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Brain Training - Full price in Europe?

K

kaizoku

I'm not as deluded as I make myself out to be
I know we get it before USA, which is amazing, but do we really have to be charged full price? Now I have to be gaced with the choise of waiting a few weeks or paying full price! Rip off merchants!

We're already paying full price for We <3 Katamari. This is making me sad :( Whats wrong with these people?!
 
I thought it was announced to be $20 for US? Its only £14~ on videogamesplus.ca.

UK its £30 ($53) RRP, most places online give you a discount of £4-5 though.

£25 is the cheapest. $44.

US dont get sudoku?
 
kaizoku said:
I thought it was announced to be $20 for US? Its only £14~ on videogamesplus.ca.

UK its £30 ($53) RRP, most places online give you a discount of £4-5 though.

£25 is the cheapest. $44.

US dont get sudoku?
Click to expand...
It's $20 in the US and NA gets Sudoku as well.
 
kaizoku said:
I thought it was announced to be $20 for US? Its only £14~ on videogamesplus.ca.

UK its £30 ($53) RRP, most places online give you a discount of £4-5 though.

£25 is the cheapest. $44.

US dont get sudoku?
Click to expand...

Wow, £24.99 at Play.com, that's ASStounding. Looks like I'll have to import the US version instead :(

Off topic, but while looking on Play.com, I saw that the no.1 selling DS game was a cheat cartridge for Nintendogs!
 
if this is true bomb status for Brain Training in Europe confirmed, stupid stupid move one of the biggest selling points of the Brain Training is that they are budget titles NOE strikes again!
 
bigNman said:
ugh, thats just plain greedy. I will definitley import this one.
Click to expand...

Indeed, this was going to be the first NOE game I would buy since the days of the SNES. Looks like NOA will be getting my money (as usual).
 
Excellent, NPD numbers will be artificially inflated making it seem like a bigger hit than it is. :P
 
Doesn't surprise me at all. NOE are so incompetent that they're bordering on criminal negligence.

You can just imagine the conversation behind this pricing decision:

"Ok so it's a budget game in America...designed for people who don't buy games...lots pick up and play mini games/challenges..."

"...Let's release it at £30!"

"You're a genius!"

If I ever buy it then I'll import it. I have four DS games now and I haven't bought a single domestic (EU) game. Three of my games aren't even out in Europe yet :lol
 
What the fuck. They're making this a friggin' FULL PRICE title!?
NOE is crazy. CRAZY.

Gaybrush, please tell us we're wrong.
 
JonathanEx said:
Well, Nintendo haven't actually said anything about the price. Or for that matter, it's exact release date.
Click to expand...

Release is March 31st (24th in the UK, 31st in the rest of Europe), but wtf at the price? That can't be real, can it? $20 is like 17 to 18 Euros, and £30 is about 40! Hooray for screwing us Europeans over AGAIN. I really hate most European branches of certain gamecompanies, this just certifies it even more.
 
order it in canada dude...at videogames plus... i always do....do not let you f$"# by the retailers...

good luck
 
123rl said:
If I ever buy it then I'll import it. I have four DS games now and I haven't bought a single domestic (EU) game. Three of my games aren't even out in Europe yet :lol
Click to expand...

Same here. Out of the 10 games I own(ed), only 1 has been the EU version.
 
Vashu said:
Release is March 31st (24th in the UK, 31st in the rest of Europe), but wtf at the price? That can't be real, can it? $20 is like 17 to 18 Euros, and £30 is about 40! Hooray for screwing us Europeans over AGAIN. I really hate most European branches of certain gamecompanies, this just certifies it even more.
Click to expand...

That European date is not true.
It's Q2 2006, Big Brain Academy is TBC.
 
Where does this price come from ? Maybe it can be a placeholder ? I kinda find it hard to believe...

zou said:
Same here. Out of the 10 games I own(ed), only 1 has been the EU version.
Click to expand...
I think I have 14 games, and it's nearly 1/3 of each region...
 
The whole DS philosophy is to provide more accessible games at a much less expensive price and NOE is charging full price for a game like Brain Training? Wow, are they Ken's ninja or what? :P

EDIT: Though I would wait for confirmation and maybe after all the game will sell, who knows but still... :lol
 
YOU know its more expensive, so go ahead and import.

simple fact is that Nintendo will get away with a full price release. Especially in the UK, sudoku is *huge* and people would pay full price for a good touch screen sudoku game.
 
