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Moore with his Halo 2 release date - Image courtesy Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog
Microsoft may be last place in Japan, but it has no intentions of throwing in the towel

Peter Moore of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division believes in Xbox so much, that he’s tattooed his biceps with Halo 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV for the sake of game announcement events. Speaking with IGN, Moore touches upon several topics surrounding the console.

A popular thing to poll the execs on is their thoughts about Nintendo Wii. Moore doesn’t buck the trend and has nice things to say: “The innovation that the Wii is, I'm certainly a big fan of. It ties in exactly with what Nintendo needs to do. And it ties directly into their strong intellectual property that is more youth oriented and more family oriented.”

The industry may be envious of the Wii’s popularity with the non-gamer market, but Moore says that he has nothing to envy about Sony’s current offering. “The PS3, I really don't know what I would look at there that we're really missing,” said Moore, while pointing out that he’s very confident in Xbox 360’s software portfolio and Xbox Live service. “The online service, [Sony's] still trying to get it up to speed and there's nothing really there that I can really point to that I wish we had. You know, certainly the price point of the PS3 isn't something that I want to emulate.”

Microsoft is enjoying Xbox solid success most of its territories, and Moore is not anticipating any change in leadership a year from now. “Obviously we have the intent to grow the lead we have. The attach rate is very important as well and making sure people are buying lots of games for their console. The rate of 5.1 here in America is very, very healthy,” he said “I think if we sat here a year from now we'd be able to say, we took advantage of the critical mass we got, there are more games being made than ever for the Xbox 360.”

While the Xbox 360 gaining ground in the western world, the console isn’t putting a dent into the Japanese market. When asked if Microsoft needs to rethink its strategy in the Japanese market, Moore replied, “No, I think we need to compete in Japan [now]. I think there's a tremendous amount of benefits, both direct and indirect, of being a good partner … There are a myriad of different things that provide benefits for us for being a competitor in the Japanese videogame market and that's something we'll continue to do.” Although the installed user base of the Xbox 360 has already been surpassed by the Wii and PS3, Moore says that Microsoft has no intention of conceding defeat. “It's not easy, let me make that clear. It's not easy. But we're not going to back down just because it's not easy.”

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Who needs Japan?
By VIAN on 2/1/2007 4:51:02 PM , Rating: 4
Japanese Developers are being A-holes for not developing for the 360.

It won't matter anyway. The 360 doesn't need Japan, so long as they have Europe and the Americas.

Off Topic:
Moore is a psycho for getting those tattoos.




RE: Who needs Japan?
By FITCamaro on 2/1/2007 5:27:13 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah pretty much its come down to national loyalty rather than the console isn't good enough. The Japanese are insanely national and rarely ever adopt outsiders products.

Even so, I think if the 360 keeps its lead over the PS3 and the PS3 continues to sell poorly, that those developers are going to put their wallets before their country. There's already rumors of MGS4 coming to the 360. I think its just a matter of time before a Microsoft console gets a Final Fantasy game. To me Final Fantasy is pretty much the only thing really tying people to the Playstation brand anymore. If SE were to announce it was going solely to the 360 and future MS consoles, I think Sony would have a heart attack.


RE: Who needs Japan?
By robber98 on 2/1/2007 7:33:01 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Yeah pretty much its come down to national loyalty rather than the console isn't good enough. The Japanese are insanely national and rarely ever adopt outsiders products.


Do you have any prove? I assume you are American (sorry if you aren't) and from your point of view, Xbox is awesome. But why would you expect Japanese think the same thing? It's easy to blame them with so-called "national loyalty" but have you consider other possibility? How about marketing? Availability of game that Japanese like?


RE: Who needs Japan?
By dagamer34 on 2/1/2007 8:07:17 PM , Rating: 2
The Xbox 360 has only 1 traditional Japanese-style RPG, Blue Dragon, while the PS3 has several announced.

