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'Q' Plays US GameCube Games
Bodero writes: "Lik-Sang is reporting that Panasonic's 'Q', the Japan-only GameCube/DVD Hybrid, can be modded to play US GameCube games much in the same way that the Japanese GameCube can be. This does not, however, allow it to play region one DVDs as of yet, but keep your eyes out. It's a shame Panasonic chose not to release it to North American store shelves, but the import will soon work just as well."
The reason is simple, marketing. Advertising and promoting a product costs alot. If products were released in NA and Japan at the same time, that would mean twice the marketing budget for a product that hasn't proven itself yet. By doing a release in Japan first, they can do to things: 1) They make sure the product is cost feasable enough to market in the US, and 2) They can use the revenues coming in off of the Japanese sales to drive the US marketing effort, which is guarenteed to be much more expensive.
Another reason alot of stuff isn't released in the US is because marketing studies (and common logic) dictate alot of stuff thats succesfull in the techno-gadget culture of Japan isn't as successfull this side of the Pacific. Don't forget, the /. , gadget buying crowd is in a vast majority over here, but not so over there. Everyone and their dog has a cell-phone-PDA-GPS-wearable-pc-doohicky!
Why do companies play these games?
Easy - to test markets. Internationalizing a product, even if it is only translation of manuals and text is surprisingly expensive. That doesn't even begin to consider research into cultural differences - know what "nova" in Spanish means? It didn't do Chevrolet any good using that name in South America. Or there's the Coca Cola name in China.
The rest of the world (and you probably mean the USA) is a huge market but what works in Europe or Japan isn't necessarily going to work here, just look at the huge market for video-capable cell phones in Japan and compare the screens we live with. If it is a huge success then you can be sure we'll get the product, when it looks like US sales will show a profit.