According to Nico Wegnez from Nintendo of Spain:

13:03 20/02/2006
No hay hasta la fecha ninguna información sobre juegos de Players Choice para Nintendo DS, pero creo que si es importante destacar que desde el inicio de vida de la DS, Nintendo ha hecho esfuerzos para ofrecer juegos a precio reducido... sobre todo comparandolos con los de nuestra competencia. Ahora con juegos de la linea de Touch Generations, es muy posible que veaís o escucheís buenas noticias... estamos trabajando para que los precios reducidos que titulos como Brain Training por ejemplo, sean tambíen más economicos en Europa.

Translation:
There isn't any information about Player's Choice titles for Nintendo DS, but I think it is important to note that, since the release of the DS, Nintendo has made an effort to release games at reduced prices. Now with the Touch Generations line-up (note: this line-up in Europe will consist of Brain Training, Brain Academy, Electroplankton and others) it is very likely that you'll get good news... we are working to have reduced prices in Europe for titles such as Brain Training.

The complete interview (about DS, Revolution and the market situation in Spain) here (in Spanish):
http://aeconomicawas5.recoletos.es/general/debates/Controlador?cod=493
 
Here's hoping for ~20 Euro Brain Training.

Btw. release date is really March 31th? I thought it would be released a good bit later (what is the american release date btw.?).
 
Don't believe pre-order prices. Play put the pre-order price of the DS USB dongle as £14.95 originally but it ended up as double that.
 
Taker666 said:
Don't believe pre-order prices. Play put the pre-order price of the DS USB dongle as £14.95 originally but it ended up as double that.
Click to expand...

You may be right. This price is just too much, over double the price of it in the rest of the world for crying out loud.

It could also be the date is wrong, but I chcked gamefaqs and they have it as coming out in EU before US as well. Although gameplay.co.uk and play.com have different dates for it.

I won't pay more than £15 for this. If Nintendo knows what its doing....the DS needs this to be £15 range if it hopes to emulate Japan.
 
mrklaw said:
YOU know its more expensive, so go ahead and import.

simple fact is that Nintendo will get away with a full price release. Especially in the UK, sudoku is *huge* and people would pay full price for a good touch screen sudoku game.
Click to expand...

It will probably sell just from having Sudoku. The PSP Sudoku game is £20 on its own ffs! :lol
 
123rl said:
It will probably sell just from having Sudoku. The PSP Sudoku game is £20 on its own ffs! :lol
Click to expand...

yah and that doesn't sell even close to what Nintendo needs Brain Training to become. If it really wants the DS to get away from the kiddy market, it needs this Touch series to do well.
 
Sudoku PSP has sold pretty well though. It's been sold out at a couple of my local game shops for quite a while now

If Brain Training was sold at a FAIR price (fair = roughly the same as the American price) then it would fly off the shelves. If this was sold at £20 then it could easily sell a million copies in Britain before the end of Summer, IMO. But selling it at a higher price means:

a, it's no longer an impulse buy
b, non-gamers aren't going to take a chance with buying their first game/handheld console
c, it's now in the same price range as everything else on the shelves. At £30 it's going to be the same price as most PSP games and a lot of console games
d, its main selling point is that it is a cheap educational programme. Key word: CHEAP!
Would it have sold so well in Japan if it was the same price as every other DS game?

And that's just four main reasons why it's a stupid move. I'm sure we could come up with another 15 if we really wanted to show Nintendo Europe how stupid they are!
 
kaizoku said:
You may be right. This price is just too much, over double the price of it in the rest of the world for crying out loud.

It could also be the date is wrong, but I chcked gamefaqs and they have it as coming out in EU before US as well. Although gameplay.co.uk and play.com have different dates for it.

I won't pay more than £15 for this. If Nintendo knows what its doing....the DS needs this to be £15 range if it hopes to emulate Japan.
Click to expand...

NOE announced it for a Q2 release so the date must wrong, I suspect a May/June release , probably/hopefully with the DSLite (I'm sure I read somewhere that NOE were hoping it could do well as a fathers day gift and that's mid June).