Moore is being a little foolish thinking that they are going to capture the Japanese market by trying to sell them American-style games. Americans (and Europeans equally as well) greatly enjoy Japanese developed games, but that love does not flow the same in the other direction, and I would have thought they would have learned from their mistake from a greater degree by now.

In any case, if Microsoft "wins" the US as choice of HD console over the PS3, you can bet that some Japanese developers will retarget their efforts. As much as they like developing for Sony, money in the American market has a 100x stronger pull.


RE: Who needs Japan?
By radams on 2/2/2007 3:01:37 PM , Rating: 2
And Lost Odyssey, Cry On, Trusty Bell, Far East of Eden Ziria, and already released titles like Enchanted Arms.


Good ol' Japan
By therealnickdanger on 2/1/2007 4:18:40 PM , Rating: 2
Oh well, they'll come around some day. In the mean time, the Xbox360 can enjoy a solid victory everywhere else in the world. Soon they will launch in China... that will be interesting.




RE: Good ol' Japan
By keiclone on 2/1/2007 4:35:07 PM , Rating: 1
kinda like how Wiis aren't making a dent in China, but also enjoys a solid victory around the world


RE: Good ol' Japan
By DEredita on 2/1/2007 4:43:38 PM , Rating: 1
I'm not a fan of Microsoft, but admire their support of HD-DVD, which I feel is a much more affordable solution for us consumers than BluRay. The HD-DVD is 199 for the XBox 360 add -on and the Toshiba HD-A2 stand alone HD-DVD is being offered today on Amazon from several retails from 367 to 390. A lot better than the 900+ for a stand alone BluRay, which offers just about equal picture quality.




RE: Good ol' Japan
By Lakku on 2/1/2007 5:45:29 PM , Rating: 2
I used to think so, but I prefer Blu-Ray, at least when it comes to comparing the PS3 and HD-DVD add-on. The only downside to the PS3, and something many are mad at Sony for, including me, is that it won't output at 720p for Blu-Ray. This is stupid, considering it WOULD output at 720p with firmware 1.0. Aside from that, the PS3 offers something MS cannot, and that is lossless audio. I would imagine USB has enough bandwidth for it, but the main unit does not. You need something above optical out, which would be HDMI. At any rate, if you have the system, lossless audio sounds MUCH better then AC-3, and quite a bit better then DTS. There are also PS3 games that support it as well, one of which is Resistence. Some may not care, and I didn't either until I found out the PS3 could do this and tried it out. With that said, I still prefer my 360 as a whole, and use it for many an activity outside of gaming/movies.


RE: Good ol' Japan
By sxr7171 on 2/1/2007 11:19:22 PM , Rating: 1
XBox 360 HD-DVD add-on is a waste of time until an HDMI enabled 360 gets released. I'd rather get the Toshiba standalone or get the 360 HD-DVD drive for use on my PC.

As for PS3 720p output, that is another boneheaded move by Sony. They say that a future update will reveal a powerful scaler for the PS3 that outputs 720p. I wonder if and when. I will not hesitate to off-load my PS3 for a similarly priced stand alone Blu-Ray player as soon as they get with the program and offer HDMI 1.3 and support lossless audio or PCM, and basically the full Blu-Ray feature set.


RE: Good ol' Japan
By Tanglesoft on 2/2/2007 11:54:39 AM , Rating: 2
Can someone explain why the big fuss over HDMI. I have an XBOX HD-DVD plug into a 1080p screen using component video. The sound is wired into my amp using a fibre optical cable so I get a digital 5.1 signal. How would I benefit from the sound and video being combined in HDMI going to the screen ?


Duh
By afkrotch on 2/2/2007 12:21:22 AM , Rating: 2
The reason the Xbox360 doesn't do well in Japan, cause games aren't geared towards the Japanese. How many huge lan parties you do see here (Quake Con, etc)? How many huge gaming competitions period?

