstein Youngblood the first game in the international version (with swastikas) was released and could be sold officially.
Things are going uphill.
But until a few years ago I had to import many games, often from Austria, because some titles were not even released here, like Gears of War, Dead Island or Dying Light. My last import was Wolfenstein II The New Colossus due to censorship.

 

[GametimeUK]

The last game I imported was Demon's Souls. No, I don't import anymore.

 

[Pejo]

I imported Demon's Souls and DoA Extreme 3 on PS4 with the VR mode. It was worth it.

Generally I won't import though.

 

[Porcile]

Not much these days but I bought Cave Story on Switch from Play Asia, and pre-ordered Grandia 1 and 2 HD recently. If I wasn't living in Japan right now I might be importing more.

My best imports were Winning Eleven 6 for Gamecube and the original version of Tatsunoko vs Capcom for Wii.