I would agree that a £14.99 price range would be ideal but I suspect £19.99 is the more likely price.

If Nintendo released a budget DS range for £14.99 I could see me picking up a number of older titles which I wouldn't touch at £20 +.

Unfortunately GBA/DS/handheld game prices have always been rediculously high in Europe. They seem to do 1 dollar =1 euro on hardware ( which is fine) but handheld software prices have not followed the same path.

Nintendo usually get the blame (and I'm sure they are partially at fault) but retailers in Europe also just seem to demand a higher mark-up.When you consider that UK online game prices are the equivalent of $10-$20 less than retail, it shows that there must be a damn big mark-up over here, must be around 100%.

I'm hoping that if Brain Training does get low price release over here then we could see a DSLite/ Brain Training bundle for £99.
 
It is out soon - the official date is Q2, but it's provisionally out at the end of March/in time for Easter, not as late as June. They've certainly got a version localised and ready to go, as the recent promotional stuff in newspapers and magazines shows.

Link tanker says, this has less to do with Nintendo - guys, I know it's really easy to bash NoE, old habits die hard, but get the fuck over it you morons - and everything to do with retailers, and the fact that the UK price has tax included, etc.

Anyway, the normal price of a DS game tends to be £34.99 - if Nintendo are 'reducing' the price, we'll see it at £24.99 or £29.99. (Which retailers will probably shave a few quid off)
 
Mr Mike said:
Link tanker says, this has less to do with Nintendo - guys, I know it's really easy to bash NoE, old habits die hard, but get the fuck over it you morons - and everything to do with retailers, and the fact that the UK price has tax included, etc.

Anyway, the normal price of a DS game tends to be £34.99 - if Nintendo are 'reducing' the price, we'll see it at £24.99 or £29.99. (Which retailers will probably shave a few quid off)
Click to expand...

Hardly any games are £34.99 RRP, I think all Nintendo ones are £29.99 at the most, along with most third parties. And Polarium has an RRP of £19.99, so clearly it's more than possible to release a game at that price.

As for the 17.5% tax, people spout that off like it justifies such a price. Do they even try to work it out?

UK price with tax = £30 = $52-53. US price without tax = $20, so let's give that 17.5% tax = $23.50. Difference = $29.50

Or do it the other way. UK price with tax = £30 = $52-53. UK price without tax = £24.75 = $43. US price without tax = $20. Difference = $23

Either way you can buy two Brain Trainings in the US for the price of one in the UK. Combined with the fact that we know budget DS titles are possible (Polarium isn't the only one, just the only one from Nintendo so far I believe), that price, if true, is obviously bullshit.

But hey, I guess we're all just morons and stuck in the old days of NOE being shit. They're great now. Yep. Only twice as much! *high fives*
 
How much were the NES Classic series games for GBA?

I might import from DVD Box Office (another Canadian site) if it's too much.
 
Mama Smurf said:
But hey, I guess we're all just morons and stuck in the old days of NOE being shit. They're great now. Yep. Only twice as much! *high fives*
Click to expand...

but how much of that is NOE and how much is european retailers expecting a bigger cut of the retail price?

You don't see US online retailers offering games for $15-$20 less than in-store (not from what I've seen) but that's precisely what happens in the UK.

If it was just Nintendo Europes fault then why are UK 3rd party games even more expensive?
 
Taker666 said:
but how much of that is NOE and how much is european retailers expecting a bigger cut of the retail price?

You don't see US online retailers offering games for $15-$20 less than in-store (not from what I've seen) but that's precisely what happens in the UK.

If it was just Nintendo Europes fault then why are UK 3rd party games even more expensive?
Click to expand...

Isn't this like saying retailers determine the price of games? What about Greatest Hits or Platinum games?

Thats like saying they could charge double the price for new hardware launches cos people would pay it. But they can't.

Publishers or whoever determine the RRP. Its then up to the retailers what they want to charge.

Its hard to believe we regularly pay so much more than Americans even with regular priced games.
 
