Japanese Game Pricing Philosophy

From a FFXII feature on Game-Biz:

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In order to make maximum money from every buyer, the game's (FF XII) price tag will be 8890 yen. Ho-lee. That's about $90 US. That's how it goes in Japan. If you want something, you will pay dearly for it. There's a reason for that, actually -- Japanese people tend to dislike value. They see it as silly. If you're buying something, that means someone is selling it. In return for the joy of getting the product you want, you should honor the seller with as much money as possible.

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Is this true of Japanese pricing philosophy? I've taking coursing in international business, but they mostly all focused on cultural differences (Introcentric vs Extrocentric and the such) regarding philosophies of doing business, but never realy got into international consumer behavior.

If the above is true about the Japanese as consumers, is this why retailers in Japan do not carry used games? As the producers/publishers don't benefit/benefit fully from the the purchase of a used title?

All I have to say is: "A fool and his money are soon parted".

Well, the idea of maximizing profit is not specific to Japan. I'm not sure how often the do this, but it is an interesting study. Think of all the times you (or someone you know) have said "I'd pay 100 bucks for this game". Well, Japan makes you prove it, I guess.


But Japan sucks.

Of course, 9000 yen would be like 70 bucks just a couple years ago

Actually it is like $74....NCSX has the game up for $78.

Hmm...that's only 13 bucks more than a lot of the titles from them (at least last I got something there anyway), so not a big deal

that kid of sounds like bullshit. A lot of their prices are high because of socialists business practices. Like CD's are $30, GBA games are $40, etc, etc.

The reason I was given for shit being like that is because by raising the prices of basic shitt, the business or whom ever make more money and produce better quality products for things less in demand. I guess what I mean is that it insures an over all superior quality for everything, and not just the stupid shit that average joe japan wants to buy.

But I could be wrong. This is just crap I've read on the interweb

The Japanese have the 2800 series. That's value.

Tiger Woods is serving lunch at the Bistro of Pain and he doesn't give a shit about Japanese game sales.

He laughs in the face of Famitsu reviews too

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Originally Posted by Videodrone

Is this true of Japanese pricing philosophy? I've taking coursing in international business, but they mostly all focused on cultural differences (Introcentric vs Extrocentric and the such) regarding philosophies of doing business, but never realy got into international consumer behavior.

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I've heard this, yes. I know this argument has come up in regards to CDs. Normal albums, yeah, are $30 or so, so if an album comes out for, say, $15, the perception is that it is only half worth your typical album.

I love Japan, but Japanese people can be utterly stupid sometimes. Group mentality is terrible over there, and you combine that with companies that love doing their consumers up the ass far worse than US companies, and you get situations such as this. Japanese consumers need to tell companies to f**k off and demand more realistic prices. $18 tickets to see movies, $50 DVDs, $2000 kittens... and yet they purchase such thing, and see the higher prices as being a mark of quality.