If you want CAVE ports region-free...

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adversity1
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If you want CAVE ports region-free...

Post by adversity1 »

...you should email this guy and let him know:

blog360@mail.cave.co.jp

His name is Mr. Asada, and he's the port director for Deathsmiles.

The Deathsmiles port has its own blog, and the latest post has the following Q&A:

http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog ... -c9c2.html

Q Will the game be region-free?

A: Right now we are only considering a Japanese (Asia) release.
...However, we haven't decided this for sure yet, and when we do we will let you know.

That to me indicates that they're considering it. I also bugged the port director for Ketsui X and DDP DOJ Black Label at the Cave Matsuri to make the games region free and he said they were considering it.

I have the feeling they might not be able to announce that the game is region free? There have been for instance a variety of 360 games that were region free but this was never advertised. I suppose MS has its clutches on initiatives that break with its region-coding.

But I think we should let CAVE know what we want. So email Mr. Asada in Japanese if you can, and in your native language if you can't to give him a sense of CAVE's overseas fanbase. I wouldn't be surprised if it had an effect.
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Post by Square King »

If I knew Japanese, I most certainly would send an email. :(
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Post by D »

Square King wrote:If I knew Japanese, I most certainly would send an email. :(
There are translation tools ya know
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Post by Motorherp »

D wrote:
Square King wrote:If I knew Japanese, I most certainly would send an email. :(
There are translation tools ya know
Completely I' It seems like babelfish, it is; Using now, m. Just problem like those complete equipment being visible is made, completely already it is tend to twist message to the point which does not form many meanings, is. Improve in order to obtain who who really speaks Japanese in order perhaps to translate your message because of you in substituting.

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Post by neorichieb1971 »

I would consider buying them region free. I'm not bothered about emailing them though. If they want my money they can suit my needs.
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Post by antares »

I think also if you do own a jp 360 already you should write an email to Cave.
Why? Because: region free -> more sales -> more shmup ports to 360 in the future :)
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Post by rtw »

I sent him an email in English and got this:

--
Dear xxx

In order to prevent lag issues for Japanese players,
we are thinking of restricting the region for network play only to Japan.
We are researching methods to keep network play region free, but at this
point it seems difficult.

---

rtw
Last edited by rtw on Fri Sep 12, 2008 10:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by zap »

They work with computers and video games all day, of course they know some English. You don't have to tell your life's story, just a "Hi, please make Death Smiles region-free" I'm sure is enough.
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Post by Strider77 »

In order to prevent lag issues for Japanese players,
we are thinking of restricting the region for network play only to Japan.
We are researching methods to keep network play region free, but at this
point it seems difficult.
It's called going in the option and setting it so you only play against those living in the same region. I know I have seen this option games I've played online via the 360 before.

Honestly that is a weak reason. I have a japanese 360 but I'll send a email also to help.

Edit*

I just sent a mail also.... would you guys mailing also ask for a fake scanline option to make me happy even if you don't want it since the region locking doesn't effect me either?
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Post by moozooh »

Sent one as well. Let's see what the response is.
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Post by Momijitsuki »

I'll see how some of you other guys' requests turn out before I send anything...
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Post by GaijinPunch »

Honestly that is a weak reason.
If you spoke Japanese, you would know the country runs on weak reasons. What it really means is, "I know, but I choose not to care. Now it's your duty to fuck off.". I'm not joking, that's really what's going on.

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PS: "Difficult" means "No" or even better, "Impossible". If someone says something is "difficult" you ain't getting it. I'll lay down a quarter right now that these are region protected.

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Post by neorichieb1971 »

He said network play was restricted not the whole disc. Well thats how I read it.
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Post by bitkid »

Well he is talking about network play being restricted to Japan, so we can always hope that they will at least leave the disc region free. In any case, I don't mind forking over for a Japanese 360 if it comes down to it. If the ports are good it will save me oodles of cash not having to buy the PCBs for Ketsui and Deathsmiles.
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Post by subcons »

I don't think it's even possible to restrict network play alone. As long as you can log into Live with the game in your XBOX, you can play online with it. I think he means it's going to be region locked.

I've just come to grips with the fact that I'm going to have to buy an import 360 at some point to play these games. It may be far later than sooner, but it's not like I haven't waited to pick up games I've missed over the years on older systems like Saturn and Dreamcast.
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Post by Jockel »

Someone should tell them that they could easily add a disclaimer stating that intercontinental netplay might lag heavily.
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Post by Ozymandiaz1260 »

GaijinPunch wrote:"I know, but I choose not to care. Now it's your duty to fuck off.". I'm not joking, that's really what's going on.
That sucks :(
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Post by moozooh »

They could lock any player to their home region as a last resort, it still beats restricting it to Japan-only.
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Post by GaijinPunch »

Despite the fact that they make good games, Cave is still a corporation. They're not going to do something that makes sense in this situation.
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Post by D »

I know Cave (the Japanese in general) doesn't even care about sales outside of Japan. But perhaps if we keep begging they might reconsider.
And indeed, the region free thing is something they alone cannot decide on. Microsoft will probably say: "ermm ah......let's just focus on the Japanese market....".

