The icing on the cake...

[ennui]

If you think that import items, particularly software, should always be the same price abroad as back at home, then you probably have no idea how localization works. The cost of translation and recoding is pretty hefty. Sure, there may not be any shipping costs, but the costs involved can be expensive.

That being said, I recently bought a tablet from a mysterious company called... Orange? Mango? From both America and Japan at separate times, a few months apart, and the price difference was negligible. Or at least when I looked into it, I didn't balk at paying the difference.

GW is a bunch of filthy pigs. I say we retheme the board to a more general wargaming theme.

[Mike the Pike]

Itunes. It's around 100yen a song on the US store. It's 150yen for the same song on the J.store. They also don't allow access to the wider variety of music on foreign itunes sites either. So I can't download NZ tunes even if I am willing to pay for them.

Surely, you must admit Apple are a company that could teach GW a thing or two about shafting its customers. GW are just dumb. Apple are big league pricks.

[Primarch]

Wait! What?
People pay to download music? Tsk, kids these days. You'll be telling me that you pay to download movies next.

[ennui]

Itunes. It's around 100yen a song on the US store. It's 150yen for the same song on the J.store. They also don't allow access to the wider variety of music on foreign itunes sites either. So I can't download NZ tunes even if I am willing to pay for them.

Surely, you must admit Apple are a company that could teach GW a thing or two about shafting its customers. GW are just dumb. Apple are big league pricks.

Not that I particularly want to defend Apple, but have you ever bought a CD in Japan? You'll easily pay 200% the price of the exact same CD in America. I have a feeling its more of a problem with licensing than Apple wringing its hands and cackling maniacally.

[Spevna]

Itunes. It's around 100yen a song on the US store. It's 150yen for the same song on the J.store. They also don't allow access to the wider variety of music on foreign itunes sites either. So I can't download NZ tunes even if I am willing to pay for them.

Surely, you must admit Apple are a company that could teach GW a thing or two about shafting its customers. GW are just dumb. Apple are big league pricks.

My dad bought a MacBook when he was last here. Even with the pound being uber-weak against the yen, it was still considerably cheaper to buy it here than back home. I reckon Ennui might be right on this one and that it is probably an issue that is out of their hands.

And no, GW are not dumb.Dumb suggests that what they do is out of a lack of intelligence and not, as is the case, intent. They are intentionally gauging overseas customers as much as possible.

And as for Apple, I don't care. Apple isn't a company I have a long standing relationship with, or an emotional attachment too. Apple is not a company that had an influence on me in my more formative years. I have a four computers all from different companies, all running different OS [WebOS, Ubuntu,Windows XP, OSX]. Apple's product is far and away the best of the bunch. And while it was more expensive, it wasn't shockingly so.

[Mike the Pike]

^Apologists.

When GW, a small company in the grand scheme of things, screw the pooch and/or reasonably raise prices in the face of rapidly increasing material costs everyone immediately start frothing at the mouth and taking up all kind of contortionist-like stances.

Apple do the same kind of things on a much wider scale as well as other more nefarious practices and folks can't wait to make excuses. Then there are all the other morally bankrupt corporations that made the various appliances etc that surround you.

As for itunes, I pay to download music because a percentage of the profits from single/album sales go directly to the bands/artists that I like. On a tangent, IMHO illegally downloading music is a pretty shit thing to do if you are a real music fan. Anyways, back to itunes, I can't imagine licensing etc on foreign artists would make up 50 yen per song. Then there is the similar 'embargo' on downloading from other countries' itunes sites. WTF is with that?

@Spevna: I'm sure Mayfair, Fiesta, and Knave, which surely had a greater effect on your formative years than GW, are all beyond reproach when it comes to business practices

[Spevna]

^Apologists.

: I'm sure Mayfair, Fiesta, and Knave, which surely had a greater effect on your formative years than GW, are all beyond reproach when it comes to business practices

Ah, the old stalwarts of adolescent life in Britain. No matter where you go, you're guaranteed to find at least one coly , in tatters, in the bushes in the park.

Nobody has said Apple aren't evil gits. But this is a gaming site. People aren't really going to rant about non gaming related companies much here. And good job on completing ignoring the whole issue of emotional attachment. I'm sure I'm not the only one it applies to on here.

And as for the apologist comment. Pot, kettle, black. I'm sure you know the rest

[Mike the Pike]

I have publicly stated elsewhere that I am an unapologetic GW fanboy and apologist. Nothing new there
3 ==>( )*( )GW

I humbly apologize for blatantly ignoring your emotional attachment to old GW/Citadel/Marauder etc but surely it is the the fun you had with mates whilst playing the games rather than the inanimate lead-filled objects that provokes all those 'special' feelings.

By the way, did you cry when Take That broke up too?

[Spevna]

I have publicly stated elsewhere that I am an unapologetic GW fanboy and apologist. Nothing new there
3 ==>( )*( )GW

I humbly apologize for blatantly ignoring your emotional attachment to old GW/Citadel/Marauder etc but surely it is the the fun you had with mates whilst playing the games rather than the inanimate lead-filled objects that provokes all those 'special' feelings.

By the way, did you cry when Take That broke up too?

Does softly whimpering while rocking back and forth in a foetal position count as crying?

[ennui]

To risk going back to comparing Apples and Warhammers, I'd like to point out that while Apple may have a history of mistreating its workers, etc. (basically all the other shitty stuff that most large corporations are guilty of, and no, I'm not saying its ok or that I'm condoning it because I use their products), GW mistreats their CUSTOMERS. As far as I know, Apple doesn't go out of their way to f*** over their fans.