@fooflexible Good point. As I am a Japanese(yeah I'm living in Japan), I would say, Japanese people have no reason to hate XBOX360. At the same time, there is no reason to love (or, buy) 360. Most Japanese are just unconcerned about 360, except "core" gamers. Anyway, I found a mistake in your first post. The 3rd ad ("Nintendo Japanese ad") is not japanese one

........... And we didn't realize that the reason the 360 does bad is lack of it being geared to the Japaneese people and culture? Unlike other American things that appeal to the eastern culture, a video game system is something far different. It has exclusive programming content that allows that system to either appeal, or not appeal to a specific culture. In this case, an iPod does great. Why? It's content is universal (mp3s). It isn't determined by if Capcom enters an exclusive agreement to produce Dead Rising - they just play MP3s. This is why the 360 has an issue. They don't have major inroads built with J companies. Yes, the marketing sucks, but it sucks everywhere imo. That doesnt prevent it to do great business in the US. If the 360 magically got FFXIII exclusive, or a few other S-E games and had a similar # of J-games, it'd do nearly the same as the other systems - content controls sales, not the place tis made out of (after all, all 3 systems are made in China)

There are a number of things affecting how it is performing over here. Don't forget the red rings of death. Pretty much any discussion board you go to here will have people telling of their 360 hardware failures, and other people saying they are tempted to get one, but don't want the thing blowing up on them. This is a major factor. Japanese people don't want unreliable hardware. Also, consider the game localization. Just look at the JPN release schedule. Fewer 360 games make it over here because companies just can't afford the cost of localizing the game for the meagre sales they will get. GoW only sold 50,000 here. Crackdown? 25,000 after four weeks, and they are the 'big' titles. Furthermore, even if they do get localized, the release is many months after the original release in the US. Another sign that 360 developers don't care about the Japanese market (I'm not saying they don't, but that is the impression JPN gamers will get).

well, you didn't quite hit the target... I'm fine with the first point you said, but not enterly with the second. I'll explain you why. Consider that I live in Italy, and we Italians are probably the worst treated gamers in Europe (excluding the minor countries) with lots of games not translated even from english. I consider myself a medium guy that likes videogames. Do you have any ideas how long we will have to wait for a game that comes from Japan? Based on what you just said Europeans, and more like Italians, shouldn't buy any games that comes from Japan just because it takes a year or so to get here? If I remember correctly, at the age of the SNES none of the FF episode came to europe because of localization, still we are eager to play them now on the GBA, FIFTEEN years later even if not translated in Italian!!! Hell, we are still waiting for FFIII on the DS that you had over a year ago, and for you was just a remake, but for us is a brand new episode never released here!!!! The real problem is not localization by itself, but the fact that NONE of the game that came out on that platform are worth your attention because they don't meet Japanese tastes... If the number of the installation base was 2-3 millions, more and more publishers will be pleased to bring their franchises to Japan and more Japanese SH will be happy to develop for it. See, it's just that the dog bites his own tail: Poor advertising+poor number of japanese games-->Poor installed base-->no localization from western publishers-->Japanese don' t get good impression-->even less japanese games and so on.

Size counts in Japan.... Smaller is better. Xbox brand is just not 'cool'. Simple as that.

Then Sony is in trouble. The PS3 has been chosen as the next Godzilla flick monster.

There is some reasons about the failure of XBOX360 in Japan. 1. MS can't supply the famous games for users Most of Japanese gaming users is not buy many games, and they buy only a few famous titles like FF and DQ. So, it is very important in Japan to supply such famous title. But MS can't do it. That is why XBOX lost the interest among Japanese gaming users... Indeed, MS supply some games is famous NA or EU. But, in Japan, these games didn't became popular because of the difference of favorites. 2. Trouble of Disk Drive at launch of XBOX In Japan, XBOX(not 360) has the trouble of Disk Drive. And MS said "This is not so serious problem for using." This comment was criticized for many gamer and many has doubtfulness for MS. 3. The problem for the approach of MS in Japan I think MS hasn't done to sell XBOX and XBOX360 in japan. XBOX360 has same better games than Wii and PS3, but MS killed then in Japan. The success of DS and Wii isn't independent to the wonderful advertisement of Nintendo, and it is doubt that the MS make efforts to sell their great games. In Japan, advertisements are very efficient for many users, especially not gamer. Summery: It may be the big reason about the failure of XBOX360 that there is the differences of the thought for game NA and Japan. But I think the some is resulted by MS own.