At least, these are the indirect messages I get. There might be some nuances here or there.

I think in the end it has to do with pride. They hate to see anything exported to the rest of the world. They don't want to share their cool stuff.
Whereas most other people would jump on any chance to sell abroad.
It isn't necesarily a bad thing. But it is for us. 8)
And what would we do without "will it get a US release"-posts.
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Re: If you want CAVE ports region-free...

Post by E. Randy Dupre »

adversity1 wrote:Q Will the game be region-free?

A: Right now we are only considering a Japanese (Asia) release.
...However, we haven't decided this for sure yet, and when we do we will let you know.

That to me indicates that they're considering it.
Really? Indicates to me that he's purposefully ignoring the question of region locking and actually answering the question he wanted to hear - whether or not it'll be published outside of Japan.

"Right now we are only considering a Japanese (Asia) release."

Where it'll be released. Nothing about the Japanese release being playable on non-Japanese machines.
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Post by kengou »

I really don't understand region-locking at all. If your game is playable by people in every country, won't that mean more sales? I'm sure it doesn't cost all that much to make a disc region-free. The network play excuse, as many have said, is a weak one with many solutions. I just don't get why any company WOULDN'T make a game region-free.
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Post by Never_Scurred »

kengou wrote:I really don't understand region-locking at all. If your game is playable by people in every country, won't that mean more sales? I'm sure it doesn't cost all that much to make a disc region-free. The network play excuse, as many have said, is a weak one with many solutions. I just don't get why any company WOULDN'T make a game region-free.
I agree.
Once again the Japanese has thwarted the shmups community once again!

Gaijinpunch is right.
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Post by Observer »

Then I can forget about asking for a PC version right? (which shouldn't suffer from all the region-lock shit)

Guess it's time to bug the Raiden developers for a future Raiden IV PC port...
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Post by GaijinPunch »

I think in the end it has to do with pride. They hate to see anything exported to the rest of the world. They don't want to share their cool stuff.
This is definitely not the case. Sometimes there's far more dough (and way less work) in licensing out your game to a local house.
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Post by honorless »

GP is right; money from a few importers is chump change. What companies want are licensing and distribution fees.

Moreover, if your target audience imports the region-free version—and then the game gets picked up for translation, the local version won't sell. PM Studios is going to find this out when DJ MAX Fever hits the US. :(

And besides, no region locking would prevent companies from price gouging the fuck out of Australia (and other PAL places, lul) Can't have that.

IIRC, Cave has been approached by a scant few Western companies who were interested in bringing their PS2 ports to the US. Their licensing fees were prohibitively high (since the games would need to be budget-priced in order to sell.) So nothing came of it.
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Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

honorless wrote:GP is right; money from a few importers is chump change. What companies want are licensing and distribution fees.

Moreover, if your target audience imports the region-free version—and then the game gets picked up for translation, the local version won't sell. PM Studios is going to find this out when DJ MAX Fever hits the US. :(

And besides, no region locking would prevent companies from price gouging the fuck out of Australia (and other PAL places, lul) Can't have that.

IIRC, Cave has been approached by a scant few Western companies who were interested in bringing their PS2 ports to the US. Their licensing fees were prohibitively high (since the games would need to be budget-priced in order to sell.) So nothing came of it.
And would those American software companies be XSGames, Agetech, UFO Interactive, and a few others?

I can see how the the average American PS2 console customer would balk at paying $50 to $60 USD for such a properly USA released PS2 port of some of Cave's shmup offerings. They wouldn't sell at that expensive of a pricepoint (and Cave Co. Ltd. already knows this) unless one were to include such a bonus OST CD and some other related shmuppy goodies to make the hard-earned money splurge well worth the additional cost.

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Post by E. Randy Dupre »

Can I just ask, was it the same around here when the PS2 conversions started appearing? Was there a new thread or post every day trying to get Cave/Taito/whoever to release these things in the US and Europe, or were people more prepared to accept that they'd have to find some way of playing the imports?
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Post by system11 »

I sent him a mail too.

If there's any kind of interesting reply, I'll post it here.
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Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

E. Randy Dupre wrote:Can I just ask, was it the same around here when the PS2 conversions started appearing? Was there a new thread or post every day trying to get Cave/Taito/whoever to release these things in the US and Europe, or were people more prepared to accept that they'd have to find some way of playing the imports?
A few people asked Cave about if they were going port some of their games over to the USA and abroad and the official answer was that they'd be for just for Japan and Asian markets only. So that meant if you didn't want to be left out, you had to break down and buy a proper JPN or ASN PS2 console or have a modded USA or European one to play them. ^_~

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Last edited by PC Engine Fan X! on Fri Sep 12, 2008 10:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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