Posted on 12/13/2005 1:51:36 PM PST by Panerai
Microsoft Corp. launched its Xbox 360 console in Japan on Saturday to a lukewarm reaction from local gamers.
The company held a launch event at 7 a.m. at a store in the center of Tokyo’s Shibuya district that attracted about 200 fans, some of whom had been queuing for several hours for a chance to be one of the first to buy the console.
While those in line snapped-up the consoles, the store and other electronics retailers nearby still had units available for walk-in customers at 10 a.m. At Bic Camera, opposite the Tsutaya shop where the launch took place, a salesman was hawking the consoles on the street to apparently little interest from passing shoppers.
“It went great, we had a super crowd despite the early hour,” said Peter Moore, marketing and publishing corporate vice president of Microsoft’s home and entertainment division, in an interview.
Compared to the U.S. launch on Nov. 22 where there were reports of fights breaking out amongst early shoppers the scene in Tokyo was more subdued although Microsoft is much more of an outsider in Japan. The original console failed to make a dent on PlayStation’s dominance in Japan and the company has a tougher fight on its hands in Japan so perhaps the long lines that have greeted other recent console launches were not to be expected.
The company has enlisted the support of several well known, local games developers to help produce games that appeal to Japanese consumers. One of the games, “Every Party” by Yoshiki Okamoto of Game Republic Inc., went on sale Saturday but the other games, including “N3 Ninety Nine Nights,” by Tetsuya Mizuguchi of Q Entertainment Inc. and two titles by developer Hironobu Sakaguchi, are yet to appear.
(Excerpt) Read more at macworld.com ...
Microsoft is "Gaijin", that's why the luke-warm reception.
Plus everyone who bought one is participating in a beta test
Possibly ..then again , it may be that Playstation is better ? I'm not a game freak so I don't know ...This is the argument I used to hear about why US cars couldn't sell in Japan ...The fact of the matter was the Japanese , for the most part , didn't need US cars .
There's only ONE gaijin...! ;)
"This is the argument I used to hear about why US cars couldn't sell in Japan" - US cars don't sell that well here, either.
Um...local Playstation dominance is a bad kicker as was the MS Mishandling of the original XBox launch where the early models scratched up DVDs and they were sluggish about apologising, admitting, or compensating...that's capitalism - treat the customers nadly and you won't get loyalty unless you do something superimpressive.
And so far, they haven't.
It's Japanese developed games in general. The Xbox didn't have many Japanese developers behind it, although MS has been making progress and has more for the Xbox 360.
Plus, there's probably a stigma associated with American consoles after the Atari debacle of the 80s. Don't forget; a Japanese company (Nintendo) resurrected the whole video game business.
I am thoroughly enjoying my beta test then. :-)
Once again MS wasn't prepared with the games that japanese gamers expect. They should have been ready for the first day of sales. It's not like they weren't told last time what the Japanese kids want. Provide or lose markey share.
Look at it this way. MS has already sold 1/5 of what they sold during the original Xbox's entire Japaneses run. Sales will improve with DOA4 and 99 Nights coming outs soon.
Also the X-boxes are tanks. Soooo huge. Japanese really like little stuff. Which probably helps Game-Cube and Playstation in Japan. (I am being serious)
The XBox 360 has something called "Live Arcade", which features different types of old-school style arcade games. Haven't looked much into myself, though.
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