My PlayAsia Experience

Play-Asia is an online retailer specializing in video games, DVDs, music CDs, and gadgets primarily targeting the Asian market. Established in 2002, it has grown to become a prominent platform for gamers seeking imports, rare titles, and niche products. It offers a wide range of products, including Japanese and Asian versions of games, which can be appealing to collectors and enthusiasts outside Asia. The company also provides digital services, such as digital codes for games and online subscriptions. Overall, Play-Asia serves as a bridge for gamers worldwide to access unique gaming content from Asia.

If you are looking for covers or items which are not available in your country then this could be a good place to look if you are not able to find any online anywhere else.

My experience was not so pleasant (mostly on the courier / shipping side of things) with the long wait, poor resolution time and almost losing the parcel, and the pricing. 

Let’s start with the website. It’s primitive and not user friendly. Navigating between product pages is not an intuitive thing and the design is like it is still stuck in the 2000s. The layout is messy and cluttered, so unless you know what you are looking for specifically… virtual window shopping does not spark joy.

Layout, Taxonomy and Design still stuck in the 2000s

Next would be the purchasing experience, which PayPal is an option. Although it is mentioned that if you spend above a certain amount (basic) shipping would be free, however there are some caveats to that. Not to mention that the sales and discounts are really lackluster.

I was interested in this otome game My Next Life as a Villianess: All Routes Lead to Doom! - Pirates of the Disturbance. It was listed on PlayAsia but it was a pre-order and it was expensive (although the company is located in Hong Kong, they use USD$ as a currency on their platform). Then I saw a something which was interesting, Sword and Fairy Inn 2, the collectors’ edition.

I decided to try purchasing from PlayAsia and the first game from them was the collect’s edition of the Sword and Fairy Inn 2. Rating for the game was not too good but the cover looked so cute and the concepts ofthe game looked like something I would play, so I got it.

Checkout was easy, payment was swift but delivery… delivery was a pain. It took almost forever and more than a month before I received it. All because of the shipping company PlayAsia used - Quantiam Solutions.

You can read all about the lack of professionalism and lacklustre service of the shipping company in the link below.

[Quantium Solutions - the worst logistics and shipping company]

The item reached Singapore but was sitting in at the Post Office Center for a month with no accountability nor response by the shipping company!

It took 7 weeks for my parcel to arrive from Hong Kong and not because it was from a far away... even stuff I've gotten from Amazon US has come in a much fast timeframe with much better updates on the status of delivery ... It was because it was stuck in the Singpost sorting center, to which the logistics company Quantium Solutions was dead on replies and basically non-responsive pushing it over from the Hong Kong branch to the Singapore branch and then dead silence.

PlayAsia took about a week to finally conclude that it was “lost”, whilst its status was actually sitting there with not one bothering about it and no updates whatsoever. They provided an option, to either get a refund or resend out again. I opted for a refund and when that happened, the game was delivered the next day!

Now being the nice person that I am, I informed PlayAsia and they thanked me for informing them that I had received the “missing” item. Next they asked if I could make a payment again on their website since they had already processed the refunded. So meaning, if I had not informed them I would have gotten it for free and gotten an extra one?

But I “returned” them the money and I did earn a few cents back since the exchange rate was higher on the day the refunded me versus when I had bought it.

Oh, and that otome game I wanted? I managed to get it off Carousell for just S$60. That’s at least S$30 lesser than what it is on PlayAsia (not even including shipping).

So would I purchase from PlayAsia again? I guess that would depend if they have the games I really want that I am not able to get else where otherwise it is not worth the time, money and effort. There are also no incentives, unlike Amazon, Shopee or Lazada.

Have you purchased from PlayAsia before? If the answer is yes, how has your experience been so far? Please share in the comments below!~