Importing Xbox 360 for SHMUPS

[LoneCynic]

Well, I have decided to pursue this course. I want to play Raiden Fighters Aces pretty badly, as well as the other shooters that are available on 360 only in the land of the rising sun. I researched it some first and found that memory cards and hard drives will supposedly work on 360 consoles from any region. Because of this, I am considering ordering the Arcade Console and attaching the spare 20GB HDD I have on hand. With this setup, plus my USA Pro Console with a 120GB HDD that I upgraded it to, I should be able to just keep my profile on the memory card that comes ith the Arcade and swap it between the two 360's depending on what game I want to play. What do you all think? Sound like the best option, or are there any other factors or information I ought to be aware of before pursuing this purchase?

If I do go through with this, I am planning to purchase Raiden Fighters Aces for certain, and possibly Shiro no Shikigami III as my first two import games. I might also pre-order Raiden IV and Otomedius G at the same time. Sound like a solid start? The Raiden games are definate buys if I get the Japan 360, not as solid on buying the other two though. Think those two are worth the prices on Play-Asia?

Last but not least, are any of you planning on doing something similar?

[Doctor Fugue]

Congratulations, I am envious.

That is pretty much what I plan to do with the hard drives and memory card situation. Arcade is definitely the way to go. Play-Asia is one of the few sites that actually mentions it is the newer HDMI version you are getting. That is great. Most sites don't say, and in fact are probably the older version with the worse disc drives and overheating problems.

Also, just in case you missed it, ZenLogikos mentioned that the Japanese 360 consoles are getting significantly reduced in price on September 11. Now, I don't know if that will affect Play-Asia's prices immediately. They are currently showing a price of about 330USD, but the actual suggested retail price right now is 27800 yen (about 257USD), so Play-Asia is making a bit of money on this (as well they should I suppose). The new retail price for the Arcade version is supposed to be 19800, which is quite a drop.

[LoneCynic]

I was also thinking that since most USA games are not region locked, you could almost just buy a Japanese Xbox 360 and be better off overall. How many Xbox 360 games in the USA have region lockout, if any? About the only downside I see would be the inability to play USA Xbox Original games on the Japanese console. Won't affect my situation, but it is something to think about fo those who do not have a 360 yet.

By the way, does anyone have any coupon codes for Play-Asia handy? If anyone has a spare one they could PM me, I would glady return the favor when I get my order and receive a more up to date code.

[ZenLogikos]

I'm right on the cusp of doing this as well. I hadn't heard or thought about that 'US games region lockout' issue you mention. Does anyone know if that's true?

P.S. As you misspelled SHMUPS in the subject header, I came into the topic not knowing whether it was accidental or if you were trying to say that "Importing Xbox 360s is for CHUMPS!"

[LoneCynic]

I fixed it, merely a typo, nice catch. Hopefully someone has a spare coupon code I can use to save a few bucks, then I'll go ahead and order this thing. I am highly excited to play Raiden Fighters Aces.

[Doctor Fugue]

Here is a list that describes the lockout for most games on the 360:

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-00-3-xbox ... 49-en.html


If someone only has a JP 360, will they be able to download American XBLA games or demos for US retail games? Did Microsoft stop allowing people to name a different location on a silver account to get demos from a different region? I can't remember. Because then you could have a silver American account on your JP console and download the demos (I love demos...I haven't rented a game in over a year).

[ZenLogikos]

Dammit, that list is too hit or miss to be worthwhile, imo.

[Doctor Fugue]

Do you mean all the question marks? I guess there are a lot of cases that need to be filled in yet, but I haven't seen a more complete list. It's fairly easy to find out elsewhere if you are just looking for one game, but I found it quite useful when merely browsing for strange Asian releases that might be region-free.

[ZenLogikos]

Oh no, you misunderstand me. The list itself is fine. The info it's giving me tells me that whether a specific US game is going to be compatible with a JP 360 is totally hit or miss. No way to tell, so no way I can rely on buying a JP 360 and being able to play future US titles with confidence. I was hoping to come away from the list with the confidence that most titles would work. That doesn't appear to be the case.

[Doctor Fugue]

Ah, I see. Yes. It's a total mysterious mess.

Previously, most US titles were region-free. But several recent big games like Too Human and GTAIV are not (even though the JP version of Too Human IS region-free). Not that I want to play those games, but we can't count on most US games being region-free anymore.