It might very well be that the Japanese GPD is lower per capita than the Dutch one (needed to pick up my jaw because of that, by the way ), but I guess the mentality, the *ethics* are the problem here. If a Dutch(wo)man can get something for significantly less or even for free by applying a little effort, he will do so. That he's damaging something is unimportant, the prodcuer is stupid enough to have a flawed protection, isn't it?
Because of these typically Dutch sentiments, Dutch don't quite see that a good product *deserves* a certain price, much unlike the Americans.

I am afraid that this mentality is ingrained in the Dutch 'merchant soul', which allowed the country to flourish in the past 6 or 7 centuries...

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Japanese GPD

Golden Power Disc? The Japanese got this disease as well?!

Software piracy is everywhere. It's there in Europe, it's there in the United States and it's there in Japan. Like stated earlier, software piracy has not been a reason for stopping the development and distribution of new games. Most software developers hate it, but piracy is part of the game.

But I'm sure one could write an extensive thesis about the social scientific side of piracy - reasons why people copy and why others don't. I guess Snout's right though, computer games have always been expensive in The Netherlands. In Japan, prices get lower if a game grows older and there are many, many second hand stores around where you can buy an even cheaper copy. There are only little stores in The Netherlands who offer such a comprehensive collection of games.

Japan doesn't have a lot of piracy, but their game sales are suffering a lot from one major difference:

Americans/Europeans like to own things. Japanese don't care much about things they used and don't need anymore. It's a nation mentality. May be small and very expensive real estate is a part of the reason for this behaviour. Plus the lack of recognition of collector's value of older items. If you own and play old game, it means you are poor and just can't afford a newer game for a newer system.

This relates most of all to books, videos and videogames. A person buys a used game, plays all night, finishes and sells it back to used videogame store. Another person buys it the next day and goes through the same routine. The problem is so bad for Japanese game companies, they even tried to lobby a law that makes it illigal to resale used games, but didn't succeded.

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In Japan, prices get lower if a game grows older and there are many, many second hand stores around where you can buy an even cheaper copy. There are only little stores in The Netherlands who offer such a comprehensive collection of games.

Seems that the Sunrise software follows the Japanese tradition if it concerns dropping the price if a game gets older ..

*Cough*Moonlight Saga*cough*

True , but that is tus an execption of Japanese software that didnot dropped.
That is related to what the makerhas decided and not Sunrise

AND MLS is not old in Europe

.. getting back to the amount of money the Japanese have compared to the Dutch... we're looking at the wrong thing here. First of all we are not looking at the -current- situation, but at how the situation was between the 80s and 90s. At the time the Japanese economy was florishing extremely and if I'm not mistaken the Japanese were earning more money than Europeans were. The second thing we should take into account is how much money Japanese and Europeans spend on things like housing, electricity, gas, water and groceries.... in essence: how much 'extra money' did the Japanese have to spend a month compared to Europeans? Anyone who's got any data on that one? (Rikusu? Bernard?)

Well, I hear the rent is real cheap in Tokyo!

About the GPD of Japan, I might add that when MSX was still flourishing in Japan, the GPD was much, much higher. Economists call it the economical 'bubble', which led to a crash somewhere in the beginning of the nineties. Since then, Japanese say it's 'fukeiki', or 'recession'. From the beginning of the nineties on, the GPD per capital has become quite lower. The situation may have been different when MSX software was still newly sold.

And right before the crash, the money was 'on the streets' so to say. That's when large-scale projects like Huis ten Bosch were set up, which were in quite some trouble after the crash. Many other things were done in that time, but that has little to do with buying second hand games and piracy

You see, everywhere where MSX appears, the environment will flourish. Everywhere where MSX disappears, the environment will decay

Moral of the story: let's get MSX commercial again (way to go, Y2K5! )

People, it's GDP, not GPD.

You sure? There are many Golden Power Disks in Japan, you know