CLANNAD "HD" now on Steam

Thanks for clearing that up, :)

I'm quite familiar with the strategy genre :P
Those games are in the minority, as are any games with extreme prices. That was the point being made.

Visual novels are hardly niche, namely since [japanese-made ones] are made for a Japanese audience, where they're massively popular. You cannot attribute expense to translated versions outside of the primary intended market, since that was never a consideration in the profit-expense calculations for the original release of the game.

And again, yes, we're all pretty well aware of how capitalism works. The point was respectability.
You could offer anything at an extreme price, there's never anything stopping you, the only factors preventing it are a potentially lower profit, and negative consumer reaction.

I'm stating that this is well in the realm of negative consumer reaction.

Well, the game's last retail price in Japan was apparently $40 USD, so it's only a minor price hike up compared to that, but then, when do old games increase in retail price over time? :P

It's not a matter of discussing company justification, but of clarifying why some people aren't too fond of the price- that's the topic here.

You wouldn't pay so much for COD, I'd never pay so much for a visual novel. See?

The thing is that AAA games have to put a lot more money into development than indie or visual novels. Do you have any idea how much it costs to create the high quality graphics, cinematics, gameplay mechanics, map designs and all that in a COD game? Taste aside, look at this from technical point of view. Not to mention AAA games advertise heavy which takes in another millions of dollars. Plus paying to all those people doing their jobs, then there's the publisher which also has to be paid, there are translators and so on. Indie games just take a lot, and I mean, a lot less money to make their games (mostly, there are exceptions but majority doesn't take a lot of money to make, especially remastering an old series of visual novels lol, price for this one is really a joke. I can understand some VN for 20$ even, like some of the new ones but 40$ for remastering of some old indie stuff already made? That's a joke imho.).

I can't read any of it but I see things ranging from 5800 yen to 7500 yen.

The memorial edition, which is the last release and is identical to the current one other than translation and resolution, sold for 4,300Y for the download-only version (aprox. $35 USD).

That was what I was referencing, not the retail box version (nevermind the price you're referencing is from 2009).

I'm not basing my analysis off of deteriorated valuation [ie 'time has passed, so retail value should be lower'] but that the comparable retail value doesn't seem to line up.
(4,300 for download-only, 4,800 for PS VITA, 5,600 for retail box in 2009, according to the data I've found.)

As far as what you linked, those were the prices for the earlier editions of the game, which yes, were close to as much as $70 in price- thus supporting my comment that the price has dropped over time, and it's weird we got a price bump.

Well, perhaps they're viewing 'new market' as 'new release', and trying to get as high a retail as possible.

But your argument of 'weird to westerners' is flawed, since that's the target market.
That's like arguing a product targeted toward women but presented as though it were for men, isn't missing the target audience.
Is that necessarily bad? No. May work out well for the company.

Again, my only point in the above post was that your analogy was flawed, since you were comparing a new, revamped game, to a simple translation patch of a 2004 game- and thus your analogy couldn't support the point you were presenting at that time.

And as far as the rest of my post, no, it's stlll iffy conduct.
I wasn't being ethnocentric with my analysis, comparing it to western or eastern business practices.
I meant, anytime you charge the same price for a non-limited-quantity product (especially digital products, which cost nothing to manufacture and have no limits to how many can be made through eternity) you had better make sure the material matches up to the current time-frame.

Instead, we've got a game that hasn't been improved for over a decade, nor even has the full resolution support it implied as being promised, at a higher price than any copies released within the past 5 years.

Whether it's socially acceptable or not, I don't care.
I don't find doing a half-assed job and asking for additional money for it appropriate under ANY circumstance.

It's not about business practices, it's about respectable conduct- which actually IS part of Japanese culture, no matter how capitalistic their business practices are.

Again, my issue is the complete lack of effort they put in- as I stated in other comments, at least according to the information we've thus far been given.

As far as their previous versions- initial release, full voiced release, and 10-year memorial edition (which I believe added artwork, soundtrack, and nifty retail box features- y'know, the usual).
They've been getting cheaper, but offering more features, as you'd expect.

Keep in mind that fan translations have existed since the game first game out- and that you can even now still order a retail box copy of the memorial edition from Japan, with shipping and all included, for around $50 USD.. Perhaps for less, I didn't look too hard.

I'm just not sure yet what they're bringing to the table to make the price hike rational from any perspective other than a desire for more money.

Which, right or wrong of that motivation aside, leads me to the point of 'why should I, or anyone but the most die-hard fan, care about buying it any time soon'?

In fact, the less sales it gets, the faster it'll drop in value.
By how much? Who knows.

I wasn't trying to make any giant 'fuck this company' assertions, just acknowledge that it's based in a yay-money perspective more than a respect-for-the-customers viewpoint.
Which is just, a thing to note. Doesn't have to mean anything past that.