Almost none. Even little tournies at the local arcade don't get that big. Maybe 30 - 40 ppl standing around watching, in a location where hundreds of thousand of ppl live.

No one here anticipated for Gears of War. No one here is anticipating Halo 3. They were waiting for the next FF game. They are waiting for the next dumb dating sim.

Go into any game store here (Japan) and look at all their PS2 games. Most of them are dating sim or rpg. Toss in some simulation games like train conductor or pachinko gaming. There's also some racing games, rehashed fighter games, and what have you.

If Microsoft wants to grab a bigger chunk of the market here, they are going to need to some of the rpg/dating sim game creators on their side.

Me...I'm getting a PS3. Armored Core 4 baby! Probably go pick up a Japanese PS3, Armored Core 4, Sonic the Hedgehog, Ridge Racer, Need for Speed: Carbon, and Gundam.




RE: Duh
By lordblue2k7 on 2/2/2007 1:21:44 PM , Rating: 2
You just listed one reason NOT to get a PS3...
AC4 is coming to the 360.
http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/772/772076.html

Sonic is broken,
Sonic the Hedgehog Platformer 4.8 - IGN
The press average is a 4.6
This is the 360 review, but the PS3 has the same game, right down to the hideous camera issues.
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/748/748598p1.html

and Gundam is a visual display piece only...no gameplay at all that is worth anything.
"Geek love for giant robots faces its greatest threat to date." - IGN, Rating 3.2/10
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/746/746536p1.html

The only even mediocre titles for the PS3 are Resistance: Fall of Man, and Mototstorm, that is unless you like Sports titles, but even those are better on the 360.

NFS: Carbon looks better and has more detail on the 360 than the PS3, mainly because the PS3 could not render that kind of detail at 1080P, while the Xbox is "only" running at 720P, if the games look better on one and play the same on both, which is the one you would want?


RE: Duh
By afkrotch on 2/4/2007 10:12:55 PM , Rating: 2
Well, I apparently wanted the PS3, cause I just bought it this weekend. Only cost me 82000 yen ($678 USD) for the PS3 60 gig model, AC4, Ridge Racer 7, Sonic, and Gundam. Will be picking up NFS: Carbon later.

There are about 7 or 8 other games I could buy, but nothing I'd really want. Genji, Formula 1, Train Sim, Resistance, and some other goofy Japanese games.

Downloaded Gran Turismo HD Concept v1.1 for free. It looks fabulous, but still don't like Gran Turismo. Next Gundam game is slotted to come out next month.

Course one bad gundam game doesn't mean much of anything, there's plenty of bad gundam games out there. There are over 200 gundam games available over a multitude of platforms. I'm not going to be surprised if there are at least 10 different gundam games for the PS3 this year alone.


RE: Duh
By afkrotch on 2/4/2007 10:24:34 PM , Rating: 2
oh...just looking at the Xbox360. I could have picked up an Xbox360 and 4 recent games and it would have only cost me around $50 less than my PS3.

Course for that extra $50 that I paid, I have a 60 gig hdd with the ability to drop in a larger one at any time, media card reader, wifi, and hdmi. I don't get a remote and headset like the Xbox360 though, but not like I really care.


Ugh...
By daftrok on 2/1/2007 7:29:17 PM , Rating: 1
There is always that one thing with a console that is a dealbreaker for me right now. PS3 has its price (and scaling, but that doesn't affect me, however I would LOVE 480i/480p/720p/1080i/1080p for ALL PS1, PS2, DVD, PS3, and Blu-ray movies. Get everything and be done with it). The Xbox 360 has its proprietary accessories (lemme use USB drives and cables dammit!). The Wii has 480p and graphically poor games (albeit very fun, but still). If they JUST bring down the price of the PS3 by a 100 I would get it. If they JUST let us save/tranfer files and games via a USB drive on the 360 and come out with the 65nm chip I would get that. If the Wii would let us have AT LEAST 720p somehow and throw in DVD playback capabilities I would get that too. But until that glorious (and unlikely) day comes, I will have to wait and see. UGH




RE: Ugh...
By spwrozek on 2/1/2007 8:01:12 PM , Rating: 4
In all honesty "graphically poor games" excuse is lame for the Wii. I have not once in all the games I have for my Wii said 'man this game would be so much better if it had 360 graphics!' or 'I sure wish I had 720P...' Playing on a brand new 50" Plasma and loving it.