Higher sales tax and other taxes = higher price in Europe. I can live with that. But there is NO way that can justify a 100% increase in price between games in America and Europe. Rough estimate: it would mean a 30-40% increase in costs and price before it hits retail. But it doesn't happen. Retailers make almost nothing on their games. I know one retailer who sells all his DS games at £29.99 and he told me he makes about £3 per unit sold. The rest is wholesale and publisher markup
 
I used to work in GAME and we HAD to push the second hand games as much as possible, as that was the highest mark up by far. It was basically the lifeblood of the store. UK retailers (don't know about European) get just as screwed as anywhere else on mark up from what I can tell. Certainly if the mark up was as huge as it would have to be to reasonably compare Brain Training prices from the US to the UK, the used games wouldn't be nearly as important. A mark up of more than the game costs with tax in the US? Ridiculous.

None of that matters anyway. Games like Polarium (and if you want others Kim Possible, Seaworld Adventures, Sega Casino, Shrek, Ultimate Spider-Man etc) being released at a budget price show that it's very much possible to do and the retailers do not have such high demands that a £30 price point isn't down to Nintendo. Combined with the tax not making much difference...if the price is true, it's Nintendo. No one else.
 
Why don't we use 'Euro', that's way more comparable to USD ;)

NES Classics were 19.99 Euro, Polarium was 29.99 Euro.

BTW: Polarium Advance seems to be full price!
 
Shiggy said:
Why don't we use 'Euro', that's way more comparable to USD ;)

NES Classics were 19.99 Euro, Polarium was 29.99 Euro.

BTW: Polarium Advance seems to be full price!
Click to expand...

I have more understanding of how much a dollar is worth than a Euro! :P

Its also about time GBA games dropped in price ffs. Crappy GBA releases can cost as much as the latest PS2 game!

Still can't believe the prices being charged for Katamari either. Budget priced in the rest of the world.
 
Before anyone points blame at the wrong party again (retailers) I just want to say something. Retailers pay more money for GBA and DS games at wholesale than they do for PS2 and Xbox games...even though they're sold for less! Now, who do you think is to blame for that?

(hint: it's NINTENDO)
 
Mama Smurf said:
I used to work in GAME and we HAD to push the second hand games as much as possible, as that was the highest mark up by far. It was basically the lifeblood of the store. UK retailers (don't know about European) get just as screwed as anywhere else on mark up from what I can tell. Certainly if the mark up was as huge as it would have to be to reasonably compare Brain Training prices from the US to the UK, the used games wouldn't be nearly as important. A mark up of more than the game costs with tax in the US? Ridiculous.

None of that matters anyway. Games like Polarium (and if you want others Kim Possible, Seaworld Adventures, Sega Casino, Shrek, Ultimate Spider-Man etc) being released at a budget price show that it's very much possible to do and the retailers do not have such high demands that a £30 price point isn't down to Nintendo. Combined with the tax not making much difference...if the price is true, it's Nintendo. No one else.
Click to expand...

I'd agree that if the Brain Training price is this high it must be NOE(although the price is not confirmed).

but regarding other budget titles, why am I seeing some retail stores selling Sega Casino for £24.95 (the RRP is £19.95) while some online stores are selling it for as little as £9.95 (from launch day).

A £15 difference on a budget title. Someone must be making a hell of a profit or got a hell of a deal.

The stores selling it for £9.95 are obviously not selling it for a loss and I'm highly doubtful that Sega are selling the game to one retailer for £6 and another for £14.

Another example - Why can I see one retail store currently selling all DS games 2 for £45 (a rarity but I did see it at the weekend), while another charges £35 for each title. Why is there such a vast difference?
 
123rl said:
Higher sales tax and other taxes = higher price in Europe.
Click to expand...

Which "other taxes"?

Retailers pay more money for GBA and DS games at wholesale than they do for PS2 and Xbox games...even though they're sold for less! Now, who do you think is to blame for that?
Click to expand...

Where do you have that from?
 
123rl said:
Before anyone points blame at the wrong party again (retailers) I just want to say something. Retailers pay more money for GBA and DS games at wholesale than they do for PS2 and Xbox games...even though they're sold for less! Now, who do you think is to blame for that?

(hint: it's NINTENDO)
Click to expand...
What about the games not made by Nintendo? Why are many 3rd party DS games £35... are you saying that Nintendo are charging 3rd party devs double the licensing/manufacturing fees in Europe than they are in Japan or the US?
 
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