The REAL Reason for Poor Japanese X360 Sales.

[johnsobas]

HappySqurriel said: There is a much (much) deeper problem than people realize, Microsoft really has very little understanding on Japaneese culture and even the simplest of decisions tend to go poorly for Microsoft ... Consider naming the XBox "XBox" ... They did this because in North America (and much of the Western World) the letter X is associated with "eXtreme" ... in Japan the letter X is associated with "Wrong". If you doubt me, go and play Mario games where when you hit a '?' box you either get a green "O" or a red "X" ... Essentially, Microsoft produced a console called the "Wrong-Box" in Japan ...

i lived there for a year and i didn't even think about xbox being associated with X (batsu), but now that you mention it's so obvious. For example when you are entering a place where you are not supposed to go, the Japanese will make an X with their their arms meaning you can't come in.