Topic: 360 lands in Japan about as successfully as....

[wandering]

...the Hindenburg landed in America.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051213-5755.html

40-60 thou have been sold so far. 60-80% of the stock is going unsold. Apparently, it's likely that the launch will actually be worse than the launch of the original xbox.

Not that this is any big surprise.

[KnowsNothing]

Blimpin' aint easy.

[PaLaDiN]

Oh good, another generation of comic relief.

[stevey]

[Sir_Stabbalot]

That's pretty goods, Stevey!

[Ian Sane]

Xbox 360 - the biggest American bomb to drop on Japanese soil since World War II.





Okay that's probably a little offensive but I thought it was funny.

[ShyGuy]

hahaha, nice one Stevey

[Bill Aurion]

Quote
Originally posted by: wandering
40-60 thou have been sold so far. 60-80% of the stock is going unsold. Apparently, it's likely that the launch will actually be worse than the launch of the original xbox.

Not that this is any big surprise.

No, the surprising thing is that it sold HALF what the original XBox did in two days, and I believe it is also the WORST launch for any system ever in the Land of the Rising Sun...
 

[Spak-Spang]

Saturn?


Dreamcast?

Now, Xbox 360.

This is really funny to me.  Really Microsoft should have waited and launched in Japan next year so that stocks in North America could have been higher.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

But hey, think about it, this is the only time they'll EVER have to ship new units to JAY-PAN.

[vudu]

More like GAY-PAN.  Am I right?  Huh, huh?

[Djunknown]

Quote
This is really funny to me. Really Microsoft should have waited and launched in Japan next year so that stocks in North America could have been higher.

Yes sir. There's an insane demand stateside, but noooo, they're hell bent on getting the Japanese gamers. I guess one can joke if you're desperate for a 360, get some tickets to Japan. You can mod it later. Those units won't be going anywhere soon...

I'm sure if DOA 4 was ready at launch, they would have pushed some more hardware. But leave to Team Ninja to delay their titles at the last minute. Though it won't  be the first time...

Once Blue Dragon ships, I wouldn't be surprised if sales spiked to record levels for a few weeks. Until then, have some quirky Hi-Def dating sims or something to keep them occupied.

[Stimutacs Addict]

Stevey: you need to put "jump in"  somewhere in/below your photo

[KDR_11k]

I'm sure if DOA 4 was ready at launch, they would have pushed some more hardware. But leave to Team Ninja to delay their titles at the last minute. Though it won't be the first time...

You make that sound like delaying a game to work on it a bit more is bad. Sure, it's bad for MS but does Team Ninja have any obligations towards MS? If Microsol wanted to be sure that they have titles for Japan on launch they should have paid someone to make them. Either let Bungie dig out Oni again or buy a few japanese dev houses.

[WuTangTurtle]

well technically and this goes for almost every dev team, nearly the first half of the dev cycle is done pretty lightly, and then they go into crunch mode.  Delays happen when things don't get finished in crunch mode and leaves me to wonder why don't the team managers efficiently get things done so crunch mode isnt as bad and things get done on time.

If im not mistaken this was a big topic at the last GDC, Quality of Life.  LOL this all makes me think about EA's internal problems.

Oh and Stevey Thumbs up to u man!

[KDR_11k]

Some teams get stuff done without crunch. But games get delayed, crunch can't do wonders. Crunching for more than a few weeks will reduce productivity and crunching too much (20 hour workdays?) will increase the rate of critical errors so much that the product sometimes moves backwards. Either way, delaying is a better choice than saying "screw it, just put it on the market now". They have plenty of time anyway, until the shortage ends there's not much money to be made with games.

[Deguello]

Quote
They have plenty of time anyway, until the shortage ends there's not much money to be made with games.

There is no such shortage in Japan

[UncleBob]

You know, I wonder how much Japanese XBoX 360's would sell for on eBay... enough to pay for a vacation?

[Renny]

Microsoft is dealing with another kind of shortage in Japan. No, not that. A shortage of interested consumers.

I'm surprised more people aren't importing a Jap 360 now. It's cheaper at Play-Asia than eBay.

[Ian Sane]

"Sure, it's bad for MS but does Team Ninja have any obligations towards MS?"

One big problem with relying too much on third parties.  I mean I think third party support is important but at least when a crucial high profile game on a Nintendo console is delayed it's Nintendo's own fault.  They plan their strategy around the games they have complete control over.

On one hand I think MS is wasting their time and money on the Japanese market but on the other hand their American fans complained about the lack of Japanese games on the Xbox and MS has said they want to fix that.  The problem is in order to do that they have to do better in Japan.

The best thing about this is that if Sony does a big Atari/Nintendo style goof up that costs them the market leader position, MS isn't guarenteed to take over as number one because they CAN'T become number one in Japan.  Thus Nintendo would be able benefit from Sony's fall as well because they would become the de facto choice in Japan.

[KDR_11k]

There is no such shortage in Japan

Yes but there is in the rest of the world and since the franchise went to the XBox they seem to care more about the international market than the japanese one.

I'm surprised more people aren't importing a Jap 360 now. It's cheaper at Play-Asia than eBay.

Region lock. A japanese XBox won't play US games without modding and a modded XBox doesn't go on Live.

[Renny]

Is the 360 even somewhat region-free as the Xbox was? But yeah, I guess it isn't as import-friendly as a Sony or Nintendo console, which actually has Asian-only games. I'd expect the console to be cracked pretty soon also. Still better than paying the ridiculous prices on eBay.

[stevey]

Quote
Originally posted by: Stimutacs Addict
Stevey: you need to put "jump in"  somewhere in/below your photo

lol, ms is bombing in japan. Japan is geting the hard drive 360, for $50 less than the US, with ff XI for free, and with a small number of japan dev behide them and no one buying lol. I gess they see ms as this

[couchmonkey]

The real test will be after Blue Dragon and that other Mistwalker RPG launch.  If those turn out well and have a decent lead on any major PS3 RPGs, things might turn around for Xbox 360, a little.  As of right now, though, that's grim.  I agree with Ian, it's nice to know that if Sony falls, Nintendo is the default choice before Microsoft.

[ThePerm]

they will be critically acclaimed...but they will probably not sell. Microsoft was tryign to secure some rpgs last generatio to please the japanese, but to no help. It sold poorly. The fact that it is selling even worse this generation shows that it is having no penatration, or in fact it is hated. Great American games don't even sell in japan if their on a popular system. They just do't like our games. Or maybe perhaps there is a bad translation problem we dont even know about, but then again great Japanese games don't even sell well on xbox.