Buying A PS3 From Japan
Ever since the halcyon days of the Mega Drive and SNES, any video game console launch has usually met with feverous response, and not just in Japan. Although that country is still predominantly the most fanatical when it comes to videogames, the rise in popularity of import gaming has led to the western territories such as the US and Europe to become as excited as the Japanese market when it comes to new hardware launches. The extent of this popularity became apparent when Sony’s latest machine, the PlayStation 3, became a high profile victim of import difficulties.
With the release of the PS3 actually seeing a change in priority for Sony Japan for the first time since they entered the videogames market almost 15 years ago, with America actually being reserved more units than Japan, the import scene changed almost overnight. Although imports were expensive in the past, Sony Japan sent so few units to Japanese retailers that prices were inhibitive for importers. With the PS3 coming in two models – the standard 20 GB memory system and the more advanced 60 GB version – prices fluctuated wildly. This wasn’t helped by a newer type of importer – professional traders using Chinese people to buy in bulk.