looks like XBOX 360 might be headin the same path as the original did in Japan. Sony will still rule the gaming wars if japan doesn't accept the Xbox

Maybe it will work out that Sony is king in Japan, while Microsoft gets the rest... all the while Nintendo gets 11 and unders...

Apparently the new stats are out, I can't find an English version so I'm not going to post it, but the new XBox360's selling at the pace of about half of what they did for the original xbox. Most of my friends here won't buy it because there's basically no interesting games developed for it yet, and considering few of the games that there were for 360 had some horrible translations. I wonder how Microsoft as a software company can make a hardware, and miss the point that without proper software, no one's going to buy the hardware.

http://boycottsony.us

again! Another pointless post! What does boycotting Sony in the US have anything to do with X360 Sales in JAPAN? and the fact that Sony is the most popular console maker in JAPAN!?

so let em wait for the junk

Wow...now I'm lost, let who wait for what junk!? WTF are you talking about!?

"Sony is not expected to launch the PlayStation 3 until at least spring of 2006, with Nintendo launching its new Revolution console later in the year."

Hey asshat - Sony was relevant in this post. I provided a link to more information about Sony.

If you're going to be the post police, do yourself a favor and run your own board.

your link is to boycotting sony in the US, this post was based on JAPAN! ahHA!

btw. I'm very interested in seeing one of these "asshats" Are they comfortble? lol

I think asshats are what buttheads wear.

Just a guess...

Well send them back here -- I'm sure we can get a few more sold in the USA...

no kiddin

sony is junk

Genious! Absolutly Genious! You must have a PHD To come up with such a helpful comment! Where did you goto college at? Harvard? Man! I need to go there!!

scince when did you need to go to school to make an opinion ?

The Opinion was pointless to the article...The Article is about the X360 not selling well in Japan. Where does "Sony is junk" fit in? Yeah it talks that the PS3 launch is in spring...But that's not the primary topic...Just a itty bitty teeny weeny statment within the article... Look at my comment below...see how it's full of information?? I mean...I could've very well just put "Xbox is junk" But It's pointless and uninformative...

Just like this comment by DSM
"Who cares about Japan they are not the big gamers"

Stupid and uninformative...

soory i ment to reply to your comment, but i could care less,

Oh! You could care less? then why do you keep replying? lol

shhh...did you see the bottom of my original comment? shhh...I wasn't asking for opinions on sony...I was stating a fact! :)

i dont recall asking for opinions either, and thats not a fact

So me stating that Sony makes the most popular Game consoles in Japan, and that the Xbox didn't sell well in Japan aren't facts??? Wow now I'm curious...

LOL The Xbox did horrible in Japan, what made M$ think the 360 would do well!?!?! Idiots...The Japanese are all about sony. Sony Sony Sony! They are all waiting for the PS3, and currently enjoying their PS2's and PSP's with their really cool eye Toys! Why would the Japanese betray sony? Sony makes up like 30% of their economy! lol (Honda makes up the rest haha)

(yeah...haha! Sony's rootkit controls Japan! I know! I know! but we're not on the rootkit subject...so shhh.)

You apparently like Sony.

This news it not a suprise to me. Japanese market is too more expert for gaming than other regions in world.

WTF?

Sooo...japanese are the best gamers and worst writers in the world?

double post

Someone set up us the bomb. For great justice!

I'm sticking to my GameCube for the moment, and I'll probably WON'T be buying a 360 for a long time.
As to market potential, why the hell do you think MS is taking a hit of $150 plus, to sell units in Japan... Come on people, wake up!! Get to the japanese consumer and developers and you'll have a very comfortable position in the market, they are much bigger gamers then the US and Europe in a per capita basis.

Pfft - whining Pom. Here in Australia we're lucky if we get a new console below the $700 mark. Daylight robbery!

Still, wait 6 months and the price halves. :P Oh, but you have to remember we don't HAVE the XBox yet... and won't have until after Xmas. And PS3? Pfft. Lucky if we get that before Xmas NEXT year.

Those prices are ridiculously LOW!

Japan 39,795 yen ($330 USD).
United States $399 USD.

The UK price is a whopping £280 ($490 USD)
Looks like us British are getting screwed again.

And YES that is the official SRP from the xbox.com website!!

Agreed. I live in the UK too these days, and was shocked at the stupidly high price for xbox 360 here.

Whatever happened to globalization? If the prices really are consistent around the globe, then locking the consoles and games for different global regions would be pointless.

