Japan - Sales Flops aka Time to Buy

[James]

Asura's Wrath is pretty damn fun, honestly. I was skeptical, but came around once I put the time in. If you kick back and enjoy it for the thing it is instead of the thing you think it should be, it works great.

James

[Shou]

I've updated the first 2 bargain bin posts with approx. units sold to date. I'll add that tidbit if that data is available.

[kedawa]

It would be cool to know how many were sold before/after the price drop, but I'm sure you have a day job.

[Shou]

It would be cool to know how many were sold before/after the price drop, but I'm sure you have a day job.

That'd be hard to track meaningfully since not every retailer dumps the product right away (must be related to their purchase contracts and/or initial stock levels). Also, major publishers tend to dump inventory on a quarterly basis to help their financials so something like Shadows of the Damned will hold a certain retail price level until the market is given the lower priced stock. It went from retail at 7665 down to 3980 fairly quickly but remained there until EA dumped it near the end of Q3 2011 resulting in a price of 1980 everywhere.

[Gooch]

As suggested, I've started a thread to report on how badly games flop in the Japanese market place by looking at how much their discounted from the relative release date.

Just remember that retail prices in Japan are way higher than the US especially given the exchange rate.

Nice thread!

I think how quickly these titles in this thread have been discounted from release is the more surprising aspect? Retail prices in Japan are still priced in Yen so for Japanese purchasers what difference does the exchange rate mean for non-imported goods? I purchased Binary Domain here one week after release for $44.99, about a 25% discount from retail but I fully expect to see this for $29.99 or less by the summer, consistent with the % discounts displayed here, just a noticeable difference in the time it takes.

Also, what is the extent of trade-in credit adoption in Japan? That may also lend to more US price stickiness as the higher retail prices. Concerning the Yen, however, a stronger Yen (until recently, until China starts buying JGBs again) would imply lower costs of production as the raw materials imported are bought with a stronger currency? Lower fixed costs in Japan vs. the US as well (translation teams in foreign affiliates) allow quicker price reductions?

Also, these are all recent releases (even Shinobi with 8 weeks) so with a 31-March fiscal year-end looming any attribution to that?

Finally, any noticeable change in rate of discount (in the sense of when the discounts occur rather than the % is what I mean) post-earthquake?

[Shou]

I think how quickly these titles in this thread have been discounted from release is the more surprising aspect? Retail prices in Japan are still priced in Yen so for Japanese purchasers what difference does the exchange rate mean for non-imported goods? I purchased Binary Domain here one week after release for $44.99, about a 25% discount from retail but I fully expect to see this for $29.99 or less by the summer, consistent with the % discounts displayed here, just a noticeable difference in the time it takes.

Also, what is the extent of trade-in credit adoption in Japan? That may also lend to more US price stickiness as the higher retail prices. Concerning the Yen, however, a stronger Yen (until recently, until China starts buying JGBs again) would imply lower costs of production as the raw materials imported are bought with a stronger currency? Lower fixed costs in Japan vs. the US as well (translation teams in foreign affiliates) allow quicker price reductions?

Also, these are all recent releases (even Shinobi with 8 weeks) so with a 31-March fiscal year-end looming any attribution to that?

Finally, any noticeable change in rate of discount (in the sense of when the discounts occur rather than the % is what I mean) post-earthquake?

The FX rate disclaimer is really for Westerners who are converting the prices into USD, etc. It's probably shocking to see new releases priced at nearly $100 retail when $60 is the norm. From a materials perspective, many discs are now being published in Taiwan and other pieces of the packaging are done there as well so it has been cheaper for Japan based companies to produce.

Not sure how the trade-in prices are in the US anymore. In Japan, high prices are given to the latest releases where I'd say you get ~75% of retail back on your game in the first few days and then it dramatically falls off to sub-40% levels if it's not a sales hit or some kind of rare release. Games which are mass produced and have poor consumer demand like FF13 tend to have very low buy back values which skews the curve a bit. I think it's really a case of the Japanese companies making the decision to dump where in the West, their subsidiairies likely need to through a lengthy approval process with the home office and have to deal with their local retailer contracts. I'm certain chains like Gamestop have price protection against publishers when they drop the SRP which is something that doesn't exist here AFAIK.

My view is the same as yours with these product dumps in that it has direct correlation with quarterly and annual year ends so they can boost them as much as possible. Any post-quake impact has been seen in the aftermath last year with release date changes and cancellations, no drag on effect on the retail market that I can see.

[kingoffighters]

You would be lucky to get 50-60% for trade-in within first few weeks of releases. After that, 40% and under is the norm.

[Shou]

I'm pretty sure this one has been binned since late last year.



RAGE (360/PS3)
Retail: 7980
Bargain Bin: 2680
Discounted: 67%
Weeks Since Release: 12

[Shou]

Even though it was fairly lauded, the locals prefer Demons to Dark and this dumping shows that (Demons was never price dumped).




DARK SOULS (PS3)
Retail: 7800
Bargain Bin: 3480
Discounted: 56%
Weeks Since Release: 24

[Shou]

TEKKEN 3D PRIME EDITION (3DS)
Retail: 5800
Bargain Bin: 3480
Discounted: 40%
Weeks Since Release: 5