Forum - View topicAniplex's Pricing Point: Can it be justified?
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4099 |
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How could you say the analysis of AoA's pricing policy absurd and humorous and not the policy itself? What confuses me about AoA's premium market policy isn't the sub only Garden of Sinners movie series {I'd love to watch it myself but I wouldn't want to buy it anyway} but the subbed/dubbed, shown on television Durarara!! Now on sale ... at more than a hundred dollars ... for three sets ... of a twenty six episode series. So they aimed for the standard market at the premium market price in an already discarded release style? I know they were tying to match Funimation's 4 volume Baccano! release but shouldn't they have noticed how quickly Funimation switched over to the full set {Done in the same year, apparently}? And then there's Madoka. Twelve dubbed episodes over three seperate DVDs/BDs releases. On sale. Been on sale. Will always be on sale. Buy it already, what are you waiting for, a collected set? Limited edition, with extras at a premium price. Like Durarara!!. Or Baccano! And the only reason their standard Baccano! BD set is "cheap" {sold at specialty online retailers at prespecified prices, naturally} is not because the show's old but because the market is over-saturated with Funimation's Baccano! DVDs. I'd love to see how a standard set of one of their own releases will look. Funimation has SAVE {Super Amazing Value Edition}, Aniplex will counter with Aniplex's Anime Specialty Sets! Look, AoA, I just want the show in a compact format and you can't get more compact than data on a hardrive. Baccano!!? Two BDs, two. 2. Drei. Nii. Deux. Look, I'll help you, count my middle fingers. See? 1, 2. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23862 |
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Well, they don't call economics "the dismal science" for nuthin'. I think all of us here understand we are just ordinary dudes and dudettes shooting the shit. Because we do not have access to AoA's books (and my God I'd love to see them), all of our musings are, of course, incredibly speculative. I don't see anything wrong with that. As long as we understand (which I believe most of us do), that none of our theories are provable, let's make our arguments, back them up in whatever way we can and go from there. |
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Jon182
Posts: 105 |
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@animegomaniac
Yes, I do consider Aniplexes’ pricing to be absurd, but it's clear from the interviews they’ve given that they’re not going to change. What I find funny is that they seem to think they’re doing a public service, bringing "premium" products to the fans. I actually agree with Blood, while I would hate to see another distributor leave the North American market, at these prices I can’t help but wish them godspeed on their way out. It’s not a question of money,for me I could afford to buy all their releases without putting a strain on my bank account, it’s a question of opportunity costs. I mean I could spend that $800 on better things than a complete set of Fate Zero. It just makes me want to laugh, or cry when you start talking about thousands of dollars to own a handful of titles, especially in today’s economy where many people are lucky just to have a job. |
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Polycell
 Posts: 4623 |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Sounds like Apple. But at least you can say with Aniplex that they at least have different content that they're offering instead of Apple merely taking the same Chinese parts you could find in a $50 media player and charging people hundreds of dollars for it. |
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Jon182
Posts: 105 |
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@Polycell
You may indeed be correct when you critique my view of economics. I just find it humourous that economists tend to ignore what doesn’t agree with their theories, achieving "pseudoscientific accuracy" I believe you said. It reminds me of how tobacco companies used to "massage" numbers and statistics to claim that cigarettes were not harmful. As everyone knows, statistics and numbers can be misleading and are often incomprehensible to the average person(myself included). Which is why everyone nods sagely when they talk about the Dow jones for example, but really have no idea what is involved. In the end, some big shot economics guru like Alan Greenspan has to explain everything...but he’s often just spouting his own theories, and is more often than not wrong. That’s why I view economics as a pseudocience...but it’s better than the alternative. |
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PrecisionCrab
Posts: 215 |
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Considering Apple has millions upon millions of people buying every new thing they release, and their crap is always topping tech charts, they've gotta be doing something right - not just regurgitating old tech. And considering how cynical today's tech world is, they can't all be "iSheep" either. And of course, every school I've ever been to, since 1st grade, they've embraced Macs wholly. So the education sector apparently loves them to death as well. If it's nothing but regurgitated tech, would that really be the case? From my experience, schools tend to be real penny pinchers as far as stretching budgets. I'm not an Apple fanboy by any stretch of the mile (...well, considering I just bought an iPad...I might be on my way to being one, but not at the moment  ), but I do love my iMac. I don't know anything really about tech specs, or what the ideal performance of a machine should be. But in the three years I've had my iMac, it doesn't so much as even freeze on me. Like I said, I'm not a tech savvy guru, but to me at least, that's a testament of quality I hadn't really experienced before.
And that's much more than what could be said of Aniplex's shitty quality products. |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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How many millions of people spend 10 or even 20 times the normal cost of a shirt just because it has a logo or a few words of a brand that is 'in'? Apple relies on those same people to buy overpriced tech stuff. And it works remarkably well.
You can find similar Android tablets for 1/3 the price of an iPad easily, much less if you buy the 'knock-offs' (that have the exact same parts but different firmware) from Chinese wholesalers. But those who care about image and being 'hip' will continue to buy from Apple. And as someone whose job is partially hauling around Dell Optiplex towers in one of the largest school districts in Texas, I can assure you that Apple products may be the norm in your area, but it is definitely not universal for education. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23862 |
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@ Megiddo - glad to hear you have a job now. Sorry if I have you confused with someone else, but I think I remember you were looking for work a while back.
