PS2: Seekers of Adoulin

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Originally Posted by animeregion

I'm mostly a PlayStation 2/3 US player of FFXI this will so suck for me and the other players that play on the PlayStation 2/3 systems out there. There is no way im going to rebuy this game for the Xbox 360 or PC. (Dont have a Xbox 360 and im sure my PC cant handle the PC ver.) Well good luck, but you guys lost my vote for this new expansion pack.

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Oh please, if you could afford a PS3 then chances are you have paid for a computer that can run this game better than a lolPS2. This game came was released compatible with Windows 2000. I am sure you bought a new computer in the last 13 years. If you want to run at 2048x2048 then just go get a $50 graphics card.

This game has (as recently as December to a week or so ago) been ~$10-15 for the entire add on and the hat and that nonsense. If you need to, cancel for a month, and there you just saved enough money for the game on PC without actually doing anything.

Since SE benefits from your monthly payments more than buying the discs you should have no moral quandary just pirating the game and putting it on your PC if you rather go that route.

PS2 users should have either migrated to Xbox 360 or put a USB controller on their PC YEARS ago. Sony just killed the PS2 a few days ago as it is. It is time to move on.

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The CDs are digital optical media, in an industry-standard size and format, that were pressed in a limited run, and yet somehow, somehow managed to at least break even.

Consoles based on optical media didn't beat out cartridge-based consoles because everyone loved load times. Optical media consoles dominate because optical media is cheap

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Last I checked, the optical media wasn't the sole cost involved with publishing a physical product in the United States from Japan. But I don't claim to be an expert on the publishing process. no matter how cheap the media is, you don't launch a product in a particular region if you don't expect at least X amount of sales to come out of it.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

Last I checked, the optical media wasn't the sole cost involved with publishing a physical product in the United States from Japan. But I don't claim to be an expert on the publishing process. no matter how cheap the media is, you don't launch a product in a particular region if you don't expect at least X amount of sales to come out of it.

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The thing is, consideration of more than sales and costs should go into deciding whether a product should be distributed in a particular region. In most large corporations, there is continual tug-of-war between accounting-types and marketing-types, because the latter knows that that if they let the accountants control these decisions, short-term numbers look good but ultimately it ends with lower sales and angry customers. Goodwill counts for a lot in business. That's why most companies show losses in certain facets of their operations and profits in others; smart companies are willing to, and do, take losses to keep their base happy because loyal customers will come back and purchase products that are highly profitable.

And really, given some of SE's massive losses last year (at least the latter half) and layoffs in their NA branch just this past December, SE is no expert in making good decisions about what products to make and distribute in particular regions. Making a particular business decision doesn't necessarily mean making a correct business decision. Sure, they'll save some money on distribution but they'll squander a lot of intangible value by telling formerly loyal customers to get lost. SE built its name on the backs of console gamers and it should remember that. It's never a good business model when you start telling people you don't want their money, especially when it will halt the flow of monthly payments. But hey, this is the same company that just a little over a year ago that decided it didn't want to take credit card payments from their NA clientele (while continuing to take JP CC payments) and then completely underestimated the angry, vociferous response the decision would get from its playerbase.

Yup, SE sure does understand its NA market.

Alhanelem,

Did you miss the part where i mentioned the game can be easily purchased as a digital download? Ya it is time to stop the "open mouth, insert foot" mentality. I know ps2 games don't sell in stores because it's dead, thats why i said digital download like the mini expansions.

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Yup, SE sure does understand its NA market.

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Well, about as well as CAPCOM or any other JP publisher understands it (which isn't much).

We've had to wait about a year and a half for Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate, which until not too long ago we didn't think was going to come at all, and don't get me started on Mega Man lol...

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Did you miss the part where i mentioned the game can be easily purchased as a digital download? Ya it is time to stop the "open mouth, insert foot" mentality. I know ps2 games don't sell in stores because it's dead, thats why i said digital download like the mini expansions.

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except those add-ons were contained completely within patches- they contained a minimal amount of new art assets (no new areas), so it was easy to do. So without developing a new means of doing so, to release the expansion digitally on the PS2 would mean releasing a several-gigabyte version update. Then there wouldn't even be any point to releasing a disc anywhere because the version update would have all the data.

So yes, they could do a digital release for the ps2 but it would be a nightmare to obtain.

Something interesting came up while I was talking with a new player in my LS: people who came to FFXI recently got here by buying UCAE for $5-$10 online, and they're not all that eager to spend several times more than that on just a single expansion. If Ultimate Collection players do get into Seekers of Adoulin, many will probably wait for price drops.

The players more likely to drop the full MSRP on (or before) launch day are the die-hards that have been around for years already. This especially describes PS2 players.

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Originally Posted by Ziyyigo-Tipyigo

Something interesting came up while I was talking with a new player in my LS: people who came to FFXI recently got here by buying UCAE for $5-$10 online, and they're not all that eager to spend several times more than that on just a single expansion. If Ultimate Collection players do get into Seekers of Adoulin, many will probably wait for price drops.

The players more likely to drop the full MSRP on (or before) launch day are the die-hards that have been around for years already. This especially describes PS2 players.

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$29.99 is really not that bad. I'm sure if they get the game from steam or something that they can catch a discount on a sale, but during the holiday sale just now, all SE games except XI were discounted...

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Originally Posted by Mefuki

Off-topic but, MAN are you ever right about this. Those versions are the far superior ones with tons of new and desired content and we never got to play them. Still bugs me...

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A fairly mid-range current computer can play PS2 games via emulation, there are PS2-style PC controllers, and there are translation patches that are complete or near completion for almost all of those games, and many other Japan-only games. Front Mission 5 and Namco X Capcom being on the list of completed translations, and several of the Tales games in progress.

As for stores not spending the shelf space to carry the discs... SquareEnix has their own online store, and I bet Amazon and Ebay sellers would also bother to carry it. Shopping online is becoming very common now. Even better would just be pushing out a POL update that allows expansions to be installed without a disc, so you only need the core game to have it install the rest of the expansions.

Oh, and there is one more production cost of an NA release you guys aren't considering, which XSeed recently mentioned as why some games weren't being released in Australia. Getting a rating from the ESRB, CERO, PEGI, or whichever rating system, costs money. They need to recoup that cost from the game sales (well maybe not with the subscription fee for this game, but they still ideally want to). Each platform it is released on has to be rated seperately, with a seperate fee.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/91834...table/65087776

This is all nonsense. Square-Enix made a deal with SCEJ to publish the expansion in Japan, and they couldn't make that same deal with SCEA. Or didn't bother because of the survey etc. The licensing and Sony's QA fee probably amount to more than would be earned by any potential sales. It's not like you can publish a game for free and without the platform-holder's consent.

SE is not releasing a PS2 version because in the US because of 2 reasons. 1) The hardware is not officially available for sale at the moment. Meaning they don't want people buying a game in the store that can't be used by a new ps2 or compatible ps3 owner.
I'm not sure about this second part, but if your register the code for the expansion, does it download the content to the ps2 anyways?