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Might be "coming back" to AmiAmi, too. They had cut the listing down to only one page, but as of Thursday they were back to 5 pages. Not entirely sure if that signifies a change, but if CDJ is back then hopefully AmiAmi will drop the "For sale in Japan only" note soon.
Might be "coming back" to AmiAmi, too. They had cut the listing down to only one page, but as of Thursday they were back to 5 pages. Not entirely sure if that signifies a change, but if CDJ is back then hopefully AmiAmi will drop the "For sale in Japan only" note soon.
They never actually left AmiAmi. Many people sent them emails and they stated that they definitely weren't stopping the sale of GSC products to the US. Stuff sometimes "vanishes" from the site because it is sold out or they are updating the database, but I know people bought GSC'Max Factory/etc products during this hyped-up hooplah with no issue whatsoever. The "for sale in Japan only" is actually on a ton of stuff (usually goods and games), and has been for over a year, and doesn't really mean anything. It's usually on stuff that may not be region-compatible so it's not usually on figures, but AmiAmi sells that stuff regardless of the "warning label."
Then it's Tomopop that's to blame for leading some of us to think that AmiAmi wasn't accepting new GSC orders. In the same report that told us CDJ wasn't accepting GSC orders (which got 80 panicked replies) they pointed out the whole "For sale in Japan only" note as a direct response to some new GSC policy and then updated to say that previously made orders would be honored, but future orders were uncertain. Why would we think anything other than that AmiAmi isn't the place to go for GSC products? At some point someone should have made it clear that it was still business as usual at AmiAmi rather than causing a panic.
If I recall correctly, several people posted emails from AmiAmi saying that they weren't going to be greatly affected by this and products distributed by GSC even went up for order during this time period. People freaked out, but I think it is unfair to lay blame on anyone. I think panic in a situation like this is rather natural, because it was a threat of something we care about being taken away. There wasn't a whole lot of info, all anyone knew was that CD Japan couldn't distribute and that all other stores were saying was that they could still sell GSC products but were unsure about the future. Of course, they'd say that about ANY product. They can't guarantee that they will get ANY future figure in. But I think that was misread by many people, and caused a bit of a freakout. Again, totally understandable, and many people tried in the comments to make it clear that perhaps we should wait until we had more information. But, again, people are going to freak out if any bad news like this comes out. It's natural to, even if presented with contrary evidence, assume the worst until specifically and irrefutably told otherwise, which didn't happen until today.
Basically, what Leah said. We ran with information we had, and never did once say "OMG AMIAMI IS DOOMED NO MORE GSC" - it was always speculation, and yes people tend to freak out.
Basically, what Leah said. We ran with information we had, and never did once say "OMG AMIAMI IS DOOMED NO MORE GSC" - it was always speculation, and yes people tend to freak out.
"Tomopop Business Report: Good Smile stopping US exports" It doesn't get much more sensationalised and definitive than that. What part of that title makes you think it is speculative?
"A check of the major retailers does not show any immediate implementation of the policy outside of AmiAmi"
"I'm inclined to believe that this is the official policy of GSC"
Those sentences sure do sound speculative to me...
Look, its ok to admit that the original article was made to drum up some pageviews, or at the very least it was laced with speculation without fair warning.
Either way, not much care went into the article, despite realizing the apparent 'sky is falling' responses that would obviously occur. Especially since the whole topic was a non-issue in the first place: AMIAMI never made a statement, never sent out a message, and other news venues didn't even bring anything up.
Here's a bonus: The last time this happened, same type of article by Tomopop:
Tomopop Business Report: Good Smile's hammer comes down on AmiAmi's discounts
http://tomopop.com/tomopop-business-report-good-smile-s-hammer-comes-down-on-amiami-s-discounts-15566.phtml
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