I'm not sure why a company wouldn't want people to import, all it is is more sales.
Well, there's a variety of reasons why imports can be discouraged. It's a long list but I'll sum it up quickly. Some may only apply to certain regions, since they rely on cost effectiveness:
- Smaller company is actively trying to agressively vet for outside markets via a third party licence, or via its subsiduary. Since the companies are structurally seperate, NBGI US may demand (because any sales that are made via importing don't show up on the US side of the sheet) this. It's happened before, particularly if payments are exchanged between the parties.
- Extension to the first point - They don't want cross importing (say from the US to Australia) due to the price parity (For an idea, games in Australia cost about 90 US. Think about that for a moment.) if they intend to release. Needless to say, more money related stuff.
- Sony may demand this, as part of a broader marketing strategy. (This happened, particularly with the PS2). The cross importing is a particularly sore point (and that cost them a LOT of court cases, particularly in Australia.) where they said that they should have the right to declare any import of their PS line illegal, and get Customs to step in. It didn't fly in Australia, fortunately.
- It may not fit NBGI's strategy - they may not feel that im@s isn't suited to any market outside Japan and/or Asia. They indicated this in the past. (Mostly people not looking past the little girl and the idol industry thing) They're warming up a little, but not much.
- And of course, last and not least- Japan just hate our guts and- okay, I'm kidding. Well, sort of.
So there you have it, an incomplete set of reasons why you'd attempt to stymie imports - Granted this isn't going to make much sense until you realise we're talking businesses and money. It's a quirky 'Executive level' decision, and can have as much to do about the individual's position, as opposed to the company group decision.
