An astonishing fact that I have just read is that the Xbox is yet to sell even half a million units in Japan, this is unbelievable news considering in the two years 3do was on sale in Japan, it sold far far better breaking the million barrier eaily. I find it unbelievable that Microsoft has been unable to target even a million players in Japan, and it does not bode well for it's future if it cannot break this market.Microsoft still needs the backing of the jap thrid party publishers and I mean their full bacing if it wants to claim Sony's place and this looks very, very unlikely unless it can make steps forward in the jap market.Nintendo can sleep very easy in the jap market with figures like these.
I'm not shocked that its that way, too many of the games are pc style, and in japan that equals nothing, in fact microsoft is the reason x-box is still on the market, you see microsoft can affford to lose money since it makes so damn much it can support it easily, however for them it's worth it if they can be established evetually as a competitor, baisicly another market they can say they are part of really.
Microsoft knows how to sell games to the american market (FPS). I just wonder why I can't get to play Japanese xbox games like bistro cupid. It make me very sad. :smt009
Add those lame dehumanzing war games in as well. The North American market is rabid for them and teh XBOX delivers. Little wonder the poor GC is struggling ; no Mahunt, no online 'fragfests', no whacking brainless Ay-rabs in Baghdad, though you can do that offline, but isn't it funner to whack 'em in real-time online? Tsk, tsk.
i love japan! :-D :smt043 no jokes, microssoft is american, and americans (i hear AWS here( Lol) .... most of americans...marketing. )think they can standarize everthing , and im really bored of this. americans love game with great graphics and ladies on a beach, so everyone should love this. (well, i love the ladies part... but not on digitally. :smt043 )
While I'm guessing Microsoft didn't think sales would be as bad as they are they probably knew from the start that they would be third in Japan. They are in it for the long run though so you can bet that they're learning from the mistakes they made. Think of it as a giant test run this round. In the end they got what they really wanted. Their foot in the in the door. Something notoriously hard for a foreign company to do in Japan.
Foot in the door? The WSC routinely outsells the damn thing. The only place MS has its foot in Japan is up its own ass. There are more MegaDrives in Japanese homes. It's not 'notriously' hard for foreign companies to become successful in Jaoan. Look at the clothing industry. There is no Japanese label to compete with the likes of Gucci and Prada. Look at Starbucks; they hired a local Japanese firm to co-ordinate their penetration of the Japanese market and now Japaense everywhere drink their overpriced goop and a Starbucks in Tokyo is the busiest in the world. Comapnies that pass off that gaijin allure that many Japanese fall for so utterly are successful. Companies that come off as big, ungainly oafs and release consoles that look like a big, ungainly oaf, bomb to hell and back. They're the sock-and-sandal wearing tourists of the Japanese market. They're embarassments, and they fail. They're an unpopular, ignored and frankly mocked entity in the Japanese gaming market. They've had more than 2 years to learn from the mistakes they made at launch and afterwards and and have done precious little to alleviate and correct these. Then the lame promotions. XBOX cafes. Pathetically laughable Blinx ad campaigns. Porn stars promoting the hulking beast. And still the WonderSwan outsells the damn thing and Dc software routinely outsells its software; at times there are even more DC games on Japanese charts than XB games. Many Japanese retailers refuse to carry it. As quoted by EDGE the head of one major Japanese retailer refused to stock it and mocked it by calling it a 'coffee table'. MS doesn't know what the hell they're doing in Japan. Frankly, Ill say "Good."
I would hardly call a console being outsold dayly by the ps one, wonderswan and even the gp32 a foot in the door. The x-box will be forgotten in no time because there are no games on the x-box that in any way work on the japanese market , the x-box breathes american from the way that it looks (bulky and without any form of design) down to the games (no good rpg's, music games anime/manga based games etc..).
You better not be bashing my beloved Wonderswan! :smt071 Seriously though, with enough Madden games and EA pumping out generic shit like theres no tomorrow, the XBOX doesnt have to make it in Japan. Yeah the Sega games were above anything the western developers have released to date, but they didn't shift as many copies as "Madden Generic Football Game #247 - With updated teams and commentry" America is the biggest market now, and Japan being one of the smallest. Yeah its got better developers, but American gamers (for the most part) have lower standards!
I couldn't have said it better myself. Microsoft like most other American companies entered Japan with two left feet. They had no idea what the Japanese gamers went for. They released a console that was bigger than most games rooms :smt042 and failed to produce a decent add campaign. Only 3DO did any good which I believe was down to Matsushia yet even the 3DO was a flop (compared to Saturn and PSX) thanks to it's below par US games. Only a handful of Japanese games are any good for the system such as Policenauts but over all it's mostly cack. Microsoft should have studied where 3DO and even Jaguar went wrong and learned from their mistakes. But, Oh no,Big Bill knows what's best. He thought he could just bombard the Japanese with flashy XBOX home pages (they were quite nice) and adds in every mag and on every TV station. What he forgot to understand was that the Japanese aren't as gullible as the Americans so bombardment without contence isn't enough. For Microsoft, the US is an easy target because most of their goods are aimed at the American market. Stupidly they thought that the rest of the world loves their style too. Idiots :-D Yakumo
It's definately true that MS isn't popular, and the fact that XBox has to break a million units sold is entirely believable. As many people have said, the software on it is "too American" and I think they're right - far too many PC-esque games which don't sell in a nation where there is very little interest in the latest FPS or strategy war game. But as Tachikoma said, Microsoft doesn't need to have the Japanese market locked down - the XBox has a rather large and growing audience here in the states as well as in Europe, and while the Japanese market is desirable to have a part in for any console manufacturer (and up until the XBox, was crucial in the life of a console), sales of the sub-par software that drive the XBox here almost more than made up for its absence in the land of the rising sun. If that makes any sense. It's 4 am now. I know not what I say. :angry
Eh, of course not. ^_^ I've invested hundreds in my own. :smt023 Now if only I could get the damn Wonderwitch figured out...
I couldn't agree more, in fact when it was anounced that microsoft was entering the game console market, i was a bit skeptical, i still am to this day even.
Nobody in their right mind would piss away the Japanese market. One thing Japan has that US/UK doesn't have (not nearly as much of)...marketing. Besides, being a powerhouse in japan tends to build moment for an overseas market. The more hot titles you have here, the more you can pick and choose from to send to the white folks.
True, and also from what I gather the Japanese market is approximately 50% the size of the North American one, which isn't insignificant. Are there any Japanese devs for the Xbox?
This is the best quote I have ever read on this forum and frankly mate, you should be a journalist, pure brilliance and I am still laughing my ass off :smt082 :smt043 You're at it too Mark, brilliant writing mate!! :smt045 :smt043
