| samus aran rules said: This is how I see this important week with holiday sales in Japan: Microsoft: Postive nothing Negative, they haven´t been able to keep the momentum going they had this autumn. They haven´t seen hardware boosts during the holidaysales and software is horrible. |
Not really. Have you even seen Microsoft's Japanese hardware sales for the past few years?
After everything is said and done, Microsoft had the best year since they launched the Xbox 1 (which sold 175,000 of it's 330,000 units in a matter of 3 weeks). They managed to sell 100% more hardware units in November/December 08 than Nov/Dec 07....And that doesn't include the insane numbers they posted in August through October.
Microsoft has kept their momentum - Since the price drop, they have averaged over 11,600 units per week. That's better than any other year, as 2007's average was 6,250 units, and 2006 was 7,616 units. That's a massive increase, no? Microsoft had no major December game, unlike the past 2 years with Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey - yet it sold better on every given week in December without an uber-title (heck, Fable + Fallout together beat Lost Odyssey's launch).
Microsoft isn't doing as well as it's rivals in Japan. That much is un-arguable. But they are beating the odds, and improving their marketshare, and their chances of becoming viable with their 3rd console. I was laughed at when I said the X360 would sell 1.5-2.0m hardware units in Japan in it's lifetime, but it's now a nearly-accepted fact it'll do that. I think it's a great improvement for Microsoft to have gained so much momentum in Japan. For comparison, neither the Playstation 3 or Nintendo Wii sold anywhere near what they did after September last year - Both consoles are down.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
