No Christmas Miracle for Microsoft: Xbox 360 Flops in Japan – Sales Lower than the Original

That, and the 360 has some real engineering issues that will need to be addressed before the system gains a wider acceptance – you know the ones i mean…

Also, Sony has a lot of power in that part of the world/market. We need to have Samsung and LG make consoles, so the console war can really ramp up.

Its not a matter of “why they won’t buy it”, its more of a question of “why the hell would they buy it”?

The original Xbox failed so bad in Japan because it was a big, black, loud, piece of crap with nothing but bland, colorless gory shit that only Americans would consider a game. It had almost nothing that the Japanese would consider fun to play other than the DOA games. Elder Scrolls games don’t come to mind when you say “RPG” to a Japanese kid. The XB never had a single real RPG that would click with fans of Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, etc. The few puzzle games all sucked too. Sega GT2002, and Fortza are probably the best racing games made, but unlikely to get noticed if everything else about the system is a joke. The XB excelled in FPS games, and anything else where brown was the primary color, but Japanese gamers don’t like that stuff. MS got a decent hold in the US market buy buying companies outright when no one would volunteer outright to make XB exclusive games. Bungie obviously made the money back, and the bribes to Tecmo payed off, but I don’t know about other “investments” like Rare. Nintendo must have been laughing all the way to the bank with that check. “You will pay $100m for a company that hasn’t had a hit in 6 years?! Deal!”

I thought that maybe the 360 would do better if for no other reason than the fact that the hardware is at least (much) better looking, but really that’s not enough.

Americans all want a 360 because they want the rare console of the moment. They love buying plastic boxes and wigging out in their minds about how much “power” is in there. They also know MS is losing a ton on the things, which basically equates to them selling the console being a bribe payment from MS to the consumer hoping will take it, and let them take over the game market. As Americans many of us love that, but I think it goes right over the heads of the Japanese. If they are going to drop cash on an gaijin console, its going to least have to have a game or two worth playing on it. Of course the Cube outsells it. You can play Zelda, Metroid, Sonic, Dragon Ball, Naruto, and Resident Evil on the Cube, and the thing only costs 9800 yen (or less).

Personally, I can’t wait until the stockholders realize that the entire XB division has done nothing but lose billions of dollars, and they pull the plug. Sales for the XB aren’t bad overall, but it does nothing but lose money non-stop in massive quantities. There is no way MS will see significant black ink from the XB division until its at least a decade old. That’s an insanely long term strategy. Personally I don’t even see why they are still in it other than shear belligerence. Sure MS has a lot of money to waste thanks to the Windows monopoly, but they didn’t get that way with suicidal business practices.