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Forums - Sales Discussion - Xbox 360 Sales Do Horribly in Japan

380,000 Xbox 360 units have sold in Japan. If you thought that was a lot, the Playstation 3 has sold about 920,000 units in Japan, and the Playstation 3 has been out for about 1 year shorter.


Where is the respect for Microsoft?

Also, why did some Japanese purchase the Xbox 360?


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it has been flushed down the fucking toilet :)



It's awful but there is a bright side for Microsoft ...

The XBox 360 has been selling 1000+ units per week and can peak at around 10,000 units per week; the original XBox spent most of its time at 250 to 500 units. On top of that Microsoft has done pretty well by obtaining ports of popular Japaneese games and produced games which "could" be popular in Japan. The overall result is that by the XBox 360 by the end of this generation will be more popular than the original XBox.



HappySqurriel said:

It's awful but there is a bright side for Microsoft ...

The XBox 360 has been selling 1000+ units per week and can peak at around 10,000 units per week; the original XBox spent most of its time at 250 to 500 units. On top of that Microsoft has done pretty well by obtaining ports of popular Japaneese games and produced games which "could" be popular in Japan. The overall result is that by the XBox 360 by the end of this generation will be more popular than the original XBox.


yes it is doing better than the original but thats not saying much at all... they really shouldnt be happy.. even the developers of blue dragan were not too happy with the sales... i dont know what kind of market strategy they have in japan but it obviously not enough.. i dont care what games they release on the 360 in japan its not gonna make a dent.. which is ultimately the reason most people pick the 360 to finish 2nd or 3rd and not 1st...  if the ps3 picks up steam then i think the 360 will lose alot of luster...



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Duh. Xbox360=FPS console. Japan=NOT FPS market Xbox360=disaster in Japan



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The reason the 360 is doing poorly in Japan is because it isn't releasing sequels to franchises that have an abundant number of sequels and side-quests, and it isn't dishing out revamped ports of classics.

I'm just happy that Japan isn't the benchmark for the industry.



No Poseidon, the 360 is doing poorly in japan for a multitude of reasons. First, its HUGE, like the first XBOX, and the japanese market likes small. Second, the Japanese market could care less about online gaming, so XBOX LIVE is of no use to them. Third, the Japanese market, knew the PS3 was coming out, and would have the SOFTWARE, so they held off.



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Lets see how many reasons that the Japanese are not big fans of MS/Xbox/360: 1. With the orig. Xbox (which launched to decent numbers, 100k its first week) was far too large for typical J-households. Also, it had major issues with disk scratching that was precieved as not being a very refined console. This hurt the preception as a console that wouldn't stand up to Japanese gamer's tastes. 2. There was no real major Japanese support for the Xbox in Japan. Yes, Tecmo produced/still produces DOA games for the Xbox (which had insane tier rates on both the 360 and orig. Xbox). Namco had very little support, S-E was non-existant, Capcom barely paid attention. Those are the 3 largest Japanese Devs that shunned the Xbox pretty bad. 3. No internal developer support for MS to produce games that are J-centric. Rare is western, Lionhead is western, ect, ect, ect. Without games that appeal to the Japanese audience, the audience won't buy. The Xbox wasn't a shooter console, but it certainly wasn't a Japanese-friendly console either. What games were really made with a Japanese target audience? DOA? What else? Ninja Gaiden, and that was about it. Also, the Japanese do care about online gaming. FFXI (online only) sold fairly well there, and Phantasy Star Online/Universe did well as well. The issue is the fact that the online games that the Xbox have are irrelevant to the Japanese community. Now, the 360 is changing some of those major issues. 1. The 360 is quite a bit sleeker, and overall a better precieved console to the Japanese. 2. Capcom, Namco and S-E are all now producing games for the Xbox 360. Not quite to levels like Playstation or Wii, but there are FAR more quality titles by these makers for the 360. 3. MS still doesn't have a J-studio, but they did pretty much buy Mistwaker, which is close enough. They also got smaller, crappier studios like D3, Cavia, and such to produce low-key titles for the 360 to help it along. What has all this netted Microsoft? The 360 last year (2006) was the highest month a Xbox ever had in Japan. And despite this, 2007 is vastly outpacing 2006. The 360, in May, has already outsold what the 360 did upto August or September as of last year...If not October. ALREADY. The 360 is very very far behind, and will never even remotely threaten even the PS3. However, it WILL sell far better, and when the next generation Xbox comes out, MS will be within striking range of selling 5m consoles next cycle. Now, one can argue that the 360 is selling horribly (which compared to the Wii, it is), however, the 360 is only 120k units away from beating out the Xbox's entire 5-year life in Japan. By July, it'll pass this number just 18-19 months into it's life. IMO, I have a VERY high end prediction of 3m units by 2012 for the 360. The 360 looks to easily pass 375k units for the year, and depending how LO does, could do 450k, and set 2008 up to be a bit stronger than 2007 with games like DMC4, Last Remnant, Cry On, and others ready to ship. According to my spreadsheet with MS's MC number's last year, the 360 is at: 2006 (by this time last year): 46,797 Units 2007 Year to Date (MC): 93,550 Units Difference: 46,753 Units So it's basically at twice the number of systems at the same date. And unlike last year, there are about 3 major RPGs ahead, among other minor games.



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Quantum-Tarantino said:
No Poseidon, the 360 is doing poorly in japan for a multitude of reasons. First, its HUGE, like the first XBOX, and the japanese market likes small. Second, the Japanese market could care less about online gaming, so XBOX LIVE is of no use to them. Third, the Japanese market, knew the PS3 was coming out, and would have the SOFTWARE, so they held off.

It's smaller than the PS3, yet, it got outsold by the PS3, so that argument is moot.

As of now, there is most definitely more software available on the 360 than the PS3, and with titles now becoming multi-platform, and others still having a question mark above them, why are the Japanese still preferring the more expensive console over the cheaper one?

 

 



Name brand? They typically will go with the more tried and true system vs. the unknown one. Heck, this explains why PS3s have sold at all in the US. I just checked VG Charts. The 360 is about 2,000 units away from matching what the 360 did last year up till October 29th of last year....5 and 1/2 months ahead of schedule. Once TB releases, I wonder where it'll end up before Lost Odyssey and the rest of Christmas?



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