Comments on: Microsoft crack Japan

By: SuperJoe

SuperJoe — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:23:10 +0000

To be honest, this means nothing. The “Tales” series has never been this popular (Not even in Japan)… Which is to say that the Japanese are very desperate for RPGs, or JRPGs. It is a good step forward for MS, but not a leap. They need to feed the interest of the Japanese community, by licensing more JRPGs, in order to actually claim a victory. This in no way means that Sony or Nintendo are hurting, this may have made them flinch, but more than likely they have counter measures.

By: Thom Dinsdale

Thom Dinsdale — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:52:49 +0000

One game is not how to deliver long term satisfaction and consumer loyalty. While this is certainly a good step forward (all be it a late one) for Microsoft I think they have a long way to go before they “crack” Japan.

By: RabbitC

RabbitC — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:13:45 +0000

Watch the PS3 fanboy denials cometh – lol. Is this a temporary ‘win’ for Microsoft? Certainly! …but oh what a win it is. It is no small feat to take on an in-house Japanese company on its own turf and reign supreme – even if it IS only for a week. Microsoft has defied critics by hanging in there and applying good business practices to win the day. They should be congratulated – and without having to disguise their console as a hi-def cinema device: the REAL reason to the PS3’s success (or is it BluRay’s?)

By: Buckfifty

Buckfifty — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:46:18 +0000

Can’t see this as more than a blip. If there’s a thirst for JRPGs, there’s plenty coming month in and month out on the PS2. A JRPG experience is not going to be so dramatically improved on X360 that Japanese consumers will gamble on a foreign system with a known quality problem.

By: Caid Johnson

Caid Johnson — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:56:38 +0000

PS3 outsells 360 in America, 360 outsells PS3 in Japan…
Welcome to the twilight zone.

Caid

By: Robin

Robin — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:59:20 +0000

So Japanese consumers are going to start buying games they’re not interested in and using an online service which is completely impenetrable based on goodwill for a single RPG? Wasn’t that what Mistwalker’s games were supposed to do? And FFXI before that?

MS need to deliver an ecosystem, not one-offs that appeal to genre fans. But they wrote Japan off years ago.

By: Trini

Trini — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:40:48 +0000

Well Rodders, how bout you stop being sacarstic and admit that microsoft is actually doing something right in Japan….they’re stepping up and that needs some appraisals….Everybody likes to talk about Microsoft isn’t doing good in Japan and only gets their sales from the U.S….That’s a big DUHHHH!!!!! Xbox 360 is an American product…..Where as Nintendo and PS3 will do better in Japan, why? because they are products of the japanese market…..they know what their country likes…..just like Microsoft knows what America likes, they are new to the gaming industry so let them grow instead talking trash……God fanboys make me sick…..

By: 50 Cent

50 Cent — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:20:50 +0000

Yep they have a nice string of titles lined up, and itd be great if raise the usebase to around a million. Also with the combination of these titles, they may move from 1.5k units to around 5k weekly. It may not be great, but its a decent amount.

360 software sales in Japan arent completely non-existent, big titles there are selling quite a bit, and for the userbase, its a very high attach rate. Plenty of Japanese devs have jumped on board, imagine when the userbase hits around 1.5 million, thats a good presence.

The only problem is, Blue Dragon pushed 200k 360s, but sold 80k first week with 45k 360s. It continued to sell at around 20k and so as mentioned hit 200k. With ToV, its sold 105k first week and 24k 360s. Thats good and bad. For starters the game sold more, yeah name helps, but BD had HUGE marketting. Unfortunately on the hardware side, its not as great, it sold half of what BD pushed. So the important question is sustainability, will that 24k mean its halfs to 12k and then into obscurity, or does the Tales name keep sales steady for a few more months before it goes back to normal? Well have to see

By: Bythomas

Bythomas — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:25:34 +0000

Its nice to see the xbox doing well in japan i see it as the superior machine to playstation 3 i’ve always been a sony man i never owned the original xbox but since the 360 i’ve been blown away the online is great games are great and look great i know the reliability is a issue but microsoft have responded where as when my playstation 2 whent wrong many times it cost me £80 a time with sony so i hope the 360 prevails i thought the dreamcast was better than the playstation 2 but there was no support!

By: Evan

Evan — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:56:22 +0000

It will be a good thing if Microsoft can manage to become more competitive with Sony and Nintendo in the international markets. However, I find it much more significant that the PS3 has been consistently outselling the X360 this year in North America than that the X360 managed to outsell the PS3 for a single week in Japan.