UK customers are being screwed. Take one game for example: Far Cry Instincts. Amazon UK = 29.95 GBP, Amazon US = 46.95 USD (26.80 GBP at today's rate). That's 3.15 GBP less - over 10% less! That's about the SMALLEST price hike I can find. How do they explain these prices? The short answer is THEY DON'T. They don't have to because we either pay up or don't play.

This wallet raping (to paraphrase another Betanews contibutor's emotive language) will continue for as long as the software developers are in league with, and under contract and license to, the console developers. When this unholy alliance - forced or otherwise - is broken, then we will start to see real competition in the market, like we do on the PC.

While these financial arrangements are in place so that Microsoft can make some money (it apparently loses money on the consoles), high prices force customers away. I'm not paying 40 GBP for a game. I don't care what game it is or how great it is. It's too much and I will not pay it. I will get myself a 360 in time, but I am quite happy to wait six months for the price to fall and buy a used one on ebay. And I will buy my games used on ebay too. And that means neither the Microsoft or the game developers get any money from me.

Yeah but you need to compare the price before tax. We pay 17.5% VAT which is alot higher than SalesTax in the USA. Also at the moment, the value of the £ is quite high compared to the USD which makes the prices seem more skewed.

You did not take into account taxes, you dolt....

It's not just for video games and hardware either.
The entire entertainment industry, right the way through to commodities like house prices and rent.

This country is one of the most expensive countries to live in.

It's getting quite annoying now cos I can't afford anything!! :(
It's time to immigrate to the US or Canada!

Hmm, it just came to mind that maybe they are waiting for PS3 to be released and compared them both at the same time, sure specs have been around since the rumor of PS3/Xbox 360 revealed but, still people can careless for specs until the real deal is at hand.

Japan is a major gaming market for Microsoft mainly (it seems to me) because if Xbox can outsell Playstation then Microsoft will have hurt Sony on its home territory. Sony losing its commanding lead in Japan would be very damaging for it, and be a tremendous victory for Microsoft.

As for the games available for Xbox in Japan, well that's been a problem for a long time, and I am surprised that Microsoft seems disinterested in doing anything about it. Final Fantasy should have been a launch-day title. I never much liked RPGs, but if Japanese gamers like them then the console should offer them.

Having said this, I was annoyed that Dead Or Alive was only available here in Japanese, with badly translated English subtitles.

I am not entirely convinced about the Japanese patriotic preference for Japanese products. I would not discount it as a factor, but I don't see such loyalties in other retail markets. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, Japan seems to manufacturer much of what it consumes right there in Japan.

The Japanese unlike us here in the US prefer to buy Japanese goods made by a Japanese company by a Japanese workforce whenever possible. A Japanese company will prefer not to compete with another Japanese company by supporting an outside company whenever possible as well. The majority of the Japanese software houses are not going to developer games for the 360 instead preferring to support the PS3 and Revelation. A few of the larger houses are doing multi platform however.

At best the 360 will be a niche market console in Japan much like the original Xbox. This is something the 360 fanboys just don't seem to notice. If the 360 dominates the US market and the PS3 and Revelation die... be prepared for a major split between the US and Japanese game markets.

Like I said before who cares about Japan anyways.

"The four largest markets for computer and video games are the United States, Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom. Other significant markets include Spain, Germany, South Korea, France, and Italy. China is not considered a significant market, most likely because an estimated 95% of video games sold in the country are pirated."

http://en.wikipedia.org/...omputer_and_video_games

The big gamers are in US

The big gamers may be in the US but you can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of US companies who have made videogames/consoles.

Wow...getting hot in here. Anyway, it's the games like the article said--I'm not a genius but I'm pretty sure that Japan prefers RPG's n' such to shootem up games. Japan likes Sony and Nintendo, yes, but right now even if they liked MS, there's no games for the 360 yet that appeal to Japanese gamers. Wait till FF XI and we'll see what happens.

You've hit the nail on the head..Japanese gamers prefer a genre not released yet on the 360.

Here's a small speculation/guess:

The slow start in Japan is because the Xbox is the only console that isn't made by a Japan-based company.

Thats what the article said.

Yeah... I noticed that right after I made the comment.

I posted before I read

...again. D'oh!

Not big gamers?!? If its a great game and it didn't come from the U.S. it came from Japan, get your facts straight. Next time your playing a game look at the credits and read all the names, you won't see many john smiths....

I was unaware that aside from Japan the only place in the world was the US.

Maybe you should know that perhaps the biggest console game ever released, the Grand Theft Auto series, is developed by the company previously called dma design, and they've released several great games over the years. So why am I telling you this? Becuase this game didn't come from the US, it actually came from the uk. So uh, maybe you should get YOUR facts straight there before you talk about something you dont know anything about.

