Play-asia.com

[jphasia]

Has anyone used this website to order and buy a game console in Thailand? Is it reliable? I am looking to buy an Xbox one and found that website. Prices seems reasonable and lot of choices. Thanks

[Amplish]

I use them all the time for games and sometimes even Blu-ray movies, never had a complaint, except that normal mail can take a very long time. For a console you would have to make sure that it is sent to you by courier and that makes it almost certain that it is intercepted by customs and you are going to pay import taxes. That will turn out to be more expensive than buying it in Thailand, so you may be better off trying to buy one locally, either at a shop (depends where you live) or through a site like NADZproject.com which I have also used for games. You could even try Lazada, they also have reasonably priced Xbox One bundles.

[jphasia]

Thanks for the feedback. I was also thinking about these importation taxes for the console. I don't know much about Lazada. I heard about NADZproject few months ago through another post. I went to their website and look nice. However, i sent them a message through the website but never got a reply. Also, as i was in Bangkok couple month ago, i found their shop in Terminal 21 but was disappointed. Not much about Xbox one inside and all the staff were busy playing Fifa on one screen and didn't bother to take time for my queries. I then just left. Tried to find them in MBK but couldn't locate them. Anyway, i might be in bkk next week and will try again. I checked again their website today and it stated that they have the Xbox one elite (1tb ssd) available. I sent a message again and will see if they reply. I am based in Phuket but often in bkk. As for your comments about Play-asia.com, at least it is positive for me and i might try for games and blu ray. Thanks

[Henryford]

Go with Lazada, they are by far the cheapest and reliable. You could be hit with any amount of import charges.

[Amplish]

NADZProject is fine, but a bit of a hassle on-line, because they seem to focus on Thai customers, registration, order and payment forms used to be in Thai only (I haven't used them in 8 months). They don't accept credit cards and you have to pay by bank transfer. I have ordered a few Wii U games and Nintendo related stuff (Amiibos), that are otherwise very difficult to find in Thailand. I have never bothered to try to visit their shops, as there are better options if you are frequently in Bangkok, e.g. MBK has several gaming shops with good deals.

However for on-line ordering, Lazada is great, reliable and fast with shipping, often ship for free and have a wide range of gaming related products. I ordered several things from them (including a DS controller for my PS4) and recommend them highly. Excellent service and they do reply to English inquiries. Play-Asia has often good weekly deals on older games for both Xbox and PS4, that are close to the price you would pay on Amazon. Definitely a good place for games, not so much for buying a console.

[jphasia]

Thanks a lot both for your feedback and advises. I have a PS4 and buy games only online through Playstation store. I am interested to try Xbox and especially Xbox one, also some games that are not available on Playstation such Halo or Forza...but doesn't seem easy to be on Xbox in Thailand. I will follow your advises trying to look around in MBK and also Lazada. But I would definitely prefer the online order solution. Thanks

[sniffdog]

Good experience with Art & Gun in MBK. They have a Facebook page and might be able to mailorder it.

[jphasia]

Hello, I went to MBK but couldn't find Art & Gun shop...try to contact them through Facebook but no answer.

However, I found what I am looking for on Lazada. I am actually interested on Xbox one Elite (1 tb SSD). The only think that stop me for now to order is that the model they have seems to be the japanese imported version. As i understand, this is not an issue as Xbox are free region but what about the power system? I understand that Japan is running 110V while here in Thailand is 220V?

Someone can advise me?

Thanks

[sniffdog]

Art & Gun is located on the 6th floor (the same floor as the regular food court). In the back between the two escalators there are 3 or 4 game ships next to each other. Art & Gun is the leftmost shop. Btw the Elite is not a SSD but rather a hybrid (combination of regular hard disk and SSD). The owner told me that the gain was not significant, so I bought the regular Forza Limited Edition for 6,000 less (The elite was 23,000).

Most game consoles used to be Japanese versions in Thailand and you got an intermediate power brick.

