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Thunderpick · Joined: 05 Feb 2011 Posts: 10

I was wondering if anyone here could give me any information about gaming in Japan.
In particular the xbox360 scene. Costs, going online etc.

Thanks.

seklarwia · Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 9:53 pm Post subject:

Being made by Microsoft (thus being American), the 360 is much more expensive to buy over here than in most western countries. It's also not as popular as the Japanese created PS3 which out sells the Xbox 8-1.

The 360 is also regionalised, with Japan being it's own region (J-NTSC) so not only will very few titles bought from other countries work on a Japanese 360, but next to no titles bought in Japan will have any language options, not even an English one. So unless you are quite fluent in Japanese, you won't get much enjoyment playing any story-heavy games.

The other problem will be online gaming. If you set up a Japanese Live account, not only will you be unable to get hold of certain add-ons or much of the Marketplace available in most western countries, but match making sessions will suck since many games try to match within regions; in Japan there is not a huge number of 360 players and you may find it difficult to make friends firstly because of the language barrier and secondly because Japanese players tend to be a whole lot more silent than the average loud mouth, trash-talking American Laughing

What you should do is just buy a 360 in your home country, set up a Live account over there, get yourself a Gold subscription and build up a friends list before you come then bring the console with you. NB: If you come from the UK, you will need to get hold of JP/US power supply due the halved voltage (but you have a Kinects working off a power supply) because you don't have 360 Slim, then you only need plug convertor for that because it can run off 100-240V, unlike the 360 power supply). This will give you better chances of being put with other region players in match making or you can simply join the sessions hosted by the people in your friends list... I normally get sick of screaming Taiwanese men quite quickly and end up joining sessions with US or UK friends (depending on the time of the day).

To buy contents online you will need MS Points and if you stay here for more than a year, likely a subscription renewal. Again buying them in stores here will be more expensive than back home, not to mention more difficult since you won't find them being sold in every supermarket as they are in other countries. Either link your Live account to a credit/debit card (preferably from your home country) which will allow you to pay the same prices as back home, or get friends/relatives to buy points/subscription cards and send you the codes via email.
You will have to either buy games from retailers back home and pay for shipping or from places like Play-Asia.com (which has free postage to Japan if I recall). But games here are more expensive anyway, so even after paying for shipping, you'll likely find that it costs no more than buying the game in Japan, plus you won't have so many add-on issues.

nightsintodreams · Joined: 18 May 2010 Posts: 558

Yep, Id agree with all that Seklarwia, except the part about Japanese 360 games not supporting English. Many do, Heres a link with a complete list that i hope you both find useful.

http://www.gaijingamers.com/showthread.php?t=3673

However, PS3, PSP and DS are by far better consoles to own while living in Japan, as theyre all completely region free. If you buy a Japanese PS3 you will also be able to play a huge catalogue of PS1 games that can picked up for next to nothing in stores like Tsutaya.

Im an avid Halo fan and i havent experienced much lag while playing Halo Reach. I have a Japanese copy of the game but my account was created in the UK, so Im not sure how it decides which servers I play on.

Also you can buy a JP power supply on Rakuten or ebay for about 30 pounds.

Edit~almost forgot, heres a compatibility guide

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-00-3-xbox360_compatibility_guide-49-en.html

Edit2~ if all else fails you can download the full version of most games for a reasonable price, as i just did with Crysis.

seklarwia · Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 2:54 pm Post subject:

Mr_Monkey · Joined: 11 Mar 2009 Posts: 661 Location: Kyuuuuuushuuuuuuu

seklarwia · Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:41 pm Post subject:

Mr_Monkey · Joined: 11 Mar 2009 Posts: 661 Location: Kyuuuuuushuuuuuuu

That is rather rich coming from you, but let's move on, shall we?

I'm willing to help you if you'd like.

seklarwia · Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 8:16 am Post subject:

Nope. This is a thread about gaming not about changing my NAT settings nor getting my head checked for my inability to be able to do so. The little I did say about my NAT setting was purely for the benefit of the OP, i.e. I can�t host because of my NAT setting as opposed to not being able to host for reasons that may be contributed with gaming in Japan itself.

Besides, I have no desire to host online because of the stick that one receives from bad losers claiming host advantage. Thus my NAT setting is not even a minor inconvenience.

Dissolution · Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 9:30 am Post subject:

I brought my Xbox 360 from America. So far, no issues. The power supply works just fine, I can connect to Live and I can play online.
Sadly, Netflix won't work, but all my other games are enjoyable.
-T

seklarwia · Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:32 am Post subject:

nightsintodreams · Joined: 18 May 2010 Posts: 558

Crysis is the first full priced game ive purchased online, but iv bought many arcade games without any problems. The only arcade game i ever had a problem downloading was the Dead Rising game they released just before Dead Rising 2. When i tried to purchase it, it gave me a similar message, something along the lines of me being in the wrong region.

Also if you have a JP PS3 beware of downloading PS1 games, my friend bought Cool Boarders 2(PAL version) on PSN. Then when he went to install it, his Playstation told him it wouldnt work with his Japanese PS3. *beep*, they could have at least told him that before he paid for it!

purple_piano · Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 2:25 am Post subject:

For billingual games I suggest using the PlayAsia website. I tried playing CODMW2 in Japanese to improve my listening but ended up just following the objective markers Embarassed

There are little pockets of expat gamers in Japan. We had a nice Xbox360 group in Fukuoka area but we are now spread all over the world.

Rooster_2006 · Joined: 24 Sep 2007 Posts: 984

Thunderpick · Joined: 05 Feb 2011 Posts: 10

Thank you for the help guys! Some of it seemed unrelated to the topic, but thank you anyhow. I will keep you updated! Regards ya.

seklarwia · Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 10:02 pm Post subject: Re: Gaming in Japan