I love my 360 as well, just not anywhere near as much as my Wii.


RE: Ugh...
By daftrok on 2/1/2007 8:39:25 PM , Rating: 2
To each his own, I wanna play Call of Duty on the Wii at 720p.


PS3 Languishes in market
By bldckstark on 2/1/2007 4:55:46 PM , Rating: 2
I went into a Wal-Mart near work the other day and saw four PS3's sitting in the glass case. I walked down the aisle in anticipation of finding a Wii for my kids, but got nothing. They can't keep Wii's in stock, and have cancelled their PS3 orders. That $600 is killing the PS3 market.




RE: PS3 Languishes in market
By DEredita on 2/1/2007 7:06:07 PM , Rating: 2
I been to several stores that have a few PS3s just sitting on their shelves. I still can't find a Wii. The Bestbuy near me had huge displays of XBox 360s - at least 100 units - and I would say within a week there were only about 15 left when I went back.


Nothing to Emulate?
By deeznuts on 2/1/2007 5:44:03 PM , Rating: 3
Yeah this idiot doesn't see anything on the PS3 he would like to emulate for the XBOX but how many of you guys would like a drop in solution for the Hard Drive? That is unless of course you like to spend $100 on a 20GB drive and $5 enclosure.

I'm sure a couple of 360 owners would like HDMI as well. That is unless you don't like getting all the features of your HD-DVD drive if you have one.




One take on PS3 LOL
By ChipDude on 2/1/2007 9:29:07 PM , Rating: 2
Notable Calls submits: BofA comments on video game industry saying softer -than-expected demand for PS3 hardware could be an ominous sign given the historical success of third-party software sales on Sony's game consoles. Firm's recent checks indicate sluggish PS3 sales, despite much improved availability. They believe disappointing PS3 hardware sales are an incremental negative for all the game publishers. Firm reiterates their view that early 2007 could be a challenging time for publishing stocks and point to the soft demand for PS3's as evidence.

Based upon channel checks, 78% of the 50 retailers the firm spoke to reported PS3 hardware in-stock, while 70% stated inventory was lasting at least a week of sales. The PS3's price point and lack of compelling software titles were cited as the most common reason units were remaining on retail shelves. These findings run contrary to their (and consensus) thoughts about PS3 demand six months ago, when it was widely believed that the first few months of PS3 sales would easily be satisfied from pent-up demand. In contrast, Nintendo's Wii hardware is experiencing strong demand, but lower- than-expected supply.





Cricket Anyone?? Please!
By cheetah2k on 2/2/2007 3:30:42 AM , Rating: 2
Ah, i've commented before about this Console war. All i can say is who ever develops the first Cricket game (like Ricky Ponting's International) will win my vote.

Everyone wants a console to play their style of games... I just want fraking Cricket!!

Note: And cricket on the PSP God damn it!




Japan FTL
By anonymo on 2/5/2007 8:28:55 AM , Rating: 2
If the PS3 and the Wii are outselling the 360 in Japan it's because they are too loyal to their homegrown companies and has nothing to do with the quality of the product.

I have the money to buy either or both (PS3 vs 360) and I chose to buy the 360 because of the incredibly obvious reasons (games are out for it). It would be foolish to count the PS3 out at this time but it would be just as foolish to buy it on the assumption that games are forthcoming.

