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Is Granblue Fantasy Versus the most imported game of all time?

BackwardCap

BackwardCap

One Winged Slayer
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Oct 28, 2017
2,472
In this day and age where region locks are almost non-existant and nearly every title has a simultaneous launch, the month(s) long gap between the new GranBlue Fantasy Versus release over seas coupled with translations already existing within said versions has had such a big effect that it caused several online retailers to sell out of their stock of foreign psn cards.

Being the first major fighting game release of the year from a fairly popular ip also plays an important factor. So i'm curious if these specific set of circumstances maybe catapulted it over the edge to being one of the first widely imported games.
 
Magneto

Magneto

Prophet of Truth
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,449
Of all time ? It's not even top 500.

This year ? Now you have a case...
 
Consequence

Consequence

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,973
No, you're just embedded in a community that likes the IP. While the hardcore are definitely the ones that import, way more people imported older JRPGs that had a longer lag before being released in the west. Think Final Fantasy or Pokémon would be the true answer here.
 
data west

data west

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,013
box-art-ch.jpg

That's not even counting the popularity of things like the Japanese console release of Street Fighter 2
 
Kalor

Kalor

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Oct 25, 2017
19,629
That's impossible to say when we don't even know how much it has sold with imported copies. But it should be nowhere close considering there's plenty of older games which had way longer release gaps.
 
Jaded Alyx

Jaded Alyx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,377
I don't think there's any real way of knowing.

Consequence said:
No, you're just embedded in a community that likes the IP. While the hardcore are definitely the ones that import, way more people imported older JRPGs that had a longer lag before being released in the west. Think Final Fantasy or Pokémon would be the true answer here.
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I don't think it's the IP. Genre, yes. Most of the people importing are fighting game players.

Regarding those RPGs though, did that many import games with so much text in another language? At least in the case of GBVS, it's fully in English.
 
Virtua Sanus

Virtua Sanus

Member
Nov 24, 2017
6,492
This year? Honestly it is possible, but in history? No chance. The game is launching everywhere else sooner than later. It is not like back in the day where people would import Nintendo 64 or Dreamcast a year before they released in the west.
 
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BackwardCap

BackwardCap

One Winged Slayer
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Oct 28, 2017
2,472
I will admit, i'm not as familiar with importing games in general as back in the day you had to worry about finding a distributor/seller, having the right hardware to play it on if region locked, and paying way more overall. Even then I'd only hear about obscure titles getting imported, so something as big as Granblue/Cygames seeing so much activity skews my perception a bit.
 
JJD

JJD

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,505
data west said:
box-art-ch.jpg

That's not even counting the popularity of things like the Japanese console release of Street Fighter 2
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Yup, if it wasn't for the hundreds of thousands of people (myself included lol) importing the HK version of Demon's Souls we would never had gotten the US version by Atlus, and the Dark Souls series probably wouldn't exist.

It was an amazing thing, I have great memories of the GAF thread...
 
MechaX

MechaX

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,044
This year, maybe.

Ever, I probably doubt it. Hell, I would say that Super Robot Wars actually having official translations for non OG games was probably a way bigger deal for importing in the last few years
 
Granadier

Granadier

Member
Nov 4, 2018
1,605
I love these threads.

"Is *insert obscure game* the *insert inaccurate claime* game of all time?"

Cue 10 pages of:

"No"
 
Com_Raven

Com_Raven

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Oct 27, 2017
1,103
Europa
Granadier said:
I love these threads.

"Is *insert obscure game* the *insert inaccurate claime* game of all time?"

Cue 10 pages of:

"No"
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This. Somehow Era has this weird obsession with making threads along the lines of "is X the most/ best Y ever?" And they are almost exclusively about From, Naughty Dog or something anime-related...
 
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BackwardCap

BackwardCap

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 28, 2017
2,472
Granadier said:
I love these threads.

"Is *insert obscure game* the *insert inaccurate claime* game of all time?"

