I predict ~1.2m lifetime sales

you do realize that if you take out the units sold in japan ps3 would probably be ahead of 360 in worldwide sales at the moment right?

Why would they release it in countries like NZ but not Japan?

Of course it is - the 360 sold too much in Japan for them not to release it there.

Of course, but dont expect it to do as well as the 360 did though.

I really, really, REALLY doubt that JP devs will go Xbox exclusive again.

It will get some small Japanese exclusives even the original X-Box which sold less then 1/3 of the 360 had some Japanese exclusive games.

Well they trippled their sales there this gen so there's no reason not to keep trying.

They should call it Xbox Nippon or something like that. And make it white red not beige/black green so it resembles the japanese flag.

Tbh all the problems microsoft has in japan can easily be fixed. Japan wants japanese games! And simply selling the games 10 -20 dollars cheaper than the competition would be extremely helpful.

I mean Microsoft accepted a huge loss and used millions/billions for marketing but a customer cannot buy something with the money microsoft spends for marketing/commercials.

If they would have reduced the price of every game sold there by 10 -20 instead of wasting so much money on marketing that would be a reason to ignore Sony.

I mean when you have 90% of the games on a system where you always have games 25% or so cheaper than on the competitors console only idiots would buy the competitors console.

They wont earn much money but they would establish themselves.

I dont understand why companies forget how to do business. I mean third party on Nintendo REFUSES to have short term loss for long term profit. Why? They had this with every single userbase they had to convince/conquer. Why not do this with Nintendo?

Not only money is important also market share is. But all those REALLY stupid investors dont get it and therefore the companies do bullshit because they are afraid they will lose the investors.....
(at least Microsoft actually does lose money on "purpose" but they do it the wrong way)

That "a lot" of retailers in Japan have decided not to stock the 360 is simply not true.

Every games retailer stocks 360 games. If there are exceptions, they are VERY rare. There is a toy store in Kyoto, for instance, that only carries Nintendo games and consoles.

They will, but they just won't get the backing of Japan devs for the 1st 2 years on the market like 360 did.

I'd say just tighten up the focus for the West considering Sony is also looking to expand their influence there.