Bloody Wolf goes for more on PC Engine.... Why?

[tbone3969]

Is it uncensored maybe?  Kinda like why Splatterhouse goes for more on the PC Engine.

[CrackTiger]

Game prices have nothing to do with game content. Many Turbo versions of PCE games have a lot of content removed, yet "go for" much more than the Japanese versions.

[tbone3969]

I see.  I thought the PC Engine version of Splatterhouse was more sought after because he looks like Jason and there are crosses in it.

[Winniez]

I have noticed this aswell, pretty suprising. Turbo version even has the proper cover art.
As far as I know the only difference besides the text is that the PCE version has limited continues.

[CrackTiger]

I have noticed this aswell, pretty suprising. Turbo version even has the proper cover art.
As far as I know the only difference besides the text is that the PCE version has limited continues.

Some cheat codes or tricks are supposed to only work on one version.

[Freeway2]

I was able to get the cheat codes to work on the tg-16 version.  As far as prices go I don't see the pc engine version for sale as often so that may play a part.

[ClodBusted]

When I got Blazing Lazers a few years ago, it was not only way less expensive than Gunhead, it even came sealed, lol. Must have been a seller with lots of leftover stock.

But I had to replace the sticky Hucard sleeve with another one.

[majors]

Funny, when I was moving to PCE over TG, Splatter and Bloody were higher than expected prices (on PCE). I just coughed it up to being good games...at least I could sell my US version for at least what I could buy the PCE counterparts for. Both games are great, but if they get over $50, then ppl should just get a TED...I say the same for Cadash.

[PukeSter]

Probably cuz it's exotic and "obey". And more people these days have pc engines, so the japanese prices go up. Supply and Demand.

Bloody Wolf gives you unlimited continues on the american version though, and considering how cheap that final boss is you're gonna need them. The translation is also hilarious.

[crazydean]

Funny, when I was moving to PCE over TG, Splatter and Bloody were higher than expected prices (on PCE). I just coughed it up to being good games...at least I could sell my US version for at least what I could buy the PCE counterparts for. Both games are great, but if they get over $50, then ppl should just get a TED...I say the same for Cadash.

Everyone should get a TED regardless. If you collect games for value, it's worth it so you can play them without damaging originals. If you want to play games and not collect, it's cheaper than buying originals. If you only want to buy and play, at least with the the TED, you get a chance to try before you buy.

[TheClash603]

Funny, when I was moving to PCE over TG, Splatter and Bloody were higher than expected prices (on PCE). I just coughed it up to being good games...at least I could sell my US version for at least what I could buy the PCE counterparts for. Both games are great, but if they get over $50, then ppl should just get a TED...I say the same for Cadash.

Everyone should get a TED regardless. If you collect games for value, it's worth it so you can play them without damaging originals. If you want to play games and not collect, it's cheaper than buying originals. If you only want to buy and play, at least with the the TED, you get a chance to try before you buy.

INSERTION MARKS!?!?!?!?!?

[crazydean]

Funny, when I was moving to PCE over TG, Splatter and Bloody were higher than expected prices (on PCE). I just coughed it up to being good games...at least I could sell my US version for at least what I could buy the PCE counterparts for. Both games are great, but if they get over $50, then ppl should just get a TED...I say the same for Cadash.

Everyone should get a TED regardless. If you collect games for value, it's worth it so you can play them without damaging originals. If you want to play games and not collect, it's cheaper than buying originals. If you only want to buy and play, at least with the the TED, you get a chance to try before you buy.

INSERTION MARKS!?!?!?!?!?

I don't see a reason to buy a game like Magical Chaste, but if I did, I sure as hell wouldn't play it.

[CrackTiger]

I played Magical Chase regularly on consoles and an Express for over 20 years, keeping it loose with stacks of shuffling HuCards and it sustained very little wear.

[esteban]

A: With a handful of PCE games, it is possible that the JP release had a lower production run than the North American release (Wataru!). Think about how NEC overestimated demand for TG-16 console, in general, and Keith Courage was included with every console.

Now, the question to ask is... even if Wataru was a popular TV show, would Hudson pump out 750,000+ Huey's?

It was my understanding that in the first 2 years of the PCE, simply selling 200,000 copies of a game was considered very successful (maybe my numbers are wrong... this was "research" I did 15+ years ago from poor sources).

Anyway, regardless of actual data, it is conceivable that Bloody Wolf, Wataru, GunHed, and a few other titles were produced in much greater quantities for North America.

Supply and demand still is a factor in determining price, although it is compounded by many other things (popularity, perceived value, etc.)

I played Magical Chase regularly on consoles and an Express for over 20 years, keeping it loose with stacks of shuffling HuCards and it sustained very little wear.

Please send me HuCARD only in a plain business envelope.  I'll pay shipping to New Jersey. Thank you, comrade.

[CrackTiger]

A: With a handful of PCE games, it is possible that the JP release had a lower production run than the North American release (Wataru!). Think about how NEC overestimated demand for TG-16 console, in general, and Keith Courage was included with every console.

Now, the question to ask is... even if Wataru was a popular TV show, would Hudson pump out 750,000+ Huey's?

