After reading the latest reports from Japan (e.g., www.next-gen.biz) on how the 360 is marketed there, they should fire the whole staff.

C'mon! Putting the 360 in the obscure corner, near the hentai and porn? Away from the gaming section with Nintendo and Sony? Not even setting the displays for HD?

I totally blame MS for this. Is it too much to have traveling agents go around the country to make sure the displays are properly set up? They spend millions for advertising in game magazines, billboards, etc. when word-of-mouth is always the best form of advertising. And word of mouth comes from people going to the stores and seeing it in action. I've never bought consumer items just from some internet or magazine review.

If the gamers can't even walk into the gaming section and see the 360, then what have they learned from 6 years of trying to sell in Japan?

Get some 4-screen Forza2 setups in the store. Get Ace Combat 6 with its controller on display. The Japanese like games like GT, AC. Give them what they want!

Why waste further money on TV ad's at 2AM or billboards? When's the last time a billboard made you want to buy something?

Heck, wipe out all the marketing (except keep Famitsu!) and make 360 stores. Little boutiques like the Apple store. If the local stores don't want to display the 360 properly (for culture reasons or whatever), then set your own rules thru your own stores.

Even if they did those things, MS just does not have the kind of games that appeal to the Japanese market. MS is all about catering to North America. They are making an effort in Japan, but it is clearly not enough to get them out of the cellar this generation. It may never change, considering the brand loyalty of the Japanese. MS will be hard pressed to be the best selling console this generation without success in Japan.

I don't care about MS winning in Japan. I just want them to do well enough so that there's a lot of Japanese companies making games.

Right now, unless Sony drops the price on the PS3 big-time, not a lot of people will buy the machine. My PS3 is sitting there, not doing very much.

So either Sony has to pick up the slack so that English version of their games get sold in the US or MS pick up the slack in Japan so that English versions gets made of the Japanese games.

I'm not into buying Japanese-language imports. I watch my little brothers play Japanese games and they can't read squat. but the games are still fun so they figured out how to play with kanji popping up all over the screen. I'm too old to figure out games that way.

I never bought the culture thing fully. yes, it makes a difference, but a good product sells. Look at the success of the iPod. It's spanking all of Sony's MP3 players.

MS shouldn't try to follow the rules anymore. They need to make their own rules like Apple does.

Or if Sony is out there, drop the friggin price so I can use my PS3 for something besides folding some proteins!

Both the PS3 and 360 are sucking big time in Japan. We don't want a Nintendo-dominated world! There's only so many party games you can play. I'm tired of seeing Gamecube graphics. That's so 2001. I like the DS! But that's meant for portability. I don't want DS games on the big screen.

Even if they did those things, MS just does not have the kind of games that appeal to the Japanese market. MS is all about catering to North America. They are making an effort in Japan, but it is clearly not enough to get them out of the cellar this generation. It may never change, considering the brand loyalty of the Japanese. MS will be hard pressed to be the best selling console this generation without success in Japan.

Japan as home-console market is largely unimportant compared to the number of households in the Americas and the countrires of Europe, where Microsoft is aiming its efforts.

Also, Japan as a software producing nation is also growing more irrelevant by the say, since the majority of software that does well in Europe and the Americas is developed in the United States, Canada and the assorted countries of Europe.

NOTE: I should say "irrelevant to gaming in the states". Obviously japan is very important to japanese gamers :)

dont see the article. dont care either way. where do you live? why are you even bringing up sales?
you've seriously over-exaggerated whatever you read...

I don't care about MS winning in Japan. I just want them to do well enough so that there's a lot of Japanese companies making games.


Then you have nothing to fear.
As long as Nintendo continues to mop the floor with Sony in Japan (eight-to-one!), the local software houses will have but two choices; develop for Wii alone, understanding that outside japan Nintendo customers overwhelmingly buy Nintendo games only, or support 360 to help defray PS3 development costs because the PS3 installed base (<4 Million) cannot support the costs of current-gen games.

Capcom read the handwriting on the wall early and had a great year off Dead Rising and Lost Planet. Konami is getting with the program and so are most of the other big dev houses in Japan. Right now, the only significant outfits not supporting 360 on major releases are Sony and Nintendo. ;-)

Mind you, a case can be made that Japan is far from the center of the gaming universe; this century, pretty much every *major* new game evolution has come from the west and the center of gravity of the industry is moving even further west as eastern european coders get into the act. Add in the Japan only accounts for 20% of the gaming market and of that 20% well over half is focused on mobile gaming and you can see why their influence on console gaming is waning. Worse, the recent resurgence in online and PC-based gaming is further eroding their influence as japanese devs have very little presence in those space. One could argue that Korea is more significant in those areas.

So, yes; 360 *can* win this generation without selling in japan.

Then you have nothing to fear.
As long as Nintendo continues to mop the floor with Sony in Japan (eight-to-one!), the local software houses will have but two choices; develop for Wii alone, understanding that outside japan Nintendo customers overwhelmingly buy Nintendo games only, or support 360 to help defray PS3 development costs because the PS3 installed base (<4 Million) cannot support the costs of current-gen games.