The majority of the Japanese market could be well entertained with a pachinko game in 720p that involved school girls and glowing nerds turned superhiros (its possible, trust me). When Japan stops buying into its own cheap crap then maybe I'll start caring, but for now I can't see how the few good titles that come out of Japan ever year justify MS wasting any time pandering to their tacky taste.




what?
By scrapsma54 on 2/1/07, Rating: -1
RE: what?
By keiclone on 2/1/2007 4:38:01 PM , Rating: 2
LOL the adult gaming industry. I'd say if you really wanted pron for you consoles the wii would probably provide the most "hands-on" experience next to the DS.

Yes I know what you meant by adult gaming industry, and I think it's a very misleading term, since quality games generally don't view them as exclusive to the youth market


RE: what?
By Oregonian2 on 2/1/2007 4:40:56 PM , Rating: 2
What makes you think Microsoft is upset? The article says nothing that I can see to indicate they are. In fact, most of the article suggests they're having a great time competing with the others and what they do.


RE: what?
By DEredita on 2/1/2007 4:46:42 PM , Rating: 2
I guess the Japanese don't mind spending $600+ for a game console. I would much rather get struck down by lightning than drop that much money down on a game console.


RE: what?
By borowki on 2/1/2007 5:39:02 PM , Rating: 2
The top end PS3 is priced at Y59980 in Japan--about 500 USD. The 20g version is Y49980--415 USD or so. Still it's not selling all that well.

If Microsoft knocks off another Y10000, the Xbox 360 will sell like hotcakes.


RE: what?
By deeznuts on 2/1/07, Rating: -1
RE: what?
By semo on 2/1/2007 7:23:18 PM , Rating: 2
if that's true, i'm surprised.

did a final fantasy game come out recently or the ps3 or what?


RE: what?
By on 2/1/2007 7:30:31 PM , Rating: 2
The merchants are slashing the prices to get languishing PS3 inventory off their shelves, apparently at quite a loss in some cases.

I'm guessing this sudden increase in sales is just a temporary bump.


RE: what?
By ViperROhb34 on 2/1/2007 8:10:54 PM , Rating: 5
Its not true.. this is a fanboy with no data to back up his claim.

ALl data says the Wii is far outselling the PS3 in Japan ( and the rest of the world ) in fact here is a few new links.. the 1st one shows the PS3 sales are slowing - even in Japan !

http://www.betanews.com/article/PS3_Sales_Dropping...



RE: what?
By ViperROhb34 on 2/1/2007 8:11:59 PM , Rating: 2

ALL data says the Wii is far outselling the PS3 in Japan ( and the rest of the world ) in fact here is a few new links.. the 1st one shows the PS3 sales are slowing - even in Japan !

http://www.betanews.com/article/PS3_Sales_Dropping...


RE: what?
By MilitaryTech on 2/1/2007 7:49:04 PM , Rating: 2
No, it won't. Without a major partnership with a Japanese game company, Microsoft gets to be last place in Japan-again. XBOX 360 is already cheaper than the Sony PS/3, but the PS/3 outsells it ANYWAY. If you want to make inroads you team up with a major company over there.

Until Microsoft understands that "my way or the highway" doesn't work over there, this will happen over and over again. The original XBOX was a complete disaster, sales-wise, in Japan...



RE: what?
By borowki on 2/1/2007 9:24:42 PM , Rating: 2
Capcom has released a couple successful games on the 360 and so has Temco. Then there's Blue Dragon. Microsoft does have decent support from Japanese studios.

Pricing does have a big impact in Japan. Release of the Core system has revived sales from comatose to merely poor.


RE: what?
By MilitaryTech on 2/4/2007 12:45:02 PM , Rating: 2
If the XBOX 360 was MADE by Microsoft+ someone like Namco, the Japanese consumers would buy far more of them.

Basic rule of business in Japan-if you want to be successful, you partner up with a major company. Simply having a handful of third party Japanese publishers isn't enough.

The XBOX 360's fate in Japan is already decided-3rd place for the life of the console.


