Play-Asia Review

Let me start off by being completely honest. If you look at my “Affiliates” section to the left, you’ll see that Play-Asia is one of my affiliates. I promise that this does not effect my opinion of them in this review.  Also, I would like to include that since this is not a video game review, it doesn’t follow my standard review structure.  I will still give it a percentage-based score at the end, though.

Now, let’s get to it. So, Play-Asia has lots of good reviews out there, and a good handful of bad reviews too. But how good are they, really? Let me share my experiences with you.

I have ordered over a dozen things from Play-Asia in the past. They have always arrived in good condition and at reasonable prices. That’s not to say that everything has been perfect, though.

Prices and Shipping

See, here’s the thing. They look like they have the cheapest prices when compared to the other import locations like www.ncsxshop.com or www.japanvideogames.com. But, that’s only true if you use their cheapest shipping. The problem with that is that their cheapest shipping can take up to 10 business days, or two full weeks, to arrive. What’s worse is that this level of shipping doesn’t even include a tracking number, which leaves you hoping that nothing went wrong with the shipping. It’s never gone wrong for me, but it has gone wrong for others, increasing this 2 week shipping time to 2 months or more. This is because they are based in Hong-Kong, so it’s somewhat understandable, but it’s still not good. They do have better shipping options, but if you want to use the better options to get your game quickly or you want tracking, their shipping charges skyrocket, and suddenly their competitors (especially the ones based in your own country) have better deals for the same item shipped at the same speed.

Availability and Selection

That being said, they still have the best selection out of all of their competitors. They have pretty much everything, and it’s rare that they don’t have what I’m looking for unless it’s old and out of print.  They also tend to have pre-orders much sooner as well, such as the BlazBlue Pre-order I’ve talked about before, so you can insure that you’ll be getting a copy through them much sooner than anybody else most of the time.

I’ve personally never received bad service from them before. And what’s more, they almost always include a $5 off coupon in every order, which is a nice touch. If you do buy from Play-Asia, I do recommend shipping your games in a box instead of an envelope. It’s only $1 more, and it will give your game a lot more protection for it’s journey half-way around the world.

The Verdict

My Score: 87%

Good service, good prices, but shipping is either slooooow or expensive with no middle ground.

Have you had a good or bad experience with Play-Asia? If so, post it in the comments. I’ll pick a couple of the best and a couple of the worst experiences mentioned below and put them directly into the review up here. Feel free to include your own score in your comment as well.

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