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Gadgets Japan to Get Barebones XBOX 360
Brandon Hill (Blog) - September 8, 2006 11:12 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 37 comment(s) - last by igacci.. on Sep 11 at 8:50 PM
Microsoft moves to fight lagging sales

Microsoft has had a hard time gaining any traction in the Japanese console market with its XBOX and XBOX 360 consoles. On Japanese soil, Nintendo and Sony are the kings and Microsoft is an also-ran. According to Reuters, Japanese XBOX 360 sales have only accounted for a small fraction of worldwide sales:

Xbox 360 sales in Japan reached 158,654 units as of early this month, while 5 million units had been sold worldwide by the end of June, the paper said, quoting data from game marketing firm Enterbrain Inc.

The Redmond, Washington-based giant is looking to make some inroads in the Japanese market by offering the XBOX 360 Core System available to consumers.

The XBOX 360 Core System has been available in the United States and Europe since its Q4 '05 launch. In the United States, the XBOX 360 Core System forgoes the 20GB hard drive, chrome trim, wireless controller, Ethernet cable and XBOX Live Headset. The Core system also features a Composite AV cable instead of the Component HD-AV cable.

Japan's Nihon Keizai reports that the XBOX 360 Core System will retail for 10,000 yen ($86 USD) less than the XBOX 360 System which currently sells for 39,600 yen ($340 USD). As an added bonus, IGN is reporting that Microsoft is also including Project Gotham Racing 3 and Ninety-Nine Nights in with the package.The XBOX 360 Core System is due to be available in Japan starting November 2.

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Forget the Japanese!
By VIAN on 9/8/06, Rating: 0
RE: Forget the Japanese!
By abhaxus on 9/8/2006 11:38:52 AM , Rating: 2
their disservice at basically creating the entire market for video games?

the 360 just doesn't have any games that appeal to them. if they want to get into that market they need to sign a big deal with a big japanese name.


RE: Forget the Japanese!
By mendocinosummit on 9/8/06, Rating: 0
RE: Forget the Japanese!
By stubeck on 9/8/2006 12:13:23 PM , Rating: 2
Walmart is an american company.


RE: Forget the Japanese!
By mendocinosummit on 9/8/06, Rating: 0
RE: Forget the Japanese!
By Kuroyama on 9/8/2006 12:37:42 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
I actually blame this on the New England culture, all they care about is money; just watch the news


This doesn't make any sense. Walmart is an Arkansas company, rabidly anti-union, etc. Likewise, oil companies are largely based in Texas. So, what do any of these have to do with New England?


RE: Forget the Japanese!
By robber98 on 9/8/2006 2:04:10 PM , Rating: 2
Please explain why Levis and IPod selling extremely well in Japan.


RE: Forget the Japanese!
By dice1111 on 9/8/2006 3:05:50 PM , Rating: 2
Country music is also huge over there. That is because it's a fad. Like all societies, fad's are ever present. Current fad's include Levis and iPods. Microsoft is definatly NOT in the fad category. Maybe it's an approch they should take...?


RE: Forget the Japanese!
By robber98 on 9/8/2006 5:45:36 PM , Rating: 2
Question is, why Levis and IPod can be part of the so-called "fad" and XBox 360 AND Xbox aren't? That's gotta be something wrong with XBox BUT not the country.


RE: Forget the Japanese!
By tophat on 9/8/2006 6:32:27 PM , Rating: 2
That's the first thing I thought of when XBox first came out. The only thing I knew about MS was that they were in a big anti-trust suit back when the first XBox first came out. Every time I thougth Xbox, I thought MS and that is not a brand synonomous with entertainment nor quality video games. Sony and Nintendo are.

If we're talking about fads, it would be in MS's best interest to alienate itself from Xbox and brand it as an entertainment center solely. Let's face it, we all have worked with MS products and have had frustrations with their suites at one point or another. Do we really want to bring that frustration home and into our livingroom while associating that frustration with a product we wish to enjoy on our luxury time? Probably not. There's a disconnect there and it just isn't consistent. Spin it off, give it a schnazzy name, brand it and compete. Clearly the name Xbox is trying to gain points with the gen-x crowd but what could be more 'uncool' than the parent company who is, figuratively speaking, 'the man' in the OS arena?

MS != fun.


RE: Forget the Japanese!
By Tsuwamono on 9/10/06, Rating: 0
RE: Forget the Japanese!
By nangryo on 9/8/2006 12:17:37 PM , Rating: 4
They'll be in trouble if the japan market was left out.
Coz majority of big game console publisher/developer is from japan. And they really counting about the console market in japan. So more consoles in japan = more games from japan developer = more games for worldwide.


