360 in Japan: The Kancho of MS Continues

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Cross-posted over at OO and stolen from Qt3:

Newest 360 numbers from Japan.

For the week of December 12-18, the Xbox 360 only sold 8,623 hardware units ....

Wow. That is painful. I'm not sure if even DOA can save MS in Japan now.

And I'm sure news like this doesn't help:

Yuke's Recalls Wrestle Kingdom For Xbox 360
Yuke's Ltd, long-time Japanese wrestling game developer (WWE: Smackdown Vs. Raw for Western audiences, co-developer with Konami on Rumble Roses XX), has announced the recall of its first Xbox 360 title Wrestle Kingdom, which was released yesterday in Japan.

According to a report on the company's Japanese website, the game is not saving properly to the hard drive, and indeed, at times the game cannot even recognize that a hard drive is present, leading to significant technical issues.

[denoginizer]

Is anyone really surprised by this?

Microsoft just doesn't do games that interest the average Japanese gamer.  I can't imagine they really thought they could compete in that market. This may sould selfish, but I really don't care arout how well XB360 does in Japan.   Most of the games I  enjoy wouldn't sell in Japan anyway.

[Jumangi]

I'll wait to see how the japanese developed games do. If they can deliver a few that make a magazine like Famitsu go gaga or something they might have a chance at getting some traction going. Probably not enough to ever make it worthwhile though.

[Nth Power]

I just think it's stupid how MS were saying how they aim to unseat Sony as the #1 console in Japan and they only launch six titles, none of which would be that hot in the Japanese market.  It either seems they were under prepared for the launch or they don't really care that much about the overseas market.

[Calvin]

Nice of them to take 360's from here to send there....

Either way, I want sucess for the 360 so I hope this gets better, but I dont think we will really have any idea until we see how japanese developed or focused games do.

[Canuck]

It doesn't matter what games it's going to get.  People are not going to buy it.  Trust me.  I live here.  I've been asking around.
"Are you going to get an Xbox?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't like Xbox"


It has nothing to do with the games-it's just something that's ingrained into their souls

[Victoria Raverna]

So I guess if Microsoft really want the Japan market, they need to secretly start a new  Japanese Console Maker company named Miso and become a secret investor.

Then release Misobox 360 and take over Japanese market.

[Dimmona]

I still think this round will be different than the first Xbox, as MS has signed some pretty impressive Japanese talent.  It's in all of our best interests for the 360 to do well there, as it's going to be the only way to get Japanese developers besides Tecmo interested in developing unique stuff for the 360...

[th'FOOL]

Oh Nos!  The Xbox360 hasn't even been out a month in japan and it's selling horribly!  It's DOOMED!!!!!!

Excuse me, but was anybody (including MS) really expecting a fast adoption of this console over there?  If it succeeds at all, it will be a very slow burn as Japanese devs start coming out with their offerings.  It will be a year or more before any measure of success or failure will mean shit.

But hey, please, carry on with the hand-wringing....

[Kevin Grey]

Excuse me, but was anybody (including MS) really expecting a fast adoption of this console over there?  

Expecting might be too strong of a word, but fast adoption was certainly the lynchpin to MS's strategy over there- they want to gain some kind of critical mass there before the PS3 launch (which will likely be much sooner in Japan than the US).  MS wouldn't have included Japan in the initial launch if they didn't think it was critical to their success there.  

Everyone else can downplay the importance of Japan, but MS themseleves have made it publicly clear that it is important to them that they do significantly better in that territory this time out.

[Canuck]

Oh Nos!  The Xbox360 hasn't even been out a month in japan and it's selling horribly!  It's DOOMED!!!!!!

Excuse me, but was anybody (including MS) really expecting a fast adoption of this console over there?  If it succeeds at all, it will be a very slow burn as Japanese devs start coming out with their offerings.  It will be a year or more before any measure of success or failure will mean shit.

But hey, please, carry on with the hand-wringing....