It was my understanding that in the first 2 years of the PCE, simply selling 200,000 copies of a game was considered very successful (maybe my numbers are wrong... this was "research" I did 15+ years ago from poor sources).

Anyway, regardless of actual data, it is conceivable that Bloody Wolf, Wataru, GunHed, and a few other titles were produced in much greater quantities for North America.

Supply and demand still is a factor in determining price, although it is compounded by many other things (popularity, perceived value, etc.)

I played Magical Chase regularly on consoles and an Express for over 20 years, keeping it loose with stacks of shuffling HuCards and it sustained very little wear.

Please send me HuCARD only in a plain business envelope.  I'll pay shipping to New Jersey. Thank you, comrade.

During the Playstation era, selling 100,000 was considered a major achievement and companies were presented with awards on stage at an event for best sellers.

[TheClash603]

How times have changed!  That's interesting that 100,000/200,000 sales were deemed a hit.  By that logic, that probably means a game with tens of thousands of copies sold did pretty good.

Today game success is measured in millions due to the crazy budgets of AAA games.  Sure it's different for independent companies and e-shop types of games, but the growth of game budgets for major studios is crazy.

I wonder how many copies the old bomberman games sold.  Bomberman R on switch has sold around 1 million copies and I believe is the most successful game in the series.

[SavagePencil]

Game prices also haven't increased much in 30 years, still hovering around the $50-$60 in the US.  At 100K units, that's $6 million bucks, of which a developer might walk away with a million, which should be enough to pay off debts from the current game and afford the start of the next game.  Those numbers haven't changed significantly, but salaries and team sizes sure have...

[CrackTiger]

GTA V is supposed to have a development budget of $265 and if marketing was comparable to big budget films, then it was likely a similar number on top of that.

I don't think that the R&D, first year manufactoring and marketing of any 8 or 16-bit consoles came close to just the dev cost of that one game.

[SavagePencil]

Right; Wing Commander III in '94 pushed barriers at $4 million, and budgets went exponential from there.  Game prices stayed the same.  Install base and dev team size required to meet the status quo kept growing, making it harder to take risks.

[Winniez]

Would be interesting to know about PCE sales figures game by game. But as I understood that data is not really available. I bet the later Hucard games sold in relative low numbers. From my very limited research I also got an impression that 100k - especially for later Hucards - was a smash hit.

I remember hearing that Magical Chase was the best selling Hucard at some point, probably in one specific month. Still strange that the Japanese version is so expensive, I get that the US release saw an extremely limited print run and the demand for the Japanese version comes from there. But there are so many Japan only games without any US release, many of which are likely more scarce than the Magical Chase.

Blazing Lazers is definitely more common than Gunhead, in Europe there were still new old stock few years ago. And also at this point its a fair assumption that the demand for PCE games in general is greater than for Turbo games. For Turbo the market is pretty much North America, for PCE its the whole world, including North America.

[Winniez]

One big difference is that back then the actual manufacturing cost of games was pretty high where as its mere pennies now. When you think about it the CD games were not that much cheaper when they first came out.

Atleast in Japan they used to price games based on the ROM-size and possible addition chips, basically how much it costs to manufacture the cart.

[esteban]

One big difference is that back then the actual manufacturing cost of games was pretty high where as its mere pennies now. When you think about it the CD games were not that much cheaper when they first came out.

Atleast in Japan they used to price games based on the ROM-size and possible addition chips, basically how much it costs to manufacture the cart.

Yes, and I think there is at least one example of NA using the ROM-size pricing:

Toys R Us had R-TYPE priced at something ridiculous $69.99 in 1990 dollars from the first time it appeared and for at least a year afterwards... I always thought it might be some weird

No, I don't really have any proof, beyond my anecdotal evidence, but I can't fathom why only R-type commanded this price... (I don't think it was the strength  of the "R-Type Brand" that could command this price).

For comparison, the other TG-16 games were priced at 39.99-49.99 range (in general). CD-ROM titles skewed higher ($50-60).

[NecroPhile]

One big difference is that back then the actual manufacturing cost of games was pretty high where as its mere pennies now. When you think about it the CD games were not that much cheaper when they first came out.

I've not seen much of anything historical on the cost to press games specifically, but you can find stuff on music CDs.  Assuming a disc is a disc and the price would be comparable, they were cheap: $4 each early on but down to just a buck in the early 90s.  No doubt that's in large quantities, though, so the per unit cost would've been much higher if they tried to spread the setup and mastering costs to 1000 units or less.

[Psycho Punch]

No way manufacturing costs were larger than $15 per disc in 1989 (and the $15 is a very conservative guess!), discs always were more cheaper than PCBs with ROMs and plastic in it. The price difference in early TGX16 CD games can probably be explained more by operational costs (expensive as hell devkits, having to hire someone to master audio tracks into a DAT tape for manufacturing, difficulties in debugging and programming, more resources spent on the game overall). Remember that even the first game for the PCECD was developed with a borrowed Hu7CD system (Alfa System went to Sapporo to develop Fighting Street as Hudson was the only one with the CD dev system for obvious reasons).

And even if it was very expensive early on, it probably dropped in price dramatically during the early 90's.