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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Against the grain- Why does Microsoft fail in Japan?

Conegamer on 06 February 2011
Crystalchild said:

No one can deny that a huuuge (but not the only) reason is, that PS3 and Wii actually are made (read: invented) in japan.. and i am pretty confident that this is the same reason why 360 is going so well in the US.

 

EMEAA ftw. they are well balanced in terms of sales. :P

I agree. EMEAA is the place to go really. All very even...

So, surely your saying that they're xenophobic like I said? For those who disagree, it's a mixture of everything people have said. But, if everything was equally balanced, and you had the exact same games on PS360 for the same price, Japanese people would still prefer the PS3 because they aren't as keen on foreign goods...

So, Mr T-Tar, if you're reading...

@rol- you probably haven't realised, but Japan is the only non-english speaking area which is easy and reliable to track, and it's also the biggest. Hence the focus on Japan



 

Here lies the dearly departed Nintendomination Thread.

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Conegamer on 06 February 2011
oniyide said:

These are all good points but is no one going to bring out the 500 pound Red gorilla in the room??? RROD must have contributed to the lack of interest in Japan, you dont follow up a console that no one cared about with one that is known for breaking. Its already an uphill battle in Japan, but then to put up a halfassed product???

I was going to break it out, but I thought it was old news now and everyone would have forgotten. And then 360 fanboys would be even more vocal and I'd get banned.

But it is a very good point nonetheless

 

@morphusx- I know it's in the era of handhelds, hence sales for the big 3 are down. But that doesn't mean that the 360 should be selling as low as it is in Japan...



 

Here lies the dearly departed Nintendomination Thread.

NotStan on 06 February 2011

It gets to the stage where the lacksture sales in Japan are compensated by the overeager Americans, of course it would be nicer to have reasonably normal sales in Japan too, to boost the total further, but I think it's got to the point now where MS shouldn't even bother with Japan and just concentrate on the mainland Europe to establish the brand there.



Disconnect and self destruct, one bullet a time.

Conegamer on 06 February 2011
RolStoppable said:
Conegamer said:

@rol- you probably haven't realised, but Japan is the only non-english speaking area which is easy and reliable to track, and it's also the biggest. Hence the focus on Japan

That's not convincing.

Every now and then GfK data is released for the biggest European markets, so it's not like you had no reliable data to go by. We already knew that the 360 is in third place in France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Kinect showed no signs to be able to make a difference. In Germany Kinect sold less than 25k units its first three weeks with week 1 being bigger than week 2 and 3 combined.

Microsoft and Japan really has been done to death, so looking more specifically at mainland Europe would have been a welcome change. But of course it's also a lot more work.

Well, the issue is that there really isn't as many reasons for the 360 failing in Europe as in Japan. 

So the issues refer back to the fact it isn't suited to the eastern culture, reliability, image and price. Which can be much easier seen in Japan. At least there we have reliable sales. Pretty reliable 



 

Here lies the dearly departed Nintendomination Thread.

Conegamer on 06 February 2011
RolStoppable said:
Conegamer said:

Well, the issue is that there really isn't as many reasons for the 360 failing in Europe as in Japan. 

So the issues refer back to the fact it isn't suited to the eastern culture, reliability, image and price. Which can be much easier seen in Japan. At least there we have reliable sales. Pretty reliable 

Who do you want to be? Someone who makes threads about old stuff or someone who has actually enough critical thought to offer new perspectives? You need to go that extra mile, if you want to be more than a random member who makes threads.

I shall take your advice, then. For my next thread (which will now be next week), I'll make sure I please you. I'm hear to please, after all. Just ask Chibi and Beuli if you don't believe me



 

Here lies the dearly departed Nintendomination Thread.

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hikaruchan on 06 February 2011

Microsoft doesn't really know what they want to do with the XBOX 360 in Japan at the start of the Gen you could see they were trying to pitch the XBOX 360 as the PlayStation 2 of this Gen. so they made a what now has turned out to be an unsuccessful attempting to secure Japan by buying JRPGs and other genres primelly aimed at the Japanese Market and what they couldn't get exclusive they got multiplatform. 

but because of pore marketing and brand image and other factors along with the Exclusives turning out to be "Timed" instead of permanent basically meant they had little chance of doing well in Japan.  



Japanese Pop Culture Otaku

Conegamer on 06 February 2011
hikaruchan said:

Microsoft doesn't really know what they won't to do with the XBOX 360 in Japan at the start of the Gen you could see they were trying to pitch the XBOX 360 as the PlayStation 2 of this Gen. so they made a what now has turned out to be an unsuccessful attempting to secure Japan by buying JRPGs and other genres primelly aimed at the Japanese Market and what they couldn't get exclusive they got multiplatform. 

but because of pore marketing and brand image and other factors along with the Exclusives turning out to be "Timed" instead of permanent basically meant they had little chance of doing well in Japan.  

 

 

Pretty much, yeah

I wonder if they've learnt from their mistakes for next gen, or simply don't care about Japan anymore?



 

Here lies the dearly departed Nintendomination Thread.

Reach on 06 February 2011

Lack of Exclusives NO WAY! 1st they dont care about FPS , SECOND but not LEAST MS gave them alot of Jrpgs and not even with that... The only way is keep giving them every month a Jrpg exclusive and Japanese games...



Reasonable on 06 February 2011

Image, culture, libray, approach, online focus, plus probably others.

I think image is a key ingredient though, both going back to the Xbox, the seeming focus on FPS, the apparent HW issues, the focus on online and the link to Okatu (spelling?) titles.

I wonder whether MS would need to sacrifice their image somewhat in the West to change it enough to see success in Japan?  This might help but I doubt MS will be willing to do so - my view is unless  the Japanese market changes - seems unlikely - or MS changes its approach significantly just for Japan - seems unlikely - the brand will struggle to ever be more than niche.

Japanese platforms just seem to have an image and approach the enables them to more readily succeed globally whereas MS approach seems to limit them to English speaking Western countries such as US, UK, Australia, etc.  The combined US/UK sales, for example, represent a huge chunk of 360 sales vs the much more spread percentage sales of Wii and PS3 globally.



Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...

darthdevidem01 on 06 February 2011
Reasonable said:

Image, culture, libray, approach, online focus, plus probably others.

I think image is a key ingredient though, both going back to the Xbox, the seeming focus on FPS, the apparent HW issues, the focus on online and the link to Okatu (spelling?) titles.

I wonder whether MS would need to sacrifice their image somewhat in the West to change it enough to see success in Japan?  This might help but I doubt MS will be willing to do so - my view is unless  the Japanese market changes - seems unlikely - or MS changes its approach significantly just for Japan - seems unlikely - the brand will struggle to ever be more than niche.

Japanese platforms just seem to have an image and approach the enables them to more readily succeed globally whereas MS approach seems to limit them to English speaking Western countries such as US, UK, Australia, etc.  The combined US/UK sales, for example, represent a huge chunk of 360 sales vs the much more spread percentage sales of Wii and PS3 globally.

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