I keep saying that the games don't matter here but obviously nobody is listening.  When I ask people why they don't buy the xbox they don't say "because I don't like Xbox games" or "because it doesn't have enough Japanese games" they say "BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE XBOX."  These people will wait 3 years for the PS3 to come out if it takes that long and they'll pay 50,000 yen for it too (compared to Xbox's 31,000 yen)

So all the otaku (geeks) have bought the Xbox 360 on release day and that's just about it.  The PS3 will probably be out by 2007.  It will probably take a good 4 months for any decent Japanese games to start dribbling out.  Any self-respecting Japanese person will wait that extra 8 months and get themselves a PS3.

[stimpy]

It either seems they were under prepared for the launch or they don't really care that much about the overseas market.

Remove "overseas" from this quote and it certainly seems to apply to the U.S. launch too.

[th'FOOL]

Expecting might be too strong of a word, but fast adoption was certainly the lynchpin to MS's strategy over there- they want to gain some kind of critical mass there before the PS3 launch (which will likely be much sooner in Japan than the US).  MS wouldn't have included Japan in the initial launch if they didn't think it was critical to their success there.  

Everyone else can downplay the importance of Japan, but MS themseleves have made it publicly clear that it is important to them that they do significantly better in that territory this time out.

I don't think you understand.  Microsoft included Japan in the initial launch, made a big deal about it there, etc, for srictly PR purposes.  There is no way they expected them to eat it up like candy right out of the gate.  Hell, it took the first xbox several months to pick up any steam here in the US.

All the 360 needs in Japan is 1 or 2 games that are absolute must-haves.   System-sellers.   We'll see if that happens.

[Fellow]

And to 360's defense, it already has more JRPGs in development than the first one did in, um... ever? Enchant Arm, Lost Odyssey, and Blue Dragon, to name some. Now I just hope they'll migrate overseas.

[Kevin Grey]

I don't think you understand.  Microsoft included Japan in the initial launch, made a big deal about it there, etc, for srictly PR purposes.  There is no way they expected them to eat it up like candy right out of the gate.  Hell, it took the first xbox several months to pick up any steam here in the US.
.

PR is only useful if it translated to increased sales.  Although I don't think MS expected to be number one in Japan this time (despite explicit statements from them that this was the case), they certainly didn't expect to get off to a slower start than the original Xbox.  

Japan is a big deal to MS this round- they've made it abundantly clear not only in talk (ie PR) but in action- allocating 150k of their rather precious initial shipment, funding more Japanese tailored games, etc.  

Had MS sent that 150k to the US or Europe those consoles would have been instantly snapped up and that would have meant more software sales.  Right now there are approximately 75k 360s sitting on shelves in Japan gathering dust and costing MS money.

[th'FOOL]

I just don't understand how everybody can consider it a failure after only two weeks of sales numbers.

There is certainly going to be a jump in sales with the release of DOA, and the time to watch is going to be when these japanese RPGs start coming out.

Japan is a big deal to MS this round- they've made it abundantly clear not only in talk (ie PR) but in action- allocating 150k of their rather precious initial shipment, funding more Japanese tailored games, etc.

Allocating 150k to Japan was definitely more of a PR move than anything.  They want the Japanese to know they are serious about that market, and giving them a sizable launch allocation is part of that.  Yeah, it sucks for those of us in the US who can't get one, but that's how it played out.

[Kevin Grey]

Is Europe, which didn't receive many more 360s than Japan, also just a PR move?  It sounds like you are using PR as some sort of stand-in to excuse the failure of the Japanese launch.  150k for Japan wasn't exactly a token amount- it was nearly 1/4 of all 360s available at launch for a market that completely ignored Xbox the first time around.  

Yeah, we don't know the longterm outlook for Japan yet, but when MS actually sells less 360s in Japan than they did for the Xbox 1 launch I don't think its a stretch to call the Japanese launch a failure.

*EDIT* I understand what you mean now by PR move but I don't think that is some sort of blanket excuse for the Japan launch.  It was PR designed to generate sales early and it hasn't done that.  If numbers do pick up later after Blue Dragon or whatnot launches then it will be because of the software, not some sort of long term strategic gain from overestimating launch demand.