Theory: MS Is A Major Part of Why the Japanese Market is Down.

[Zim]

I haven't read through all the pages so apologies if someone else has made this point. Bigjons op shows a typical misinformed westerners viewpoint of Japan. Japanese people have no bias against western products in the slightest.

As a matter of fact often the best way to enter any industry in Japan is to be successful in the Uk or america, france etc go over there and let it be known you are successful there.

The reason MS are struggling in Japan is because the xbox isn't popular there. That sounds silly but basically Japan more than any country I have ever been to, being popular is important. If you can't get popular very quickly you are going to struggle to do it at all. If the first xbox had been released with a lineup similar to the 360 then it would probably have ended up making the xbox brand very popular there.

An interesting point I always find is the uk in a clothes shop the assitant will usually say to me ''Oh that really suits you'' or some other such compliment. In Japan they will almost always say ''That is our most popular item''.

People use apple as an example of western companies succeeding in Japan with the ipod. If apple had gone in and struggled with the ipod for 5 years then made a big push to make it popular it wouldn't have worked anywhere near as well.

The fact is it appears japan's hardcore gaming otaku have already bought the xbox. Thus why games there can have such a HUGE attach rate. The 'real' gamers as you call them do have a 360. However the hardcore market is very small (im assuming 90% of the hardcore market would fall within males between the age of 15-35). Just think of the demographics of japan and you realise how small it really is. If necessary I will get the population stats and show you.

The casual gaming crowd in Japan haven't picked up on the 360 because it isn't popular enough. The 360 may have picked up a lot of the core gaming titles. But those aren't the titles that sell a system to 10million+ people. If MS had gone in with the original xbox with enough games to sell it to the core gamers instantly, advertised it heavily and then played up on it selling out etc then they could have been far far more successful.

I also don't think MS securing games like LO, BD etc has meant that suddenly people won't buy another console.