Okay this makes me really, really mad. I have a short story to tell and then I'm going to rant.
I recently imported 3 Region free Japanese shooters for Xbox 360. They were all made by Cave (who I love) and I ordered them from Amazon. When I got the games, I noticed something strange about them:
The DVD style cases that they came in were the most sturdy, solid, and well made DVD style cases I have ever seen since games transitioned from regular CD cases to DVD cases. There is a noticeable difference between these and the DVD style cases I have been getting with games for the past few generations of games.
Now I'm going to exclude PS3 game cases from my rant because they come in Blu Ray cases and they are pretty good. However, I'm going to focus on Xbox 360, Wii, Wii-U, and PC game cases here.
Anyone who has purchased any games for these systems probably already knows what I'm talking about. In recent years, the quality of DVD style game cases has plummeted to a sorry state. You used to be able to stack your games on top of each other without any problem and they would hold their shape, but not anymore. Now the plastic in the cases is so thin that when you stack more than a few games on top of one another, they bend over, and don't even stand up straight. Don't even get me started on the cases that are missing large chunks from both sides behind where the disc sits and behind the instruction manual. Those are so flimsy that you can barely even mount the disc on the prongs, and the whole case sags inward. Terrible design.
So why am I ranting about this? Well it's because I just got the Japanese games, and their cases were fine, just like they should have been. Hard plastic, nice and sturdy, much like you never see in the US anymore.
So why can Japan still have these cases and we cannot? I think it's a bunch of crap. I'm sure it has to do with some "Save the Earth" garbage, but I'd rather have cases that are adequate for holding my games, and storing them in a stacked formation if I feel the need to do so.
Sorry, rant over. Does this stuff bother anyone else besides me?