If you want I can name tons more great European games and companies, but I guess "if it didn't come from the US it came from Japan".......

Codemasters....British
Black and White Studios...British
Eidos...British
Empire (Starship Troopers/Big Mutha Truckers)...British
Firefly Studios (Stronghold)...British.

..and on and on and on...

Who cares about Japan they are not the big gamers

Japan is the second biggest gaming market in the world, after the US.

You're kidding aren't you? You've got to be an American to come out with such as stupid comment. I bet you think the Sega Master/Megadrive and Nintendo consoles were American inventions. The Japanese single handedly invented the videogame. With the exception of Atari, virtually every videogames machine in any arcade was Japanese. They also were the main producers and designers of home videogame consoles as well.

Hmmm... Sega... Nintendo... Sony...

nah... they aren't big gamers in Japan at all.

Um no, Japan and Korea are much larger video game markets than the United States.

I almost made the same reply, but I didn't have any facts to back it up - it was just a guess.

You've got to be kidding! Nintendo, Sony, Sega--JAPAN. Squaresoft (FF 7), Konami, Capcom, all were from...JAPAN. Games are really one of their biggest accomplishments, dude.

"You've got to be an American to come out with such as stupid comment"

Using a thread like this to show anti-American hatred.
Well isn't that special?

Not really, a few dozen billion people also feel the same.

Relly the US is the larger market. The game market does not have anything to do with who makes more games and what not. It has to do with consumers buying the games. We buy more and this is why the Japanese companys love to try and gain a monopoly on the US market. Lots of money to be made.

"Not really, a few dozen billion people also feel the same."

There isn't even 12 billion people in the world. Only a stupid foreigner would make such a statement.

Let's see... First video game was a table tennis game made in New York by Willy Higinbotham. First interactive video game created in 1961 at MIT. First video game consoles (Coleco Telstar, Magnavox Odyssey, Intellivision, Atari, Magnavox Odyssey2, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, COlecovision, Master System, Mega Drive, Genesis, etc.) made by american companies.

http://www.gamespot.com/...es/video/hov/p2_02.html

i love this comment. the US pioneered many things and get knocked off by other countries because of the cheaper labor (to build the consoles) and their obession with not living life. the US comes up with the great ideas, then they get ripped off by other countries...

lol

Last I heard, there were less than 7 billion people living on this planet.

Unless you're including some other galaxies...

The US is the biggest market. Want proof:

PSP Sales (in less than a year):
10 million units -- US 4.5 million units, Japan 3 million.

Source: http://www.scei.co.jp/co...release/pdf/051021e.pdf

I live in the US.... but perhaps Japan is a larger market in terms of percentage of people who own video games? It's a much smaller country, quite a few of our states are bigger than it.

Although having a higher percentage of citizens who have to escape their lives by playing video games isn't something to be proud of...

What a 'tard.

the US comes up with many great idea and carry off their ego. just look at how DELL over sold IBM, HPQ (HP and Compaq) and they were much more established companies.

I love games and it does not matter who makes them, where I live and where I'm going. It is not always about graphics and sound, it is about the quality, the story line, or brainless fun. "Zork" http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/games.html
Consoles, computers, card and board games, are entertainment. If you can’t or don’t want to buy, go to a friends and play with him. Games are fun, by yourself, one on one or a party.(LAN party anyone?)

lol makes you wonder if they teach anything other then computers and cars in japan. :)

I teach in Japan (I'm Australian) and I see spoilt kids everday - plugged into GameBoys and Nintendo DSs. Adults who have families still play games. SEGA 'game centers' are huge in size and scope and sport the best arcade games that may never make it to the US.

So, just from what I can see in my classes, with my Japanese friends and on the street - the Japanese play games (modest understatement).

As for the Xbox 360... nothing happened here - it came to the stores and everyone said "...". Consider the Japanese consumer power - they buy/upgrade just because something is new. I've seen relatively new TVs in garbage piles waiting to be picked up, DVDs, CDs even game consoles - all waiting for the morning garbage truck to take them away. When the PS3 and Revolution hit Japan, the Xbox 360 will already be old news and no one will seriously consider it. Price is irrelivant to spoilt kids' parents - only names (Japanese names) and the ever popular RPG!

You AmeriCAN'TS need to realise the rest of the world does not like you!!! __END OF STORY__ :P

Says a stupid redneck who probably doesn't even know which end of his country Canada is bolted onto.

Only because you have a bigger population. As a percentage of the population, it's alot smaller than Japan.

Haha...what a moron. Guess you just had a geography lesson as you can now name two countries, America and Japan. Clue: there's alot more than that.

