Save your coin. Spend it on your imagination instead of a company… ;3
Thanks for the info! For some reason, I thought Amazon Japan wouldn’t accept foreign credit cards. That saves ~$60!
Why doesn’t amazon US call their japan branch and say “Screw it, you’re selling some of these on the US site.” It would really help out us US customers… Hori should be smart enough to know that US customers want their products too, and they are losing money not selling them directly to US customers, while businesses like Tenso are making a killer profit on us.
You guys are lucky these aren’t region locked like JP games. Then you’d be importing a console and matching games. : )
I believe an xbox can be modded to be region free via the reset mod, and wii’s can be region free’d with HBC, so it looks like only PS3 owners get screwed in that regard.
I’d totally buy a Diamond VLX if it was sold in the US, but they aren’t being sold here… so apparently Hori of Japan doesn’t respect my business as they find amazon.jp more important conctacted customer than the people who have bought and played on their controllers that had imported them just to show there was a market in the US. I sort of wanted a VLX, but I didn’t like the red. They make a blue VLX to replicate the diamond cab, and they won’t sell it here…
I’m not paying $500 for a retail stick, imported or not. The only reason I could even remotely justify $300 is because it would be a one shot deal with a ton of collectors value, nothing more.
@Yoshi i’m with ya on that. I am sure the market is not very strong here especially for a premium stick, but it does feel like a small slight considering the first run of VLX’s did seem to sell out eventually, it would be nice to see them do another run of them (even if it’s not the diamond). unfortunately i was MIA for a bit and late to the party by the time i had the free cash flow to nab one.
that said, they still do a pretty good job of bringing product state side.
Well, technically, it’s PS3 only at the moment, so we could see a US exclusive Xbox 360 version, right? I’d totally purchase one and I’d dual mod it with an IMP and MC Cthulhu(or a Kitty board, if the board is compatible). I mostly play on PS3, so while it would suck for me, I could make do having to pay an extra $50 or so to get it done right.I’m very surprised we won’t be seeing this stick stateside though, I just got a HRAP 2 a month or two ago, and now I really want this new VLX(and the HRAP 2 is my main stick at home, I might add, I only use my dual modded TE when I’m out).
PS3 can play any region games without any modding.
BUT Blurays of other regions won’t play.
This + fighting edge is going to kill me. oh well!
it being an exclusive really turned it off for me.
i already have one and getting it was a pita.
i can’t see myself spending ~600 for a stick these days.
maybe back in '09,'10…
shit amazon.jp only limits you to buy 1. Gonna have to call the girlfriend and tell her to start a amazon.jp account.
lmao yesssssss!.
I have a feeling Mad Catz is going to be selling quite a few more V.S. FightSticks because of this…!
Gee, for a $100 less, you can get two V.S. FightSticks plus the middle “joiner” element and STILL get a “joystick panel” that’s longer than a VLX.
At least the point won’t rub off like it does on the VLX’s…
IMO that’s probably not the case. They’re still both joysticks using the same sanwa parts but the main difference between the two is availability and aesthetics. Its like comparing apples to apples. Sure you can get yourself a red delicious or macintosh, but you can also get some apple from asia wrapped in anti-brusing foam for a lot more compared to the apples you can get locally. Some people want that imported apple while some people settle for the local variety.
Exclusivity is also another factor to consider. These things are definitely more exclusive than a VS and much harder to get.
My point is, you’re not going to see any more or less sales numbers for the VS just because the diamond VLX is released only for amazon.jp customers.
Actually I just made another account and bought another one with a different CC. Problem solved LOL…still gonna make her get an account though
@ GeorgeC
The difference it’s that VLX has a more solid build and it’s more like a Cab because it combine Metal/Plastic, opening from the top like a Boss and it has rubber bottom that’s very cool.It’s funny how Hori put so much quality into it and crap on the other Arcade Sticks lol. Hori Arcade Sticks Boxes also suck balls,It’s a oversized,ugly looking,not a sturdy box to pile up one in top of another. I love the TE boxes because it has all that great features plus a nice way of displaying it. Also The VLX and Sega HSS-0130 are the only ones that resemble a lot a Arcade Cabinet (Candy Cab). I wish MadCatz made something similar to the VLX. I already asked MarkMan but not response about it maybe that’s something that he cannot comment about it. The V.S has a Arcade Stick feeling then a Arcade Cabinet. Don’t get me wrong it’s a nice Arcade Stick but doesn’t fell the same as the VLX.
what are you even talikng about the VS stick is hella dope and is based off a japanese tekken cab.I like it better than the og vlx.
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The V.S It’s dope even the TE it’s based on a Candy Cab.but I don’t think that you understood what I was saying before. Opening from the top, solid Metal/Plastic,the length itself and other features that resemble more a Candy Cab then the V.S. I own both just like you do and I love both. That’s the option that I have tho.
I really want one of these, but it’s a small fortune. Maybe someday…
Hori USA needs to see the demand for this and sell them stateside.
Eh, who knows…
Japanese entertainment companies are mainly concerned with their domestic audience. Most view the international scene as secondary.
That’s why many things in Japan are so high-priced; they want to recover their original investment WITHIN Japan before they consider marketing outside the country. They’re looking at selling several thousand copies of things like joysticks and home video discs, not 100’s of thousands or millions like the US market does for American-produced goods. The average Japanese doesn’t have as much disposable income as an American.
Selling at a loss internationally is a more recent phenomenon for some Japanese companies; Nintendo won’t do that and very often delayed its systems in the past until the technology came down in price OR they switched to cheaper, lower-performance parts.
Sony’s been willing to sell game systems at a loss to increase their market share; that strategy can also backfire on you and nearly bankrupt a company if software sales aren’t high enough to offset hardware losses… Software sales are what generally sinks or floats the company if they use Sony’s sales strategy. Note that Nintendo has NEVER lost money on console hardware sales!!!
The Japanese videogame industry has come to realize how important the international audience is to their bottom-line. Whether they know how to sell or market to international audiences without independent licensing agencies ALL the time is still debatable, though… Most anime, for instance, has been sold through non-Japanese held companies that licensed it for specific territories. It’s been a disaster most of the time when the Japanese companies attempted to market anime internationally on their own because they didn’t understand the non-Japanese markets and often overpriced or poorly produced anime for those territories. If people think domestic companies can’t do proper subtitles they obviously haven’t sat through the subtitled videos produced by Japanese companies!
There are still many times when American branches of Japanese videogame companies won’t bring over a game because they think it’s too Japanese or peculiar for American tastes – and most times, they’re right… HOWEVER, there have been many instances in the past where they SHOULD have taken a chance and marketed some of the better games in the US market, too. Lack of faith or licensing problems has usually kept certain games out of the US market. Some of those games would have sold tens of thousands of companies minimum if marketed properly in the US. A few of the officially “never-released in the US” games (aka “grey market”) actually set import records in the mid-1990s as I remember…