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SpacemanHardy
Posts: 2509 |
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The truth of the matter is, I wouldn't mind Aniplex's prices so much, if I felt that the product they were giving me was truly worth the high cost.
As you no doubt have realized by now from my previous posts on the subject in other topics, I am by no means a fan of postcards. Actually, I take that back. I don't mind postcards when they're packaged in as a FREE gift. That's not what Aniplex is doing, though. They're charging you full price for the postcards, and hyping them up as if they're some "exclusive special feature" that no collector would or could possibly live without. At the same time, they're actually stripping out any and all special features that the Japanese release got, leaving nothing but textless openings/endings and the occasional music video. I truly believe the only reason why they included the commentaries for Bakemonogatari was because the fans would've thrown an absolute hissyfit if they hadn't. And I also believe they're using those commentaries as an excuse as to why their charging so gosh-darn much for the show. When it all comes down to it, when you get past the fancy boxes, wafer-thin art booklets, and POSTCARDS, Aniplex's releases are actually pretty barebones. If they included more actual content and less frilly shwag, then I wouldn't mind paying more. To me, it just seems like the 5 guys who make up AoA aren't willing to put a lot of effort into their releases. Hell, they don't even give us full English credits. For how much they're asking us to pay, you'd think they'd pull out every stop in order to give us the true "premium" experience. As it is now, they're selling us 99¢ cookies in $20 wrappers. They're charging us for filet mignon, and giving us hamburger. And please don't counter with the "this show is better, therefore it must cost more" argument. What is and is not "better" is purely subjective and open to debate. Statistically speaking, Steins;Gate is rated higher than Madoka is, and yet you can buy all 24 episodes of S;G's deluxe release, in a bluray/DVD combo pack, with a nice looking box and bonus features, for less than Madoka's stripped down, barebones DVD-only release. Now tell me: does that really make sense? If every company adopted Aniplex of America's approach, it would cost us $100 to own a barebones DVD release of The Avengers. But hey, at least it would come with postcards. 
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PrecisionCrab
Posts: 215 |
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No, it's not. But even you can't deny that it's not catching on to more and more places. Practically half of all high schools across the country are making use of iPads. And not Android tablets. Something tells me the education system isn't terribly interested in "being hip." And considering how much shit it's getting recently, I doubt they're doing it for the explicit purpose of looking cool. There's also Europe as well. Virtually every private school in the UK has replaced textbooks with iPads. And, as a side note from an external observer, you know what I find most hilarious? The people giving Apple shit these days are the very same ones who who slept with their Macbooks under the pillows five years ago, under a pretense of "it's hip." It's got nothing to do with being "hip." In fact, it's the opposite - it's the "hip" thing to give anyone shit who has an apple logo on their car's rear bumper. That's who's most vocal these days - the black rims and plaid shirts.
So whenever I hear somebody use the word "hipster" in that context, my mind only registers it as "hypocrite."  You're only fooling yourself if you really think it's the hipsters and neo-skas who fawn over Apple these days. It's the godamn radial opposite. Like I said, I'm no Apple fanboy. But if it's to further avoid association with loud jackasses like those, I wouldn't mind becoming one. If not in product volume, then in name only at least.
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superdry
 Posts: 1309 |
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Sometimes US releases don't get extras (I'm speaking in general here) are due to licensing issues. Some of the extras you might need to negotiate the rights with someone else on the production committee.
Yes, because fans who aren't fluent in Japanese have been waiting for THREE [expletive] YEARS to be able to watch the commentary tracks and understand it. The scripts are written by the author of the light novels which makes it quite special (more awesome Nisio dialogue/writing). If you say "whoop-dee-do," well, then you don't care and that's fine, but there are a lot of people out there who do care and are excited to listen to the scripted commentary tracks for the first time. So, kudos on Aniplex USA to be able to get it on their R1 release as that's a huge extra to get for the series. Also, the JP boxset only has the commentary tracks as the major extra. |
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Polycell
Posts: 4623 |
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That said, I do find it interesting that you claim pointing out Apple's flaws makes one a hater, just like pointing out the flaws in your anti-AoA rants makes one a fanboy. Hmmm...... |
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PrecisionCrab
Posts: 215 |
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Quote me where I have made that claim. Please. By all means. Don't worry, I didn't edit or delete any of my posts. I specifically referred to "hipster culture." Haters are people who don't know when to shut the f*ck up and cease the negativity. People pointing out flaws are just that, people pointing out flaws. I do that all the time, from Aniplex or Apple. A person becomes a fanboy when they start refuting those pointed-out-flaws with extremely questionable logic. The opposite of the hater, basically: They don't know when to shut the f*ck up and cease the positivity. |
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luffypirate
 Posts: 3187 |
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This is a tough one Dess. I could give you a bunch of pros and cons about their stuff but in the end it would just be a subjective pile of meh. All I can say is lay out the facts and see what you think about it. If you "feel" its right go for it. If the value isn't there then don't. A lot of people here and on other social pages say they don't support the Aniplex model, but then I see them post a purchase from them. Don't buy if you don't support. They are not accomplishing anything by doing that.
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