Brought to you by Limited Run Games. It launches on March 26th and will be limited to 3,500 units for $129.99. There are also bringing over the accessories. https://twitter.com/LimitedRunGames/status/1374044180088029190 https://limitedrungames.com/collections/neo-frontpage/products/astro-city-mini
It doesn't seem like I should care if I already have the Japanese version. Looks like only difference is English packaging?
Yeah, I'm willing to bet what's happened is that they've just ordered 3,500 Japanese units, taken the exterior box off, thrown it away, and repacked the units in an English language one. The things are immediately on-deck to sell, the games on the JP unit are largely English-language already with a full English menu option, and LRG can take months to just press discs/carts - this is an embedded system, something much more complicated to make, and is ready to go straight away. It's cheaper to just get them off Amazon Japan, yours for ¥9900 right now. EDIT: In fact, straight off LRG's Twitter: https://twitter.com/LimitedRunGames/status/1374421346076160002
It would be a pointless exercise to use US ROMs here. There's no official translation of Puyo Puyo Tsuu for example, so unless they were planning to make one, you're always going to have parts of your library that won't be understood by non-Japanese speakers. And it's not like the Mega Drive where you could swap out one game for another - there are no "Western-exclusive" titles. The other thing is that Sega's US releases usually had the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" campaign built into their attract modes. I genuinely don't know if they'd have clearance to re-release games with FBI logos and William S. Sessions' name. Especially since not only is he not the director of the FBI anymore... he's dead.
https://twitter.com/knifesuisse/status/1374437328890957829 Now there's talk of a European distribution. I assume it'll be the same sort of deal that LRG's done with a swapped exterior cardboard box.
The extremely limited 150 Style Kits do not have English packaging. Unbelievable... EDIT: The controller packaging is also the Japanese packaging... how very deceptive LRG.
Since having been "Production Status: In-Hand" and stating "This item is in-hand and will ship shortly after the sale." since they were listed, they sure are taking a while to ship...
Not making a new topic for this: Sega are set to release a special Chinese edition, which has red buttons. Also a gold one because... reasons. I have a question: why? Is there a special significance to red buttons in the Chinese market? The original Astro City and other multi-purpose cabinets (if not arcade games as a whole) is still very much a specialist area because of the high price of entry - was it ever officially brought to China in the 1990s, or is it just more special editions of things to add to the pile?
Well, as someone who never bought the first one, I'm tempted by the fancy gold edition, might get it.
Outside of the initial tweet (https://mobile.twitter.com/ASTROCITYmini/status/1385479964112211969), there is no information about this.
Not quite true I don't know what the "local e-commerce site" means but I don't think it's going to be easy to get one out of China.
Apparently LRG may not have been the original distributor of the unit? This is purely my own speculation based on this reddit post. You can clearly see that the LRG information is just a sticker. If LRG had the exclusive rights to the outside cardboard, why isn't this information printed on the cardboard? It makes NO sense! EDIT: Apparently LRG assumes Sega shipped them like this so they could use the same packaging in Europe as well.
