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The story
It’s become a hot topic on 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (“Geha”) board that the Japanese price of the Xbox Series X has climbed to ¥117,980, with the Series S now at ¥82,480. Some posters recalled being able to buy one for around ¥50,000 at launch, and a stream of comments expressed shock at just how much prices have jumped. The thread also saw comparisons to the PS5, which can still be bought for around ¥55,000, complaints about consoles barely appearing on store shelves due to shortages, and a split of opinion over whether the Japanese release of GTA6 will even be subject to CERO (the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization) review.
What people said
Which means the other two companies were…
Japanese manufacturers streamline production so hard, their costs must've dropped a ton, right?
Never imagined it'd more than double.
Didn't think we'd see the day when buying on launch day was the smartest move.
You can still get a PS5 for ¥55,000 though lol
Isn't that the Japan-only limited edition?
But it's a PlayStation, right?
And it only runs the Japanese-region version.
Doesn't even have a disc drive, does it?
Plus it looks like they might be pulling out of the market, which is kind of scary.
That's probably why they're dumping it this cheap.
MS got cold feet and pushed Fable back, so it's nothing but Gears until next year lol
GTA's whole selling point is the violence and sexual content, so if all of that gets censored out, isn't it basically a different game at that point?
How do you know it's all being censored? There's zero info out on that yet.
GTA5 sold like crazy, so of course 6 will too.
Not selling mine though.
Stores are refusing to buy them back, and they're barely selling on Mercari (Japan's biggest resale app) either.
Xbox is pulling out of Japan for sure.
Just buy the import version then.
Censorship's actually gotten looser — even Resident Evil has an uncut gore version out now.
Moral objections have never stopped anything before.
What exactly is supposed to be getting stricter here?
You say Resident Evil has a gore version, but even that gore version is censored.
So you're saying there's a chance it won't even go through CERO (Japan's game ratings board)?
I'm saying it's speculation that CERO would censor it that heavily.
Are you trying to bring up Halloween as a comparison?
You're gonna put splatter horror and crime action in the same category?
I mean, they're just not stocking Xbox at all anymore.
Everyone's already given up on it.
Was the uncensored version of GTA5 worth paying an extra ¥60,000 for?
Even the overseas version could trigger Japan's censorship rules the moment you switch it to Japanese subtitles.
If there's no physical package release, it doesn't have to go through CERO.
So there's no censorship at all.
That's exactly why Gears E-Day isn't getting a physical release either.
it's meaningless unless we're all on the same page about what that censorship actually is first.
If you're gonna dodge even agreeing on that much, there's nothing left to discuss lol
I get that it's uncensored, but is it really worth going out of your way to buy an Xbox just for that?
We're talking about now — bringing up old news like that doesn't really mean much.
It's a limited edition, so isn't that just expected?
Wow, you've actually seen one in person.
I haven't seen it even once.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Xbox has a small market share in Japan and no domestic assembly or manufacturing base, so it functions essentially as an imported product. The weak yen and rising component costs are affecting game consoles across the board, but Xbox is in a position where price hikes tend to stand out the most. CERO (the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization), which came up repeatedly in the thread, is the body that reviews titles mainly when they’re sold as physical packages in domestic stores; download-only titles that skip physical packaging can sometimes be distributed without going through that review. The debate over whether the Japanese release of GTA6 will be uncensored stems from this difference in distribution formats, but as of this thread, Microsoft had made no official announcement, so it’s worth noting this remains purely speculation among posters.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, aka “Geha”) thread “Current Japan pricing: Xbox Series X at ¥117,980, Xbox Series S at ¥82,480 — the reality Geha keeps refusing to face”.
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