RE: what?
By Lakku on 2/1/2007 5:39:23 PM , Rating: 2
Well, they aren't dropping 600 on a console as evident by the PS3 sales in Japan, at least recently. However, people in North America don't mind, as the PS3 is selling more here then in Japan. A lot of people buy them as BD players and it's not a bad deal if you do that. However, it's not catching on because I can't rent BD movies easily, and you can't seem to do so in Japan either. That hurts people caring about BD at the moment. Also, the PS3 has very little in the way of good games, outside of Resistence. I imagine when VF5 comes out, and other popular titles start to roll out that people may care about. But anyway, 600 is a lot of money but some people may find use out of it.


RE: what?
By ViperROhb34 on 2/1/2007 8:06:08 PM , Rating: 2
You're talking about the PS3 being Xbox 360's threat in Japan..

When in fact the Wii is far out selling the PS3 in Japan and quite obviously the rest of the world.

PS3 best sales are happening in Japan, but thats not enough for them ether


RE: what?
By maxzilla on 2/2/2007 8:50:29 AM , Rating: 1
Why is everybody bashing the PS3 price tag?
i am a 360 owner myself, so i am in no way a fanboy. but what i don't understand is this:
for 600 dollars you'll get a high end HD console with a built in Blue ray disc player. Should a 360 owner want to match this, he/she has to buy a HDDVD Drive add on which costs 199 dollars. So this plus the 400 bucks you pay for a premium 360 totals to around 600 bucks as well... the prices are comparable for both systems...so what are you guys on about?
at the end, you just want to play cool games...and a lot of people are willing to pay money for this...just look at the hard core gamers who spend 2000+ dollars on Alienware pc's


RE: what?
By Chaser on 2/2/2007 9:39:38 AM , Rating: 1
Because the PS3 "whine boys" think if they can't afford one then certainly no one else can so the PS3 is doomed to fail. Right?

By the way Neilson rankings just came out regarding Blue Ray vs HD DVD sales. Blue Ray is outselling HD DVD by 50%.

You can read the article today on another "Hardware" site.


RE: what?
By deeznuts on 2/2/2007 4:34:31 PM , Rating: 2
Actually if you think about it, the with your scenario you have to start with the $500 PS3, since that's the one with 20GBs like the premium Xbox. So it's $100 less for similar hardware. The benefit of the XBOX is you don't have to buy it if you don't.

For $600 you get extra above the 360 with HD DVD add on 40 more GBs and wireless built in.


RE: what?
By animedude on 2/2/2007 1:50:08 AM , Rating: 2
Did you mean adult gaming industry as in pr0n gaming industry? The Wii controller would provide better experience for that. :D


RE: what?
By ArtanisDTS on 2/2/2007 9:10:04 AM , Rating: 2
Too bad Sony ditched their boomerang style controls for the PS3. With some dualshock capababilities they seemed quite suited for the adult female market xD


Not the percentage you want...
By encryptkeeper on 2/1/07, Rating: -1
RE: Not the percentage you want...
By Houdani on 2/1/2007 5:52:25 PM , Rating: 5
Sorry to diverge from your complaint about the defect rate ... but that 5.1 number Peter Moore threw out wasn't a percent, just a ratio.

Attach rate refers to how many games are sold per console sold in a given month.

So, if MS sold 100k systems last month, that would translate to 510k games also sold last month.

Note: This doesn't mean that new users bought 5.1 games to go along with their shiny new console. The games were bought by the *entire* installed base of users, whereas the consoles sold were only the new users added that month.

As the installed base grows larger over time, we would expect the attach rate to also increase (due to more users buying games). Now if the attach rate starts dropping, that means the games are not compelling and the user base simply isn't buying the available games.


By encryptkeeper on 2/2/2007 10:38:31 AM , Rating: 2
I should have been clearer in my original post. I should have acknowledged that the 5.1 attach rate for the games is also close to the same percentage of failures for the consoles.


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