I wanted to make this thread for a long time, since I've always been curious of what videogames are perceived and lived in other countries.
Make it point by point is easier and readable. Let's see if this thread is interesting for someone.
In Italy:
-videogames were usually expensive, at least before Playstation (I'll explain it later) and then with the Euro currency. In fact, Italy is one of those market were videogames were more expensive in the '90 than now. 80€ for Returnal is what I spent for DKC in 1994.
-This because different exchange rates, difficulties in economy, etc, but mostly because 'till 1995, videogames were only officially imported by local retailers. Without calculating the inflation, (from now on) new Megadrive releases could cost 70€, SNES games up to 85€. NES games up to 40€. MD console cost around 125€, SNES more than 150€, NES 80€.
-Unofficially imported games from Japan or US could cost more than 100€, I remember SF2 was 101€, Perfect Eleven 105€. NEOGEO was 400€, games 200€. The average salary was 600/800€ in the early '90.
-As many in Europe, computers were popular and original games were cheap (5-10€) and often sold in newsstands, piracy was crazy and not even a crime for a long time. Lot of C64 and Amiga users here. Computer peripherals were very expensive, I couldn't afford any of them (floppy, printer, monitor).
-PC were much more expensive!! My first PC was a mid range PC and cost 1500€, 3 wages.
-Despite NES was popular (people used to call every videogames "the Nintendo"), Master System sold more 'cause it was cheaper (games at 25€ max) and the local distributor for Sega did better in marketing, also SMS was sold for very long till the Saturn era.
-Since MS was popular, MD was popular too, and cheaper than SNES in console and games.
-Yes, Sega was OFFICIALLY pronounced SeeGA because SEGA is "saw" but also a slang for "fap".
-While computer games had an immediately release, console games and console itself had a big delay. Usually JAP->USA->UK->FR/GER->IT. Console games rarely had an italian localization. I don't remember any MD/NES/MS/SNES etc games with IT language built in it, until the Playstation era.
-Console/Computer were usually attached to the TV via RF input, until 32bit era were composite was common. But RGB TV were actually pretty common, my Wii was connected in RGB to a 1985 TV with a Scart/RGB input.
-Videogame magazine were a translation from UK magazine with new contents. A news printed in a japanese magazine, then a month later in a UK magazine, then (probably) a month later in an italian magazine. CES/ETCS (old trade events) news were published in september despite the exibition was in june/july. Now everything is in real time, but back in the day this situation was the norm.
-Because the delays, the higher cost, the laziness from Sega and Nintendo which probaly didn't consider Italy a worthy country, the local distributors in the middle, when Playstation arrived, everything changed: consoles everywhere, cheaper games ( a new release usually cost less then 55€), most of the game officially translated and dubbed, better support, more advertisement, new magazines exclusively for PSX. And later piracy, but piracy only don't explain why Playstation brand is the most popular in Italy till now.
-Nintendo had a direct distribution only in the GC era. At some point, the local distributor for Nintendo bought the local distributor for Sega, so you had Dreamcast on the shelves but no advertise at all because Nintendo didn't want their partner to advertise the competitors.
Make it point by point is easier and readable. Let's see if this thread is interesting for someone.
In Italy:
-videogames were usually expensive, at least before Playstation (I'll explain it later) and then with the Euro currency. In fact, Italy is one of those market were videogames were more expensive in the '90 than now. 80€ for Returnal is what I spent for DKC in 1994.
-This because different exchange rates, difficulties in economy, etc, but mostly because 'till 1995, videogames were only officially imported by local retailers. Without calculating the inflation, (from now on) new Megadrive releases could cost 70€, SNES games up to 85€. NES games up to 40€. MD console cost around 125€, SNES more than 150€, NES 80€.
-Unofficially imported games from Japan or US could cost more than 100€, I remember SF2 was 101€, Perfect Eleven 105€. NEOGEO was 400€, games 200€. The average salary was 600/800€ in the early '90.
-As many in Europe, computers were popular and original games were cheap (5-10€) and often sold in newsstands, piracy was crazy and not even a crime for a long time. Lot of C64 and Amiga users here. Computer peripherals were very expensive, I couldn't afford any of them (floppy, printer, monitor).
-PC were much more expensive!! My first PC was a mid range PC and cost 1500€, 3 wages.
-Despite NES was popular (people used to call every videogames "the Nintendo"), Master System sold more 'cause it was cheaper (games at 25€ max) and the local distributor for Sega did better in marketing, also SMS was sold for very long till the Saturn era.
-Since MS was popular, MD was popular too, and cheaper than SNES in console and games.
-Yes, Sega was OFFICIALLY pronounced SeeGA because SEGA is "saw" but also a slang for "fap".
-While computer games had an immediately release, console games and console itself had a big delay. Usually JAP->USA->UK->FR/GER->IT. Console games rarely had an italian localization. I don't remember any MD/NES/MS/SNES etc games with IT language built in it, until the Playstation era.
-Console/Computer were usually attached to the TV via RF input, until 32bit era were composite was common. But RGB TV were actually pretty common, my Wii was connected in RGB to a 1985 TV with a Scart/RGB input.
-Videogame magazine were a translation from UK magazine with new contents. A news printed in a japanese magazine, then a month later in a UK magazine, then (probably) a month later in an italian magazine. CES/ETCS (old trade events) news were published in september despite the exibition was in june/july. Now everything is in real time, but back in the day this situation was the norm.
-Because the delays, the higher cost, the laziness from Sega and Nintendo which probaly didn't consider Italy a worthy country, the local distributors in the middle, when Playstation arrived, everything changed: consoles everywhere, cheaper games ( a new release usually cost less then 55€), most of the game officially translated and dubbed, better support, more advertisement, new magazines exclusively for PSX. And later piracy, but piracy only don't explain why Playstation brand is the most popular in Italy till now.
-Nintendo had a direct distribution only in the GC era. At some point, the local distributor for Nintendo bought the local distributor for Sega, so you had Dreamcast on the shelves but no advertise at all because Nintendo didn't want their partner to advertise the competitors.