Gaming Pokemon Brought In Uk?

[jaxxster]

I swear this game isnt out untill July but i saw some kid at the bus stop today holding a brand new version of Pearl which wasnt even unwrapped. Maybe a local shop got it inmported.

 

[Wuschmaster]

so what?

import shop.

 

[Hadrian]

I've seen it in a few geek shops (shops with comic books, movie and sci-fi merchandise stuff), one in Southend (forget the name) had it for £69 which is a bit of a piss take.

asked the shop keeper about it and he claimed that it costs at least £15 per game to get it imported, twat its £20 at play-asia!

 

[muckers]

I've seen it in a few geek shops (shops with comic books, movie and sci-fi merchandise stuff), one in Southend (forget the name) had it for £69 which is a bit of a piss take.

asked the shop keeper about it and he claimed that it costs at least £15 per game to get it imported, twat its £20 at play-asia!

Yes, but Play-Asia does not ship Diamond and Pearl to the EU.

But £69 is a piss-take.

Usually import games like that are between £30 and £40 which is more reasonable for a UK importer.

Chances are that while just buying one is safe, when shops import 10 or 15 copies, they are flagged for a nice hefty bill on import duty, and shipping won't be cheap either.

Then they've got to make a reasonable profit...etc.

End of the day, it's cheaper to import single units of games yourself. Sometimes nicer to not have to bother with it all though, and just go to a shop and pick it up, deal with real people and be able to take it back easily if there's a problem, and pay a fiver or so for the privilege.

£70 is ridiculous though.

 

[Wuschmaster]

yesasia.com does

 

[Little]

Oddly enough even selling an import of a game before it's street date is considered a breach of contract. Companies can get massive fines etc if they break street dates.

 

[Hadrian]

I've seen it in a few geek shops (shops with comic books, movie and sci-fi merchandise stuff), one in Southend (forget the name) had it for £69 which is a bit of a piss take.

asked the shop keeper about it and he claimed that it costs at least £15 per game to get it imported, twat its £20 at play-asia!


Yes, but Play-Asia does not ship Diamond and Pearl to the EU.

Ah so you're right! I've had them send me US titles before so assumed they would. Either way many other import sites do it for less and I've known various stores to buy from them

 

[muckers]

I dunno why Play-Asia aren't shipping on this particular title...I mean it is JUST Diamond and Pearl US, no other titles.

That said, they are going to be stocking the EU English version of it, so maybe Nintendo did them a deal - don't ship the US titles to this list of countries and you can stock the EU version?

And that dude is crazy - like you say, you can easily get imports like this nice 'n' cheap, so there's no way he can justify £69. £40, maybe. But not knocking on £70, no way.

 

[Darkforce]

Ya it's a bit weird play-asia won't ship Pearl and Diamond to the EU considering they ship all other DS games and Nintendo products anywhere in the World...

Anywho you can get the game for £20.49 delivered from cdwow.co.uk, or £18.49 via this link.

 

[squirt1000]

No shop should be selling it in the UK as imports have not been passed by the BBFC so therefor are illegal to sell!

The BBFC are evil! I deal with them and the VSC (video standards council) on a daily basis

 

[Little]

You're right Squirt =D
The VSC makes us (game employees) watch that stupid video like every 2 months and fill in training and stuff. It's seriously crazy.

 

[legendofphil]

Play Asia wont' ship it because Nintendo said they would be closely monitoring the imports of such a big title into the EU. They decided to play it safe after the whole PSP affair. Its the same reason they don't sell PSP or PS3 games, systems, etc to the EU.

 

[muckers]

No shop should be selling it in the UK as imports have not been passed by the BBFC so therefor are illegal to sell!

The BBFC are evil! I deal with them and the VSC (video standards council) on a daily basis

But what about games that aren't BBFC rated? Rated by PEGI and (previously) ELSPA?

Or is it that games here don't necessarily have to be BBFC rated, just rated by a recognised body?

Not trying to be picky or catch you out here - genuine questions.

I know the BBFC rate some games, usually the more violent/adult ones like Gears of War and Resident Evil, but a majority aren't so...are they passed by the BBFC and then given to PEGI for rating if it's deemed unnecessary to stick a legally-binding age limit on it?

 

[Little]

That's pretty much spot on muckers =) All games need to be passed by the BBFC, if they don't give it a legal binding rating, then PEGI will rate it (well PEGI still rate everything).
The BBFC have really strange and weird requirements etc when it comes to games, which is how you end up with +16 PEGI rated games.
We had training on it at GAME, I didn't pay much attention... but it's because BBFC doesn't specifically cover interactive game content.

 

[squirt1000]

As above!

Little described it to a tee, I know a lot of smaller indies have been caught out by nintendo for selling imports of their products in the past and nintendo WILL stop them from having their products! They are quite anal on the subject of importing and thats just them without the potential legal issues. We had a customer trying to return a copy of New Super Mario Bros a couple of weeks ago which we refused as it had an american E rating on the box, Should couldnt understand the fact that it was never sold by Virgin retail in the UK in the beginning as it was a foreign game. Then she advised us that it was purchased from Virgin in New York and when she produced a valid receipt we had to exchange it!

 

[Harsky]

This doesn't surprise me. I went to a local store in London in China town and I saw Pokemon Silver/Gold when it was just released in America.... for £50. Then again, I remember there used to be an indie gaming store in the city I lived in but it was too high up it's ass and when PS2 was just released in Japan, he imported one and charged people 20p for people to play 5 minutes on it. Then again, it was the only place that went through the bother of getting Paper Mario for me for the N64.

 

[Tank5890]

That's pretty much spot on muckers =) All games need to be passed by the BBFC, if they don't give it a legal binding rating, then PEGI will rate it (well PEGI still rate everything).
The BBFC have really strange and weird requirements etc when it comes to games, which is how you end up with +16 PEGI rated games.

Wrong guys, the BBFC have nothing to do with this.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/faq/docs/7075.html
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/customer/cust_procDigi.php

Only games with certain content mentioned in those links *HAVE* to be submitted to the BBFC, although some games will be submitted because their BBFC rating would be better than their PEGI rating, or because parents are more familar with BBFC ratings. You're right about the "weird requirements" part, but that represents whether or not it has to be sent off to them, not whether or not THEY'LL give it a legally binding rating.