XB1 launch in Japan a bust

[AssassinDX]

Apologies Sephex, I posted the pictures to back up your point rather than challenge it, as you hadn't posted them yourself in your first post.

[Ayen]

But I suppose that requires more effort than Microsoft is willing to put in and/or is capable of.

While the original Xbox sold poorly in Japan, selling just 0.5 million units while it was on the market (between 2002 and 2005), the Xbox 360 performed better, but still poorly, selling only 1.5 million units from 2005 to 2011

Edge magazine reported in August 2011 that initially lacklustre and subsequently falling sales in Japan, where Microsoft had been unable to make serious inroads into the dominance of domestic rivals Sony and Nintendo, had led to retailers scaling back and in some cases discontinuing sales of the Xbox 360 completely

Link!

Why the heck would MS want to have a massive push in Japan, spending a lot of money on advertising and all that jazz, when this is their legacy so far? x}

The Japanese are just not interested.

Then they should stop shipping their units over there.

[DMKA]

Yeah, the 360 completed bombed in Japan too, even when there were a ton of Japanese exclusives for it. So most of us saw this coming.

To be fair though, none of the home consoles are doing well in Japan at the moment. Sure, the Wii U and the PS4 had strong launches there, but now they're both struggling to sell a few thousand units a week there. PC game sales are particularly weak too. Meanwhile the 3DS and the Vita, and mobile phone games, are all selling very well.

It seems that these days, if it's a video game and it's not mobile, Japan doesn't want it.

[Ayen]

It seems that these days, if it's a video game and it's not mobile, Japan doesn't want it.

No wonder Square Enix keeps making so many mobile games these days.

[Shauna]

Then they should stop shipping their units over there.

There was 1 million units sold - there obviously is some market for the console, albeit not a grand one. They probably still make a profit in Japan. My point was that MS have no reason to make more of an effort in Japan - which you said they should try to do.

Heck, Japan wasn't a priority launch for MS! The XB1 has been out here for months!

[Dat Matt]

Just like Nintendo is becoming a Niche Market in the west, Xbox systems are a Niche in Japan. Xbox has never done well there, but it does well enough to distribute the console in this region.

Microsoft don't seem to know what to do with the XB1 though. I read an article saying that the XB1 only sold something like 90K Lifetime units in Germany, and isn't even in any European countries yet. I expected this from Japan and they could try to make it ore Japan friendly but they are not going to push playstation off the top spot no matter what they do.

[Colonel Angus]

I heard they named it the XBoxOne, because it only has one good game.








Joke stolen from Mike Matei

[Uchu]

Maybe Microsoft should consider learning how to do business with Japan so they don't have such crap sales. If it's true that the Xbox 360 had less of the amount of features available in the US then I don't blame the Japanese for not taking kindly to it. It doesn't help that most of the Xbox games aren't appealing to people over there to begin with and most of the games they would get are already on the rival system. I can't imagine they get many exclusives from the big Japanese developers since no one wants to strike out in their hometown.

If Samsung TVs can outsell Sony TVs, then Microsoft should be able to have more of a stage presence than it does now in Japan. But I suppose that requires more effort than Microsoft is willing to put in and/or is capable of.

It's funny you would mention Samsung. Samsung no longer sells things in Japan, apart from the Galaxy and some computer monitors.

----

It is interesting though when these sort of topics pop up. "MS is stupid for selling in Japan!" "We all saw it coming!" etc. It's similar to the crappy 'Japan doesn't play PC games' thing. Some do, it may be more niche but there exists an audience, or in some cases the taste is just a lot different. Unfortunately I too haven't done any research into the actual market or situation and can only observe, but I would suggest people don't be too quick to jump the gun and declare things dead on arrival or that 'they shouldn't bother'. Yes, they should bother because there is a market, just smaller and MS is right in supporting that niche.

Just for reference Destiny is currently getting a major push in Japan, for the PS4 admittedly, but why bother, it's a FPS and Japan doesn't play those, right?

This might be a interesting: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ailed-in-japan

[Vyk]

True Fantasy Live Online

This is karma :P They should have never stifled one of the only worthwhile MMOs I was ever interested in. And maybe they'd do better in Japan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_I5j256vDY

[Mirage]

I'm finding it hard to give a trout. Luckily though, I managed to find enough of one to actually post about having such a hard time.

[Dat Matt]

I heard they named it the XBoxOne, because it only has one good game.








Joke stolen from Mike Matei

It's called the Xbox One as it's designed to be your One entertainment system in the Living room

Disclaimer: Xbox one will not be your all in one media entertainment system unless you are a resident of North Amercia. #Freedom

[DMKA]

I heard they named it the XBoxOne, because it only has one good game.

I heard it was because after you take One look at it you turn 360 degrees and walk away! XD

[Shorty]

But if they turn 360 degrees they'll be walking right at it again.

[Rostum]

I don't want to say that Japan is racist.

But dey be racist.

Well if we're going to play that card I'd say that perhaps it's more that Japanese people are very patriotic and would prefer products from a Japanese-based company (e.g. Sony).

[Sephex]

Apologies Sephex, I posted the pictures to back up your point rather than challenge it, as you hadn't posted them yourself in your first post.

It's all good, I was mainly clarifying my thought process behind my original post and the edit for everyone. I was fairly certain that's what you were doing, but I was also afraid my edit got lost in translation, so I went into more detail.