Examples of Damage Control in Gaming: The Restricted Mayonaka Arena — Is Love Over!?

News came out recently that Persona 4 Arena was going to be region locked on PS3, a piece of info most of the system’s owners laughed at initially. One of the best aspects of the system was having access to a bevy of region free software, and there’s no way a publisher would go through the bother of locking a game this late into its life. But it’s true, as Atlus USA confirmed that this will indeed be the case, making it the first region locked title to grace the PS3. It’s undeniably an anti-consumer decision, and it didn’t take long for fans to let everyone, especially the publisher, know how upset they were at the decision.

Atlus USA may have released a sincerely-worded press release detailing why their parent company, Atlus Japan, decided to go through with this, but it did nothing to smooth over the situation. It’s a shame the American district is being lambasted for a decision they had no part in making; one made not with the intention to screw fans, but out of the Japanese district’s corporate fear. They wanted to prevent reverse importation, since the American game will be cheaper than the Japanese version. What they’ve sadly done is set a dangerous precedent for future companies to use, and it has some fans who were looking forward to the game either reconsidering their decision, or expressing a desire to purchase it used.

As bad as this is, though, it happens very commonly in other forms of media, especially anime. The most recent example involved Kadokawa Pictures forcing Funimation to cancel all Blu-ray editions of their anime, due to Japan and America sharing similar regions in that format. The biggest series there was Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, which many fans were looking forward to collecting on the format. Prior to that, the now-defunct Bandai Entertainment had to release Kurokami on Blu-Ray with only the English dub because the Japanese licensor wouldn’t give them the rights to use their version, despite the DVD release having both options.

Fans as a whole are, naturally, split over this. I’m not going to tell you want to think and how you should spend your money as a result of this, because there are too many people doing that as it is on both sides. That entire contingent needs to get over themselves.

There are three ways you could go on this:

You choose the LAW path.

You’re in full realization of the precedent this move could set for future Japanese releases, and the ultimatum of either holding off the American release for a few months or releasing it without dual language support (including voices and text) is complete crap. There have been plenty of other games released like this, and none of them have been region locked. In fact, two of them released this year: Binary Domain and Asura’s Wrath — the latter of which is from Capcom. Not to mention all of the Blazblue games from the same developer, Arc System Works, have similar options, but none of them are region locked; though there was a two month gap between Continuum Shift Extend’s Japanese and American release.

This is the work of Atlus Japan trying to justify the high Japanese price, which is 7329 yen (around $92). Next to no one pays retail for games in Japan due to places like Amazon Japan, who’s taking pre-orders for the lower price of around 5900 yen (around $74). The American version is $59.99, which is about 4800 yen. Considering the discrepancy between the release dates (July 26th for Japan, and August 7th for America), do they honestly think Japanese purchasers are going to wait two weeks to save a mere 1100 yen?

Yu Narukami OBJECTS to this decision!

They’re also not taking Japan’s brutal used games market into account, involving stores discounting software prices within weeks. Keep in mind used Japanese games are typically in pristine condition, making them as attractive as a new copy. That almost makes you wonder why they didn’t go the extra mile and throw in an online pass too.

You also see that region restriction complicates matters for a few. Anyone, for instance, living in America with a non-American PS3 is going to have to pay a ridiculous price for an imported version. And anyone in Europe (or who owns a European PS3) is majorly screwed, given that it doesn’t have a release date clearer than “2012” as of this writing.

You find these decisions heinous, and expected better from a company with a devoted niche fanbase. These actions can’t be rewarded with a purchase.

You choose the CHAOS path.

You can’t pass on the CHAOS contained in fights like this!

The hell with this region locking debacle! You realize this is a game you really want to play, and this silliness isn’t going to stop you from purchasing it. Here we have a game that (supposedly) includes 30-40 hours of story content, making it a true sequel to a game heralded as one of the best RPGs to grace PS2. It’s also a (supposedly) great fighting game, and is bound to have good online play, because Arc System works is known for it.

You also realize that there are developers that slaved over this game, and legitimately good people not tied to the corporate arm work for the company. Boycotting the game to spite the latter group would hurt the former. Taking this path doesn’t exactly mean you’re feigning ignorance to the drama surrounding it, but that your primary concern is rewarding the development team for creating a good game.

And you might find that pre-order bonus, an Arranged Soundtrack, a little too enticing to resist.

You choose the NEUTRAL path.

There are two ways to walk down this path.

The first involves still getting the game, but you’re going to buy it used so Atlus never sees a cent of your money. That, or you’re waiting for a price drop. The second?

It’s not like it doesn’t exist on another system, albeit also in a region locked form.

Whichever path you walk is your decision, and you shouldn’t feel bad about either one. If you come across someone that tries to tell you what you should think, ignore them. You’re a human being perfectly capable of making up your own mind. Persona 4 Arena hits North America on August 7th, and hopefully Zen United will stop jerking Europeans around and give them a release date.