RE: Forget the Japanese!
By tophat on 9/8/2006 6:54:30 PM , Rating: 2
How is MS in trouble if they don't enter Japan? The article states that just a tad more thank 150k units were sold whereas over 5M units were sold worldwide. I doubt that those sales helped MS in any significant manner. Additionally, how many japanese game developers are willing to invest time and resources to attract a domestic Xbox market of only 150k units? It makes better sense to join the rest of the developers in creating a FPS title to attract the other 5M units out there who buy FPS like there's no tomorrow.

If I was a japanese game developer, my resources would go to the PS3 and Nintendo purely for the domestic consumer market alone.


RE: Forget the Japanese!
By Kuroyama on 9/9/2006 10:21:47 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
If I was a japanese game developer, my resources would go to the PS3 and Nintendo purely for the domestic consumer market alone.


I think that's the point. If the Japanese game developers don't make many XBOX 360 games, then it'll hurt XBOX sales in the rest of the world too, because some people might want those games.


RE: Forget the Japanese!
By nangryo on 9/8/2006 12:17:52 PM , Rating: 2
They'll be in trouble if the japan market was left out.
Coz majority of big game console publisher/developer is from japan. And they really counting about the console market in japan. So more consoles in japan = more games from japan developer = more games for worldwide.


culture
By cciesquare on 9/8/2006 11:23:29 AM , Rating: 2
It is a cultural thing. Japanese simply will not buy gaming consoles outside of Japan.

The only way for Xbox360 to win is if PS3 is completely crap. Even then Microsoft would have to publish about a million Japanese style RPGs, and they have to be GOOD. The type of games Japanese gamers mostly go far.

Its going to take a huge cultural shift in the way Japanense people looking at consoles from outside their country. Microsfot is trying for mount everest with this endeavor.




RE: culture
By jskirwin on 9/8/2006 1:49:24 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Its going to take a huge cultural shift in the way Japanense people looking at consoles from outside their country. Microsfot is trying for mount everest with this endeavor.


Agreed. The Japanese are living proof that protectionism works - at least when your trading partners are hooked on your products and unwilling to retaliate.

I lived there for 5 years, and the idea of actually buying a foreign product that was "better" than a Japanese-made product made absolutely no sense to them.


RE: culture
By bigpow on 9/8/2006 5:55:09 PM , Rating: 2
I disagree.

1st, they love imports (like anywhere else in the world, imported goods/cultures are considered lux/exotic/premium/etc)

2nd, unlike their american counterparts, the japanese WILL NOT buy something simply because it's cheaper! They don't care if PS3 is more expensive, if it's better (features) then they'll buy it.

Sony PS2 (and soon-to-be-here, PS3) has so many japanese games (RPG & what-not).

Compare that to XBOX (and XBOX360)'s limited japanese games.

Again, they're not like americans who are known to be suckers for EA freaking sport games (NHL, NFL, Tigerwood, etc etc).


RE: culture
By MrDiSante on 9/8/06, Rating: 0
RE: culture
By ChronoReverse on 9/9/2006 12:22:45 PM , Rating: 2
It bugs me when people automatically label them crap too. It's just a name. While it's obviously not like a real PnP RPG or even a CRPG, in the purest sense, it's still roleplaying.

Furthermore, I don't see how inflexible story automatically makes it crap either. Why can't a jRPG be a story-telling medium?




In any case, let me ask you this. If the 360 launched with only Nintendogs in North America, do you expect it to do well? That's the real reason the 360 isn't doing well in Japan. Just ask Apple how to properly sell something there.


anti-japanese?
By Kuroyama on 9/8/2006 12:56:36 PM , Rating: 3
Considering that many of you were kids in the 80's and 90's, why are you repeating old ideas. In the 21st century Japanese are mostly focused on size (small is good), features (cell phone without a camera? that is so 5 years ago), and price (cheap things from China and Korea sell like hotcakes).

How about cell phones. A few years ago Vodaphone bought one of the top Japanese wireless companies and did just fine. No one cared that it was a European company, but when they started giving the same crappy phones we get in Europe and Japan then the Japanese abandoned them in droves.

American cars (even sedans) never sold well in Japan because they are too large, the steering wheel was on the wrong side through most of the 80's and the manual was often in English only, fuel economy was awful (you'd care if your gas was just as expensive), and so on. My homestay family in Osaka had a Jeep and had to park it in a lot down the road, because it couldn't even drive down their tiny street!

Yeah, many cheap imports in Japan have some generic Japanese sounding label on them, but everyone knows they are made in Korea and China, and no one seems to care as long as they're cheap. Loyalty to Japanese companies is fairly weak nowadays; it's just that when it comes to electronics (or cars) the smallest, best quality products with best games/features are usually Japanese brands, so of course they buy Japanese (as do many of us). And if the games don't cater to their taste then (naturally) even matching their quality won't be sufficient.