A stupid article written by a stupid American. The Master, Megadrive and Genesis were JAPANESE consoles made by a Japanese company.

ROFL. You'll be claiming the US invented TV and Radar next.

Guess what? Alot of the stuff you see in Hollywood films is LIES. you know, like the US capturing the first ENIGMA machine.

As for the US pioneering things and getting ripped off, I think you'll find most of your early space programme and all of your atomic bomb programme was actually the work of German scientists.

And in true style, the ideas the US come up with get IMPROVED by other countries because Americans are unable to get beyond the basics. Just look at your auto industry where the top selling car was a Honda.

If the US is so good, how come the only way tech companies can make money anymore is by sueing each other?

And as for not living life, how come so many Americans go abroad? Oh yeah...it's to sample the culture that doesn't exist in their own country. If you're so busy living life, how come your countries people are the fattest in the world? Clue: lots of time sitting in front of computers and TVs.

Most dimwitted and uneducated reply do far.

Japan are VERY big gamers, and a large market, as is Europe.

XBox is only selling in the US, as it's made by Micro$oft, and Americans love Billy Gates.

PS3 will wipe the floor, ex-box 360 will be a in-between generation console...

Unfortunatly, very few Americans ever leave the US.

80% of Americans have never owned a passport... They are simply ignorant of the rest of the world.

Don't want to burst any bubbles but all these bad vibs coming from both europe and America is funny , i havn't stop smiling yet lol.

Yes the gaming market is huge and yes America is a big market and yes Microsoft is huge but it is full of dumb asses in which im glad i live on a small island.

(Just think who founded America?? we teach you english and "YALL" still go a bugga that up!
WTF is "I'm going to bust a cap in your ass" mean anyway why not just say Im going to kill you? it's alot more threatening. I'd just laugh in you face cause were hard!!)

Oh and by the way "we all hate you" cause if you breed people like Malcolm Glazer you deserve to get your a** kicked on this forum and drowned by hurricanes and tornado's.

Don't want to burst any bubbles but all these bad vibs coming from both europe and America is funny , i havn't stop smiling yet lol.

Yes the gaming market is huge and yes America is a big market and yes Microsoft is huge but it is full of dumb asses in which im glad i live on a small island.

(Just think who founded America?? we teach you english and "YALL" still go a bugga that up!
WTF is "I'm going to bust a cap in your ass" mean anyway why not just say Im going to kill you? it's alot more threatening. I'd just laugh in you face cause were hard!!)

Oh and by the way "we all hate you" cause if you breed people like Malcolm Glazer you deserve to get your a** kicked on this forum and drowned by hurricanes and tornado's.

"and Americans love Billy Gates."

I agree with everything you said before, but I'm not so sure about this one. =p

"PS3 will wipe the floor, ex-box 360 will be a in-between generation console..."

And I'm still undecided about this... I'll just say I hope you're wrong.

That's because of geography more than ignorance.

The U.S. is so huge that most families travel to other parts of it for vacations, etc.

And the only other countries worth going to are across very large bodies of water. Whereas, in Europe, you can go to several other countries just as easily as visiting different states in the U.S.

The rest of the world loves AMERICANS. If it hadn't been for U.S. you couldn't post your message, because the internet wouldn't exist, neither would your Windows based PC, or much else. Remember, non-Americans need to use American money to figure out how much their money is actually worth. Soooooooooo, if you don't like Americans, try going to war with us, we'd love a chance to show you how weak you are.

You could tell the same for European people. Well over 80%, maybe excluding the UK which it's highly likely to have an higher percentage, surely never travelled outside the EU and surely never went to US/Canada or the Far East.

"Not really, a few dozen billion people also feel the same." -computershack

He knows there isn't a few dozen billion people in the world.. You shouldn't take that literally. He simply means A LOT of people.

I like this thread -- I get to hear everyone's opinions and it's cool. But I can understand how some of us feel towards Americans.. Americans always want to be the #1, and think that they are the right ones.. And that's okay and I like their strong confidence, but we Americans should all listen to and be cool with OTHER thoughts, opinions, and accept some FACTS and say maybe sometimes we are wrong.

And about the xbox360 sales in Japan, I don't think they are not buying entirely because Microsoft is an American company that Japanese people don't want them. Japanese people love American stuff! According to my Japanese friends they are waiting for PS3, and because of games that xbox360 offer aren't in too much of their interests as opposed to American gamers. As lots of you know that Japanese gamers prefer RPGs than racing car games, soccer than American football, and fighting games than shooting games. This is marketing.