[jphasia]

Thanks Sniffdog!

[jphasia]

I finally bought an Xbox One. I was about to order it through Lazada but i found one available in Phuket. I bought a 500GB.

Setup and everything ok. Got 2 CD games with it (Forza 6 and Halo 5). Tried it and work smooth.

However, I signed in using my microsoft account (which is Thai account as i used it also for my windows surface Pro and office 365). My microsoft account has payment method already, using my Bangkok Bank credit card with the billing address which is my address in Phuket.

I tried to sign in for the free trial of Xbox live gold but it ask me to enter a enter payment method (I am surprised as i understood that microsoft is using 1 ID for all). Then i started to fill the payment method using the same Bangkok Bank credit card and my only address in Phuket. But he is not accepted it as he is asking me a US state which i must select from the drop list?

Any advises? It's look like i can't get an Xbox live gold account in Thailand?

I also have a Playstation 4 since it has been available in Thailand. I have an account with Playstation store and it's working just fine to purchase games online.

I just would like to have the same for Xbox

[Amplish]

This may not be completely relevant, but I ran into the same problem with my PS4 (Could register an user account, but not the PS Plus for Thailand since it wouldn't accept any of my Thai credit/debit cards). In the end I setup a PSN account with PS Plus in Hong Kong using PSN Network cards (bought digitally from Play-Asia). So, I think there is no need to link a credit card with your Xbox account if you go straight for a 12-month subscription, only if you want to have the free 1-month. After all this is Microsoft we are talking about... You can buy a Xbox Live subscription with a code you can buy on-line (Play-Asia, Amazon) or probably also in local shops. My guess is that having a Xbox Live/Gold subscription anywhere will allow you to use on-line services anywhere (at least that is the case for PS4), so since there are no Thailand specific Xbox cards, I think you can simply use either the Asia or Global variety together with an address in Thailand. For buying games on-line there are 'gift cards', so you wouldn't have to register your credit card with Xbox for that. The only drawback is that you pay a bit extra for shop credit if you buy it digital and you can't get the free trial...

[jphasia]

Thanks Amplish! Strange about the PS4 because i have a PS plus account in Thailand for years now as I started with PS3.

Actually for Live Gold, first i went straight to the 12 months subscription but i faced this problem. Then i thought i will just go for the trial but it is same.

I didn't know about these online codes / cards. I will try this.

On my Xbox now, when i am going to the store, all prices are in USD, i feel it strange because when i using my microsoft account to purchase others things such as office 365 subscription, the prices are in THB also the billing.

[Amplish]

No worries, glad to be able to help. They have started selling Thai PSN cards now, so I could open a Thai PS Plus account, but in the beginning there was only the option of a Thai credit card linked to a Thai PSN account. I am not sure what would happen with all those 'free' games I accumulated if I would decide to change to a Thai PS Plus account, so I won't bother. Also setup a European and US PSN account to take advantage of sales, which are particularly bad in Asia, but sometimes pretty good in the US!

PSN is very funny about accepting credit cards. I know several people who ran into problems getting their cards accepted by the system. In one case a friend of mine whose credit card was in the system for years, had to change just the verification code that is printed on the back, because of getting a new credit card (everything else stayed the same) and it would suddenly refuse to accept the credit card. To be honest, I don't mind not having my credit card details stored on-line!

[sniffdog]

When I bought my Xbox One in MBK I paid the seller 1,800 baht and he supplied me with a code which I entered. Worked perfectly. My console was by default set to the US which I didn't change.

[jphasia]

I have no issue having my credit card on Playstation store as i use one that has a low credit limit.

One thing,when i went trough the process of setting up the Xbox one, when it ask which country are you located, there was no much choice (America, New Zealand, England...well definitely not Thailand or Singapore) so i choose America. That's might be the problem.

[PomPui]

Used to be a massive fan of Play-Asia but the last PSN Plus code they sent me did not work and now 30 days plus I am asking them for a new code with out any luck.

Cheers

PomPui