Well, here’s a pleasant and unexpected surprise. Via some brave testers at NeoGAF, Amazon Japan has quietly begun allowing customers from outside the country to buy its video games.
What does this mean for most of you? Not much! But it’s big news for importers and fans of games that haven’t seen a Western release (or whose Western release is…different).
Normally, people have had to rely on specialist importers for this kind of stuff, but with Amazon shipping directly, those days might be over.
If you’re worried about the perils of ordering from a site displayed in a language you can’t read, just hit the button that displays (most of) the necessary content in English.
Here’s the video game section, if you want to get a head start (and note that you’ll probably have to sign up with a new Amazon Japan account instead of using your current local account). Also note that this only applies to games sold directly by Amazon, not third-party resellers.
Oh, and while this bit is old news for seasoned importers, if you’re just dabbling in this make sure you check whether the game you’re importing can even work on the system you’ve got at home.
Now, if only Amazon USA would do the same thing…
[NeoGAF]
Comments
7 responses to “Amazon Japan Now Sells Games Internationally”
D-lish
If the shipping isn’t outrageous then bye-bye play asia, no longer will i pay over $100 for a vita game.
That is also assuming that we get the direct conversion from japanese yen to AUD, because thats the other area where Play-asia gets pricey.
Edit: It appears international shipping is about $8.95, thats crazy.
Nice going linking the Dead or Alive Boob game fracas stuff instead of the Fire Emblem Fates debacle.
At least it looks like that’s what Plunkett set out to do 😀
Why Play-Asia didn’t get more scrutiny for inciting such crap (towards a portion of its own customer base no less) is beyond me.
As for the matter at hand, I’m going to probably not use this straight away but wait until Nintendo announces more concrete hardware plans. I want whatever-it’s-called to allow region-free software and I want to be able to be rid of Australian games retail once and for all.
Nintendo allow region free? I really doubt it.
This pleases me greatly.
I’m pretty sure you can use the same account across multiple Amazon sites. I’ve used mine to purchase stuff from .com, .com.au, .co.uk, and .de.
wont let me log into other regions.
This doesn’t help you if you can’t read japanese. The ps4/3/vita games available from play Asia are mostly the ‘Asia’ version which are in English. The straight japan games don’t have this. I don’t see how this is helpful news.
Good news. I’ll have to get the Japanese Dark Souls 3 for comparisons.