I'm wondering if Square's recent decision are wise...

[Don]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Final Fantasy X looks really nice from what I've seen so far, but at a price of 8600 yen? This isn't some cult game like, say, ROTK we're talking about here. This is a game that's supposed to sell about 3 million copies. And raising price is a very good way to sell a lot less! It's hard to estimate just how strong the Japanese's loyalty on RPG is. After all, look at Dragon Quest 7, which is essentially an outdated RPG that even prides in recycling old stuff (ala 'tradition') but somehow managed to sell 4 million. Still, I believe DQ7 has the standard 6000ish yen price tag.

Another figure I saw was that Square expected 495000 subscribes to Playonline in order to break even. I assume this is for Final Fantasy XI. I'm guessing subscribe here means, like your MMORPG, paying $10 a month to play. Do they have any idea how many people that is? EverQuest boasts 350K active subscribes and it is the biggest MMORPG in the market right now with 2 years of history. I don't think PSO even has 350K registered users and it's FREE. I don't doubt a lot of people will go out and get it just because it's a Final Fantasy, but how many will stick around and pay to play it? I think Square is seriously overestimating people's willingness to pay for such games, especially consider in Japan many parts still have to pay Internet access by the minute</div>

[Eric]

<div style='font: 11pt Modern; text-align: left; '>It's Square, they haven't had a reason yet to doubt they're own egos. :)</div>

[Don]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Though I think raising prices may actually prove to be counterproductive. We'll see.</div>

[Gilder]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Who knows with Japan =P Of course, North America will have an EA Published version of the game for about 35 bucks cheaper</div>

[Oracle]

<div style='font: bold 12pt "Comic Sans MS", Modern; text-align: left; '>But EQ isnt big in Japan. FFXI will be. It's just the market they're selling it to. They could prolyl pull it off.</div>

[Eric]

<div style='font: 11pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Either way, they know that Japanese gamers are more likely to shell out 8900 yen for a game, then your average American gamer, let them try that crap over here. :)</div>

[Darx]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>I know that the 'special edition' is supposed to be even more. What separates the not so special version from any other PS2 game...other than it's name?

I don't like it. I didn't like they raised the price for Lunar, but at least they had all that garbage packaged with it.</div>

[Don]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>So it's fairly reasonable to use what works here as an indicator of success.

It's true that RPG is probably more entrenched in the Japanese culture than here, but don't forget that Japanese also have to pay more to play online since unlimited ISP is not widely available.</div>

[Don]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Even then, the typical price of FFs is 6800 yen. It's already more expensive than US.</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 10pt "Arial bold", Modern; text-align: left; '>Nothing. That's just it. They're trying to suck the consumer dry. All companies do it if they think they can get away with it</div>

[Tessian]

<div style='font: 11pt Dominion, Modern; text-align: left; '>Stupid question: How much US $$ is that?</div>

[Gilder]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Actually, I think the market here is larger than Japan by about 25%</div>

[SineSwiper]

<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", Modern; text-align: left; '>Here comes Nintendo politics.</div>

[Don]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>But what's important is that it's 2000 yens higher than the typical price on RPG, 6800 yen. It'd almost analogous to how you'd see Lunar is $65 while generic RPG is $45 on a EB/Babbages.</div>

[S.Cody2]

<div style='font: 10pt "Copperplate Gothic", Modern; text-align: left; '>"Decision that are wise?" Heh. I think PSO has more players than that worldwide.</div>

[Don]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>They announced 350K registered users and that's worldwide</div>

[S.Cody2]

<div style='font: 10pt "Copperplate Gothic", Modern; text-align: left; '>Got a Source on that?</div>

[Eric]

<div style='font: 11pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Go look on IGN. PSO's fanbase isn't that large.</div>

[S.Cody2]

<div style='font: 10pt "Copperplate Gothic", Modern; text-align: left; '>Then I'd have to do something, Eric. Don't you learn?</div>

[Eric]

<div style='font: 11pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Then stop complaining you bum</div>

[S.Cody2]

<div style='font: 10pt "Copperplate Gothic", Modern; text-align: left; '>You didn't major in contextual replies, did you? ;)</div>

[Eric]

<div style='font: 11pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Nope, I like being on the outside. :P</div>

[Blotus]

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow", Modern; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>They could make it 10,000 yen and it would still sell millions.</div>

[S.Cody2]

<div style='font: 10pt "Copperplate Gothic", Modern; text-align: left; '>Mission accomplished. Muahaha.</div>

[Don]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>As crazy as the Japanese is for Final Fantasy, I don't think it'd sell that many if it's 10000 yen. Look at how many Evangelion Steel Girlfriend sold at a price tag of 14000 yen.</div>

[Blotus]

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow", Modern; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>And OBVIOUSLY you must be right about just pulling that number out of nowhere. These people often skip work to pick up the games the first day they're out, so I don't think the majority of them would really mind paying the extra 3200 yen.</div>

[Don]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Even if everyone who picked up the first day is willing to pay more (which is unlikely), the first day sales is only 1 million or so at best. The subsequent sales would definitely be effected by having a higher price tag, and in the case of such a significant price jump, it may very well just fizzle out.

You're the one pulling numbers out of nowhere asserting "Millions of people will buy it even for 10K".

Yes Japanese are used to paying 6800 yen for their games which is about $20 higher than here, but this doesn't mean they're used to paying $20 higher for a game that used to cost less. Though it may seem like the Japanese will just shirvel up and die if they don't get their dose of DQ/Pokemon/Final Fantasy, it's still something they can do without.</div>

[Blotus]

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow", Modern; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>No it's not.</div>