From: bel@whipassgaming.com   
      
   > Yeah, but who's going to buy it? The RGVS crowd? Which is you, me, Scott,   
   > Ethan, and about a half-dozen die-hards.   
      
   For Nights, I think quite a few people would buy it. I mean, you've got   
   to figure that most people didn't own a Saturn, so this would be their   
   chance to finally play it. Have Sega sell it at $24.99 or something low   
   like that, it's gotta bring some sort of profit...especially if they did   
   Europe as well as the US. Plus, have you heard about it? It's no   
   upgraded in any way, shape or form(from what I've read), it's a straight   
   Saturn port...which means they put little to no effort(or money) in to   
   it. It's bound to see a profit if they can just get it out on a market   
   past Japan.   
      
   > The PSO/PSU players are a niche   
   > MMO crowd that digs social gaming and doesn't really care about the   
   > Phantasy Star history. And the rabid otaku in California and New York are   
   > just going to order the import because they already speak fluent,   
   > declarative Japanese. There's not enough market in the English-speaking   
   > world for them to make money off of a localization.   
      
   Well, like I said, I can see why they wouldn't take the time to copy and   
   paste the Genesis text(or just use the US roms, like you mention), then   
   translate what remained, that is a lot of time and effort and would   
   probably severely limit their profit margin(I just threw in the dig   
   about how lazy they are because...well, they are). ;)   
      
   > I don't know if this is strictly true or not. I've heard anecdotally that   
   > Japanese gamers like having hardware sales restricted, but that's only   
   > because that stuff is actually scarce. Software is fungible, and I can't   
   > imagine that there's any real animosity about who gets to buy. This is all   
   > about return on investment, not elitism.   
      
   You could be right, but it's just difficult when you hear about all   
   these non-stop games that show up only in Japan, and then hear about   
   legions of people signing petitions, etc. to get them to bring it   
   over...and yet it never seems to happen. To me, I liken it a lot to one   
   of those bullshit "limited release" films you hear about: The   
   producers/actors/director want it to do extremely well, they want to   
   make millions off of it, but yet they only put it out in around 1,000   
   theaters across the country. What kills me is when they you read   
   interviews about how "disappointed" they were with lack of viewers. ;)   
      
   > Again, we're reasoning in a vacuum. Are these just straight SMS/MD   
   > emulation packages, or is there enhanced graphics? Any extra fonts or   
   > special spacing that has to be considered? Any testing that has to be   
   > repeated for the English versions? We're not talking about an   
   > insignificant expense here. It would be lazy if they released it without   
   > doing those things, and as it stands it just looks efficient to me.   
      
   With Sega's lazy ass, I'm almost certain it'll be SMS/MD roms running on   
   some hacked version of Gens or something. Now, if we find out that they   
   are completely new renditions or something, that'd be something   
   else...and I'd agree, a whole lot of work would probably have to be   
   done, costing a lot of money.   
      
   > Let's look at this another way... This is a Sega Direct package that's   
   > costing Japanese gamers about 10,000 yen to pick up, mail order only.   
   > Would American gamers be willing to buy this for $150, knowing that there   
   > are about two dozen JRPG titles coming out on the PS2, PS3 and DS? You   
   > have to consider also that releases have to be competitive, and even the   
   > most lifeless otaku would consider three next-gen games over a single   
   > retro release for the same money. This is not a hard financial decision,   
   > and I don't think it's worth being mad about. Not when Happy Tree Friends   
   > False Alarm and Shiren the Wanderer are both on the way. :)   
      
   Hehehheh, good call. For the PS collection, you have a point, Sega would   
   be hard pressed to get any gamer outside of Japan to pay that much...but   
   for Nights, on the other hand, I think they could really turn a profit   
   if they could just be bothered to bring it to the US.   
      
   I mean, look at these various Neo Geo compilations that have been   
   hitting the PS2 for a while now. They are dirt cheap to make, there's   
   little to no actual effort put in on them other than maybe optimizing   
   the emulation and they are intelligently bringing it to the US to   
   maximize profits. As far as I can tell, it's working, because they are   
   *still* putting them out over here. :)   
      
   Bel   
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