Have a little sympathy for us European Xbox360 owners

mr_m0nks · Post by **mr_m0nks** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:42 am

There have been many posts about various shmups on the 360, most have been released in Japan. I can cope with this, the Japanese are entitled to them.

What I'm unhappy about is the news that several games are making their was to the US.

Why do we not get them too? I for one am sick to death of region locking. I'm not in a position to afford an import console.

So you American 360 owners, when you peel back the shrink wrap of your shiny new Raiden IV game, spare a thought for your European counterparts, still making do with Triggerheart Excelica and R-Type Dimensions.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:04 pm

I'm a PS3 owner. I'd rather have a region free console with fak all on it than do the region locking thing. Especially with a POS 360 thats likely to screw you in 6 months time.

I feel your pain, but until devs start supporting the world market and not just some minuscule part of it then I say bollocks to it.

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:33 pm

Developers just seem to hate Europe. I'm still waiting for Gradius Rebirth to appear on european Wii-ware. What's up, Konami?

Xexyz · Post by **Xexyz** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:24 pm

I could sympathize... no wait, empathize, but it depends. Did you sympathize with us North American PS2 owners when you guys got Strikers 1945 I&II The Arcade Games, Dragon Blaze, Psyvariar: Complete Edition, Gunbird Special Edition, Samurai Aces, Homura, and GigaWing Generations, while we did not?

OmniGLH · Post by **OmniGLH** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:29 pm

Xexyz wrote:I could sympathize... no wait, empathize, but it depends. Did you sympathize with us North American PS2 owners when you guys got Strikers 1945 I&II The Arcade Games, Dragon Blaze, Psyvariar: Complete Edition, Gunbird Special Edition, Samurai Aces, Homura, and GigaWing Generations, while we did not?

I was thinking along the same lines.

Europeans got plenty more of the PS2 collection of shmups. Its not like North America is getting a whole lot. Just Raiden Fighter Aces and soon Raiden IV. I'll sympathize when a Cave game makes it state side before Europe.

dcharlie · Post by **dcharlie** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:30 pm

I'm still waiting for Gradius Rebirth to appear on european Wii-ware. What's up, Konami?

um - i wouldn't get to excited about Rebirth if i were you.

"Turd sandwich" is one description i heard but i feel that's somewhat unfair on turd sandwiches.

FIL · Post by **FIL** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 2:26 pm

We got XII Stag too! Though many would say thats another reason to feel sorry for us.

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 4:23 pm

No sympathy for those dumb enough to still be buying PAL consoles (PS3 excluded).

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 4:48 pm

The 360 isn't a traditional PAL console, though, given that it supports 60Hz in hardware.

kozo · Post by **kozo** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 4:52 pm

OmniGLH wrote:
Xexyz wrote:I could sympathize... no wait, empathize, but it depends. Did you sympathize with us North American PS2 owners when you guys got Strikers 1945 I&II The Arcade Games, Dragon Blaze, Psyvariar: Complete Edition, Gunbird Special Edition, Samurai Aces, Homura, and GigaWing Generations, while we did not?
Europeans got plenty more of the PS2 collection of shmups. Its not like North America is getting a whole lot. Just Raiden Fighter Aces and soon Raiden IV. I'll sympathize when a Cave game makes it state side before Europe.

QFT. You also got OZ (Sword of Etheria) and the Shinobido titles, among other great Japanese-developed games that we didn't. Your cover art was also commonly better than the US stuff. Take a look at Ys VI for PS2.

Just sayin.

MADEIRA STEVE88 · Post by **MADEIRA STEVE88** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 4:56 pm

I with the OP, im sick to death of not being able to play the SHMUP's on Xbox 360 due to the fact i have a PAL console.

North America gets Raiden Fighters Aces and now will get Raiden IV as well, but us we get nothing!

505 Games you have a history of publishing Raiden games to the Uk etc so get to work with these 2 titles!

DAM REGION LOCKING!

Vincere · Post by **Vincere** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 4:57 pm

Elixir wrote:No sympathy for those dumb enough to still be buying PAL consoles (PS3 excluded).

HELLO. Pal systems are what we find all over the place here. There's no way to buy another region system in a store. How many players would take the risk to pay 250E + 100E fees a jap system whereas a pal system costs 179E... Wake up king obvious-o-dummy.

MADEIRA STEVE88 · Post by **MADEIRA STEVE88** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:04 pm

I wish there was a 360 FreeLoader Disc, like the one of PS2 and Wii etc.

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:08 pm

Vincere wrote:
Elixir wrote:No sympathy for those dumb enough to still be buying PAL consoles (PS3 excluded).
HELLO. Pal systems are what we find all over the place here. There's no way to buy another region system in a store. How many players would take the risk to pay 250E + 100E fees a jap system whereas a pal system costs 179E... Wake up king obvious-o-dummy.

HELLO, sir. I am aware that PAL consoles are sold in PAL stores and you can't find non-PAL consoles in PAL stores. But, thanks for sharing. If people wanted to play x game that's on x console in x region (typically NTSC-J before anything else), they would have imported one already.

I don't think complaining about it is going to help.

MADEIRA STEVE88 · Post by **MADEIRA STEVE88** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:11 pm

Elixir wrote:
Vincere wrote:
Elixir wrote:No sympathy for those dumb enough to still be buying PAL consoles (PS3 excluded).
HELLO. Pal systems are what we find all over the place here. There's no way to buy another region system in a store. How many players would take the risk to pay 250E + 100E fees a jap system whereas a pal system costs 179E... Wake up king obvious-o-dummy.
HELLO, sir. I am aware that PAL consoles are sold in PAL stores and you can't find non-PAL consoles in PAL stores. But, thanks for sharing. If people wanted to play x game that's on x console in x region (typically NTSC-J before anything else), they would have imported one already.

