As we all know, the 360 has never sold well in Japan in comparison to its competitors.  Last generation, the xbox sold ~477,000 or so units.  To some it was unthinkable that an xbox could sell over 1 million.  This generation it has sold 1.18 million and counting.  With more price drops eventually coming, its not inconceivable that it could top 2.5 million lifetime.  Is this a reasonable acheivement for Microsoft considering the odds?  Or should they still be disappointed?

My thoughts are pretty much in line with kow's - sure they improved, but I don't think it was worth the cost and I get the feeling the brand has taken a bit of a backlash from the whole ToV incident.

If I was MS I'd focus on US, then Europe then see what happens in Japan. I think they spend a lot of money/effort that would have been better focused on Europe.

Kowenicki explained it well.

As a big fan of the 360, it is dis-heartening to see how poorly it does in that particular region. I give MS props for continuing to try and appeal to the area though regardless of outcome.

I think Microsoft was just trying to stall the PS3 long enough in Japan with all the timed exclusive JRPGs. However, the release of FFXIII is going to hurt 360 sales in Japan significantly.

We'll see, I guess. But something tells me the 360 is going to do very poor numbers when FFXIII releases.

even with a large time exclusives JRPGs (star ocean 4, tales of vesperia, etc.) and a lot of price cuts and models in japan the 360 has a difficult moment, with the release of FFXIII this december, the gap between the ps3 and 360 will be a lot more.

Do we have an estimation of how much money MS spent in Japan?

With no Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest 360 never had a chance in Japan. If Microsoft had wanted to win Japan they would have easily done so by securing those 2 games.

Instead they chose to only focus on the US market just like Sega did in the 16 bit era which as we saw and are seeing now is not a good long term strategy.

Too much.

Easier said than done.