BookWalker Changing Reward System / Charging in USD

Demelza

Demelza

Adventuring Alchemist
AUKN Staff
Figured this was worth a discussion of its own as a few people use BookWalker. All the relevant information can be found in their notice here.

A quick summary is that the global store will be changing coins for points, but the Japanese store will remain using coins. Coins can still be used on the global side, but only through the 'instant purchase' button so can't be used with other discounts or as a partial discount. Seems like the purchase ranks are being split between stores as well, but there's no in-depth information on that.

Another important change is that instead of charging in Yen you'll now be charged in USD, which doesn't look like it'll be too bad against the pound currently but it may be an excuse for publishers to adjust prices (again), so might not stay that way.

Personally, as someone who buys from both the Global and Japanese side, I really don't like the reward system being separated. If nothing else I'll probably just buy a lot more titles in Japan as opposed to English, there's no real reason not to if (a the prices will rise and (b it's not giving me the same kind of benefit it was before.

There's no real competition either as BookWalker is far less strict than the other English platforms in what they stock (largely because of being Kadokawa-owned I suppose) and one of the only ones where you can have an English / Japanese library under the same account, which is important for me. :rolleyes:
 
Not sure where else to put this, but as this is about Bookwalker I thought I'd put it here:

I see the Yanks are bringing their prudish nature to Bookwalker. I had left a tab open in Black Lagoon, went back to it and all the front pages are now "Restricted", probably because of Revy with her guns breasts busting out of the seems! Guns would probably be fine!!! Went to an ecchi manga I know, Witches of Adamas, and the same. No option to turn this **** off as far as I can see! No doubt if Sony Interactive buy Kadakawa for FromSoft they'll start censoring what's inside the manga too (like with games), unless they sell/move that part back to Japan, although I think all the various entertainment branches of Sony are now American owned or run!
 
D1tchd1gger said:
Not sure where else to put this, but as this is about Bookwalker I thought I'd put it here:

I see the Yanks are bringing their prudish nature to Bookwalker. I had left a tab open in Black Lagoon, went back to it and all the front pages are now "Restricted", probably because of Revy with her guns breasts busting out of the seems! Guns would probably be fine!!! Went to an ecchi manga I know, Witches of Adamas, and the same. No option to turn this **** off as far as I can see! No doubt if Sony Interactive buy Kadakawa for FromSoft they'll start censoring what's inside the manga too (like with games), unless they sell/move that part back to Japan, although I think all the various entertainment branches of Sony are now American owned or run!
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I think its the payment providers, the JP side has done this as well presumably due to what's happening with Melonbooks. I think they're just doing what they can to hide more adult content in order to avoid a similar issue.
 
Demelza said:
I think its the payment providers, the JP side has done this as well presumably due to what's happening with Melonbooks. I think they're just doing what they can to hide more adult content in order to avoid a similar issue.
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Ah yes, had similar happen on an AI art/image sharing site I use. They had to nerf the image sharing side to keep the payment companies/app stores happy. Still American prudishness at work though!

Demelza said:
Ah here we go, @D1tchd1gger this setting is quite hidden (I only found it again by googling the restricted image stuff), but you can turn it off here.
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Cheers. The link doesn't work on mobile, so probably why I couldn't find it, but using the Desktop function on Chrome got me there.
 
Reviving the thread since there's further separation incoming for the Japan side vs Global.

Earlier in the week, BookWalker Global announced an upcoming redesign and app improvements, but the wording in the announcement made people wary of them only moving the English library across and not both (currently, you can see all you English and Japanese books in the same app).

In a response to people reaching out on BlueSky and Twitter, they have confirmed that only the English library is moving, and you'll need two separate apps (the pre-existing one and the new English one) if you want to access your Japanese library as well.

I've always used BookWalker as my eBook retailer of choice because of the flexibility of having both in one, so I am very disappointed to see them being split off from one another. This year I've been buying more in Japanese than English, so I think with this move I'll just stop using Global entirely, apart from for my existing library of books.
 
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