I don't think complaining about it is going to help.

We shouldn't have to buy multiple consoles just to play various games on the same type of console.

Basically i need a NA console and Jap console, this is something that i dont have the money for. They should abolish region locking the ps3 did so why is MS being Gay and keeping it?

FIL · Post by **FIL** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:17 pm

Unless i'm mistaken, 360 region locking is optional.

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:20 pm

It's optional, but up to the developer to decide if it gets region locked or not.

What purpose is there in owning an American 360? They're about as useful as PAL 360s (this means they aren't useful at all).

CStarFlare · Post by **CStarFlare** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:35 pm

there's nothing as useless as a PAL <x>

max.faraday · Post by **max.faraday** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:00 pm

Well, all you have to do is go on a trip to japan and bring back a 360 for 150E.

That's what i have done.

Okay there's the cost of the trip but it sure is a nice place to visit.

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:28 pm

Japanese developers just hate western money IDK why. I looked at the Playasia list of Region free games and almost all of it are EA games and the like. Definitely nothing someone who imports would be interested in but it shows at least some publishers have some common sense, kudo's to them.

I'm getting a mod chip for my US 360 that you can turn off when you play your US games online so you don't get your gold revoked. These are out there and they're a lot cheaper then getting a Japanese 360 just so you guys know.

mr_m0nks · Post by **mr_m0nks** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:01 pm

a Stock 360 is temperamental enough. Start adding chips and I dread to think what it will do

fuse · Post by **fuse** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:08 pm

Vincere wrote:
Elixir wrote:No sympathy for those dumb enough to still be buying PAL consoles (PS3 excluded).
HELLO. Pal systems are what we find all over the place here. There's no way to buy another region system in a store. How many players would take the risk to pay 250E + 100E fees a jap system whereas a pal system costs 179E... Wake up king obvious-o-dummy.

If you want to buy them from a store then yes you're a bit limited, but (I'm pretty sure) you're posting this on the internet where these kind of purchases are far from impossible. Price-wise, I weigh up the costs of a J-360, a stick, and £40 a game against a decent candy cab / supergun setup, and £stupid for each PCB. If my J-360 were to die tomorrow, I would have no qualms paying up for a new one, and I am far from a rich man.

Dale wrote:Japanese developers just hate western money IDK why. I looked at the Playasia list of Region free games and almost all of it are EA games and the like. Definitely nothing someone who imports would be interested in but it shows at least some publishers have some common sense, kudo's to them.

On the contrary, I would say. Whilst EA Sports might be a different case entirely, most of EA's recent titles of some credibility (read: Dead Space, Mirror's Edge) are all region-locked. They're one of the worst for it, even.

msm · Post by **msm** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:33 pm

Elixir wrote:No sympathy for those dumb enough to still be buying PAL consoles (PS3 excluded).

if your only playing shooters that's fine, but if you play lots of other games then it's a good idea to have a console from your region - cheap and easily available console and games, and with the poor reliability of the 360 you don't want to put any un-nessesary strain on an NTSC-J one.

WarBovine · Post by **WarBovine** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:55 pm

It's not even just shooters. I see so many NTSC-U games that only region lock against PAL. You Europeans are getting the short end of the stick...

In the case of Raiden IV/Fighter Aces, I would assume that it's because UFO/Valcon don't have European distribution arms and haven't bought the rights to market the game in Europe. It's a matter of convincing European publishers that it's worth buying the licenses for PAL regions.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:20 pm

I think Microsoft would enforce region free next time around. I doubt they suspected Sony would do it. The problem is of course that some people feel in this new internet world its far too easy to obtain imports these days.

msm · Post by **msm** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:06 am

WarBovine wrote:It's not even just shooters. I see so many NTSC-U games that only region lock against PAL. You Europeans are getting the short end of the stick...

are any/many of the other region locked games not released here though? by refering to shooters i really mean stuff that's not released here which i believe is mainly shooters, the only other thing i can think of is idolmaster, although there are probably others?

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:16 am

Jeez elitism is even beating Square and EA's greed. I'll just never understand this shit.

originalz · Post by **originalz** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:11 am

Dale wrote: I'm getting a mod chip for my US 360 that you can turn off when you play your US games online so you don't get your gold revoked. These are out there and they're a lot cheaper then getting a Japanese 360 just so you guys know.

360 mod chips won't let you play games of a different region.

ncp · Post by **ncp** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:41 am

originalz wrote:360 mod chips won't let you play games of a different region.

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=489169

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 5:22 am

msm wrote:
Elixir wrote:No sympathy for those dumb enough to still be buying PAL consoles (PS3 excluded).
if your only playing shooters that's fine, but if you play lots of other games then it's a good idea to have a console from your region - cheap and easily available console and games, and with the poor reliability of the 360 you don't want to put any un-nessesary strain on an NTSC-J one.

I don't get it. Why would you import a console and not want to use it? Just buy the JP versions of the games you want to play. How many games for the 360 are region locked to the US only, and don't have an Asian English release? Like, 4? The games are usually out in JP format way before anywhere else as well.

I understand that it's expensive for people in some parts of the world (I was charged $100 in UPS shipping fees on mine, but that's my first and last experience with UPS), but complaining about them being released in the US and not Europe will make them come to Europe. You might as well just give up and buy one if you really want to play these games.

If not, then don't. Just don't go buying a PS3 thinking that it'll have something worthwhile in the shooting category on it, like I did. It doesn't.