U.S. Sonic with UPC sells for $981.33

[TonyTheTiger]

Again, please tell me what facts you have to support that it was not released here. Arguing against my facts isn't going to sway me.

It's not your facts that I'm disputing, it's your conclusions. You're contending that the UPC code acts as the key switch. So how do you explain games that don't have different UPC codes between regions? If Sonic getting a new UPC makes it American then why don't all other American games have different UPC codes from their foreign counterparts? If you're going to argue that the UPC has that much power then you have to ground that in something. You can't just say "UPC means a lot" without showing that it traditionally has meant a lot. As far as I can tell, it doesn't and never did.

For all the weight you're giving the UPC code, clearly it's a mere oddity, not indicative of any actual "intent" on Sega's part. That's my evidence in a nutshell. That a UPC code means nothing as far as region goes. And my evidence (which I actually had to go look up) are all the games that are sold around the world, many of which are clearly for different regions but have identical UPCs.

Here's the back of the European version of Super Mario Advance 4 and the back of two variants from the U.S.:







And this is just one example. I've looked around and there are plenty of others ranging back to the NES.

Obviously nobody would argue that because the UPCs are all the same that if they have a European copy instead of an American one then that counts as part of a complete U.S. GBA collection just as well. And, based on this, it's clear that publishers and distributors don't put significant stock in UPC codes as something to denote region.

Now I'm not well versed in SMS. I'll be the first to admit that. I have no idea why Sega didn't just use the barcode on the insert (which I didn't know was even there) and won't try to explain it. But the fact that UPC is not indicative of region then suggesting that the UPC sticker on Sonic in particular does just that very thing is something I can't get behind.

I mean, look, I respect that you're willing to engage this and you've actually made the strongest arguments I've seen on the issue. But I still think that you're giving way too much weight to the UPC. You're putting much more stock into it than publishers/distributors seem to which tells me that when Sega affixed the sticker they weren't thinking "make this a new region." Again, I have no idea what they actually were thinking but given the evidence that UPCs haven't the history of making that distinction I can't conclude that it does in this one instance.

Clearly having the same UPC code among multiple regions isn't a problem as far as establishing whether a game is, to use you're term, "released" in that region. So why does Radiant Silvergun having the same UPC in GameStop as it did in Japan mean that it isn't an American release when other American releases also have the same UPC as copies sold overseas?

That's why I'm where I'm at. Because, devil's advocate, if I were to agree that Sonic UPC is American then I still hold based on the evidence that many other things are also American, UPC be damned. Basically, it's not so much you believing Sonic is American that I have a big problem with. What I have a problem with is how you can argue Sonic is American while simultaneously rejecting all other examples. That's the part of your argument I can't reconcile. I can at least entertain the idea that Sonic is American. But I can't entertain that Sonic is American while Radiant Silvergun is not. I feel like they have to be kept together since there's nothing of substantial value to distinguish them. I don't think the UPC is anything close to being that valuable and my evidence is above.