You´re absolutely right. Listen to him guys. Japan is not the xenophobic country people think like it used to be in the past. There are many foreigners in the big cities. Japanese are normal people too like everyone else, not perverts and such. That´s only a small percentage of otakus and other subcultures (gankuro, visual key, etc...). I know some japanese and they aren´t into games or manga like I am, nor do they have a weird behavior.

It may seem from the data gathered by Enterbrain, Japanese gamers don't trust the Xbox brand because Microsoft pulled the first one out of the market after only 3 years (Japan)


So my guess is: they think since the 360 is after all, a foreign system and considering the ill-fated Xbox, is has a very uncertain future IN JAPAN.

Well, before the original Xbox which console was the earliest to be pulled out of the japanese market?

edit: it seems it was the Sega Saturn. 4 years. The Dreamcast was supported until 2006 in Japan, though, but that doesn't mean it was selling any respectable numbers. I guess the best Microsoft could do is keep supporting the 360 for a couple of years more in Japan after they release their next console.

I think a large part of it - that 35% - has to do with the Xbox's horrible history of a short lived product that offered very little.

Wind the clocks back to the launch of the Original Xbox - it had a very good debut. It actually outsold the PS3's debut, and sold over 120,000 hardware units according to VGC on it's first week.

But the success was very short lived due to 2 things:

- Bad, non-appealing design
- Total lack of J-centric software

Because of those 2 things, Japanese have remembered and are much slower to accept the new competitor. They've had a tendancy to do this for just about every new manufacturer. Look at Sega and Sony for a good history - neither console was ravenously adopted, initially, but did very well once it caught on.

Then go to the Xbox 360's Japanese launch: it sold a paltry 55,000 units - less than half the Xbox's launch, and that was a February (Xbox) launch versus a December launch for the 360. The Japanese certainly remembered the Xbox when considering the 360.

Despite all that, things have certainly been improving for the 360. Has it done spectacularly? No. But it has certainly shown that it can do a decent job of shaking off it's bad image. Despite a horrible start, it's doing decently now. Maybe not insane numbers, but you can't argue that the 360 is doing bad this year when the 2009 YTD cume has totaled every other year the 360 has been on the market combined.

Also, the comments that Japanese reject the 360 due to it being American is a slam on Japanese culture. The 360 doesn't appeal to Japanese because it's American, but because it doesn't incorporate more Japanese sensibilities into the design.

I just edited my first post, the Xbox was released in 2002 in Japan, and was cancelled in 2005...that surely wasn't nice for the japanese gamers or the Xbox brand.

Last I checked, the Japanese aren't buying that many PS3s either. If you're going to sit here and tell me it's because the Japanese only like Japanese consoles, then the PS3 having sold just over 3 million units in Japan is 100% pathetic in my opinion. Face it: PS3 sales in Japan are still really wimpy. It's picked up a little steam in recent months, but chances are it will lose that steam like it usually does.

Now, I'm really not a PS3 hater. Really, I'm not. If the price on them comes down a lot more, I'll probably even get one. But sheesh, guys. Don't ignore the facts. The Xbox 360 (and original Xbox) are not boasting stellar sales in Japan, but relatively speaking, neither is the PS3. And even furthermore, they're even buying less Wiis this days.

My point? Japan does not matter nearly as much in the "console war" numbers game as it did last gen or the gen before that. They're different kinds of gamers than a lot of other countries. And that is why neither the 360 OR the PS3 are not selling well in Japan.

japan hate anything that is not japan - they can stop import of foreign cars and keep them in shipyard for few years so they can naturally be damaged by nature and no one will do anything about it(there was a thing that they stopped whole ship full of european cars for 2 or 3 years so go figure). still xbox360 in japan is a succes i mean ms already sold 2x more 360s than first xbox LTD.

It is weird  since they do like american rock bands.It is easier for an american band to make it big on Japan rather than America.

The RROD is why I don't have one :P

@kowenicki
I live in Japan I speak Japennesse just don't express it