Capcom read the handwriting on the wall early and had a great year off Dead Rising and Lost Planet. Konami is getting with the program and so are most of the other big dev houses in Japan. Right now, the only significant outfits not supporting 360 on major releases are Sony and Nintendo. ;-)

Mind you, a case can be made that Japan is far from the center of the gaming universe; this century, pretty much every *major* new game evolution has come from the west and the center of gravity of the industry is moving even further west as eastern european coders get into the act. Add in the Japan only accounts for 20% of the gaming market and of that 20% well over half is focused on mobile gaming and you can see why their influence on console gaming is waning. Worse, the recent resurgence in online and PC-based gaming is further eroding their influence as japanese devs have very little presence in those space. One could argue that Korea is more significant in those areas.

So, yes; 360 *can* win this generation without selling in japan.


MS and most people would disagree. I can see how Japan would not matter if sales of 360's were just balls to the walls everywhere else in the world like Nintendo's are. But, currently the 360 is not selling like that.

MS is in the habit of making sound business decisions. It would be an understatement to call them a successful company. My point is that they evidently DO see Japan as important to their success. They have invested a lot of resources and money into wooing Japanese developers to make 360 exclusives (blue dragon). MS did not do this out of the kindness of their heart so that those poor Japanese folks wouldn't be left out. No, they did it because they knew Japan is important for the success of their console. I would have to say I trust MS's business decisions better than the opinions of anybody in this forum. Japan still accounts for a lot of console sales, waning or not. I expect MS to concentrate on Japan even more with the 720 in a few years. Especially when they most likely introduce their mobile gaming platform someday.

Japan as home-console market is largely unimportant compared to the number of households in the Americas and the countrires of Europe, where Microsoft is aiming its efforts.

Also, Japan as a software producing nation is also growing more irrelevant by the say, since the majority of software that does well in Europe and the Americas is developed in the United States, Canada and the assorted countries of Europe.

NOTE: I should say "irrelevant to gaming in the states". Obviously japan is very important to japanese gamers :)

Wow you stand as a glowing example of Western ignorance. Sorry for the harsh wording, but Japan is very important in the video game world. When the PS2 hit 30 million units, almost a third of that was in Japan. See link below. Furthermore, Japan has a much much higher percentage of people w/ HD sets relative to the US and Europe. THe 360 can certainly survive w/out Japan, but saying that it is unimportant is just wrong.

http://www.psreporter.com/playstation_2_sales.html

MS is in the habit of making sound business decisions. It would be an understatement to call them a successful company. My point is that they evidently DO see Japan as important to their success.

Actually, MS sees Japanese *games* as useful to their success. The japanese *gamer* market is somewhat important, but hardly critical to 360. The current Wii360 scenario we're living (which they discussed as a positive possibility as far back as E6 06) is proof they can prosper without selling boxes in Japan.

MS has made it clear they want to build a full catalog of genres and big-name titles to legitimize their box as more than a hardcore gamer's box; that includes JRPGs, fighters, and hack-n-slashers for those that simply can't live without'em. But that is a present need thing; moving forward that need will be less and less important *if* things continue as they are going.

Demography is destiny and demographics and local tastes are all working to marginalize the japanese gamer market from the realities of the outside world.

By and large they refuse to buy outside hardware and content; they don't game on PCs, and they don't play online anywhere near as much as other gamer markets. As those kinds of games become mainstream outside japan you'll see more of what Capcom is doing: developing two product catalogs; one for domestic consumption and one for export. Lost planet has generated on the order of $100M for Capcom, 90% of it outside Japan. Dead Rising profiles similarly.

The owners of Naruto licenced the product to a local developer for the japanese market and to another (UBISOFT) for the west. And the games being produced are drastically different. Simply put; the west *demands* variety. And clever variations are applauded and supported.

If you take a look at the catalog of "system-sellers" (must-have games that showcase the hardware's capabilities) that both MS and Sony have lined up for this year, the bulk of them are western: Halo, GTA, Mass Effect, Lair, Heavenly Sword, etc. Think about it; what are the odds that Crackdown, Overlord, or the Club would be broadly accepted by japanese gamers even if they ran on, say the PS3?
Nil.

Different tastes.
And their market isn't growing anywhere near as fast as the outside world.
The dirty little secret of console gaming these days is that japan is only the third largest gaming market; Europe is tops and the US is a close second.
The way things are going, Japan could slip as far as fourth or fifth by the next console generation depending on how things play out in China and SouthAm. Brazil is going to be big! And India.
Check it out; times are-a changing.
Just ask MS; they're making strong plays in all those emerging markets.
That's what the core is for, you know...

Wow you stand as a glowing example of Western ignorance.

second that

who cares?

ofcourse ms would like to get as much of the japanese market as possible; they want to license as many games as POSSIBLE

To say that Japan is largely unimportant is very foolish. No company that wants to be profitable would ignore that market. That is why MS is putting a fortune into it, just trying to get their foot in the door.

As far as how important it is, on that we can have a difference of opinion. That is fine. Personally, I don't think it is integral, but I will stick with my original statement that you took offense to when I wrote that they will be "hard pressed" to be the best selling console. I didn't say it was impossible. But when tens of millions of people are buying another console instead of yours it tends to make things difficult.