Cue 10 pages of:

"No"
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To be frank, most of those threads ask questions answered with subjective interpretations. This question must be answered with raw data and serve as a good reference depository of information into said specific facet of the industry.
 
Zyrox

Zyrox

One Winged Slayer
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Oct 25, 2017
4,625
Y'know, once upon a time Pokémon games didn't have simultaneous worldwide releases. Bet those got imported a lot.
 
skillzilla81

skillzilla81

Self-requested temporary ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,043
BackwardCap said:
I will admit, i'm not as familiar with importing games in general as back in the day you had to worry about finding a distributor/seller, having the right hardware to play it on if region locked, and paying way more overall. Even then I'd only hear about obscure titles getting imported, so something as big as Granblue/Cygames seeing so much activity skews my perception a bit.
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Most gamers outside of Japan have no idea what Granblue even is. I only know because I care about fighting games.
 
Jaded Alyx

Jaded Alyx

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Oct 25, 2017
35,377
I admit I find it a little odd that buying games digitally from another region is considered importing.
 
bushmonkey

bushmonkey

Member
Oct 29, 2017
5,603
I can tell you that in the UK, American imports were massive back in the day when games would take a year or more to cross the pond due to trying to localise for European countries before releasing (if ever). this is especially true during the SNES, PSX N64, PS2 and Dreamcast era. Disclaimer: I was the manager of an import games shop in the UK during that time.
Biggest imports from that period that i remember:
- final fantasy 7
- resident evil 2
- pro evo football yearly japanese releases on PlayStation
- mario 64
- final fantasy tactics (never came out in Europe)
- Pokemon snap
- sonic adventure
- Pokemon yellow
- soul calibur
- powerstone
- house of the dead 2
- the bouncer
- tekken tag
- shenmue
- metal gear solid 2
Edit: oh and I forgot the early GameCube years were also big: resident evil, Luigis mansion, smash and mario sunshine were big imports too.

So no, it definitely isn't.
 
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BackwardCap

BackwardCap

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 28, 2017
2,472
bushmonkey said:
I can tell you that in the UK, American imports were massive back in the day when games would take a year or more to cross the pond due to trying to localise for European countries before releasing (if ever). this is especially true during the SNES, PSX N64, PS2 and Dreamcast era. Disclaimer: I was the manager of an import games shop in the UK during that time.
Biggest imports from that period that i remember:
- final fantasy 7
- resident evil 2
- pro evo football yearly japanese releases on PlayStation
- mario 64
- final fantasy tactics (never came out in Europe)
- Pokemon snap
- sonic adventure
- Pokemon yellow
- soul calibur
- powerstone
- house of the dead 2
- the bouncer
- tekken tag
- shenmue
- metal gear solid 2

So no, it definitely isn't.
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Thats true, I only really have the perspective from America. Not Europe or Canada who tend to get things last.
 
Cian

Cian

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Feb 17, 2018
578
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I don't know if Ouendan is the most imported ever, but it's notable that the existence of Elite Beat Agents and Ouendan 2 are entirely because of it's popularity as an import title.
 
Kaguya

Kaguya

Member
Jun 19, 2018
6,408
It probably is in the past few years. Most highly anticipated games either launch with a world wide release or doesn't have full English support when it doesn't, limiting those who can pick it up. With GBVS, official western release was about a month away, yet Asian stores version of the game fully support English language. It's probably no match to popular games from the dark ages when we weren't getting day and date English releases, but most big games now either have world wide releases or aren't as import friendly when they don't.
 

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Oct 25, 2017
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Com_Raven said:
This. Somehow Era has this weird obsession with making threads along the lines of "is X the most/ best Y ever?" And they are almost exclusively about From, Naughty Dog or something anime-related...
Click to expand...
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The sensationalism is draining to say the least. I'm just thankful we're past seeing a FF XIV Shadowbringers is the bestest ever thread every other hour
 
Seraphis Cain

Seraphis Cain

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Oct 25, 2017
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