RSSIt's the price point, stupid: Xbox 360 is the top seller in Japan
By Tim Conneally | Published September 17, 2008, 12:32 PM
Japanese gamer mag Famitsu today published Japan's weekly game console sales tallies, and Microsoft's Xbox 360 has secured the top position, thanks to compelling software releases and the console's refreshed pricing.
The Japanese market was initially lukewarm toward Microsoft's game console. Even after price reductions, the console's uptake only saw a brief surge over Sony's PlayStation 3.
Since the beginning of 2008, however, the American-made gaming console has not only caught up to its Japanese competitors, but has seen an amazing position swap. The release of Tales of Vesperia increased Japanese demand for the 360 to the point of supply shortages, but the real surge happened on September 11, when Microsoft slashed prices yet again.
It appears that "cheapest gaming system available" may be the most desirable title for a console to have above all else. The week in which the price cuts took place, a total of 28,861 Xbox 360s were sold in Japan. The previous two weeks combined only sold 3,899 units; an exaggerated low, of course, because of the limited console supplies. Nintendo's same-week sales for the Wii were 27,057 and Sony's PS3 were 8,050.
BETANEWS = FAIL
And once again Betanews is just flat out wrong. Spin anyone?
http://kotaku.com/505204...an-media-create-says-no
http://www.joystiq.com/2...t-14-infidelity-edition/
Wii is still king in Japan!
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|Boo hoo wahhh wahhh, for the Sony Fanboys...
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|Not bad at all for a game console that only joined the party about 7 years ago. It usually takes 10 to 15 years before a new product can even make a dent in the market share. Especially when the competition are giants such as Sony and Nintendo.
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|"It usually takes 10 to 15 years before a new product can even make a dent in the market share."
Hmmm...not when product lifecycles are shorter than that!
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|It's not true saying Japan hates American stuff because people there chose iPod over Walkman.
Before Tales of Vesperia and Infinite Undiscovery, Japan only got 2 mediocre RPGs. I don't think they'll buy it to play FPSs.
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|This headline probably made a lot of PS3 fanatics cry. :)
I wonder how long before they show up to put a spin on this or whine about the article being biased.
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|I can pretty much guarantee you they will come. :)
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|Nope. We are waiting for the MS fanboys to explain how the Xbox is better than crack cocaine just for our entertainment purposes.
Seriously though if you want the "spin" (or details) on this I'd say look at the buying tread for 2008 in Japan. Earlier this year we saw the PSP (you know that handheld that failed worse than the taco phone.) spike in sales where it actually beat the both the Wii and the DS at a 2:1 margin (50K a week). This happened right about the time a few RPG games cameout for the handheld and then a few weeks later the numbers returned back to previous averages.
Now take that same example and apply it towards the 360. You just have 2 decent RPG games that just came out with really no RPG games on the PS3 to talk about now or being released anytime in the near future. Same trend is happening here.
I think it's a little early to tell if the price cut has anything to do with this yet. I say that because the previous week had a pathetic total of 363 units sold (average is 2k a week prior to the new RPG games). Of course there is going to be some carryover into the next week and of course if that's the case the numbers are going to be larger than average.
There is that better for you?
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|They're here!!!
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|and they are pissed off =]
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|Not even close. I'm not really that worried about it either. I'd actually like to see the chronic Wii shortage problem disappear because of this. We will see in a few months what happens.
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|I like all three current game systems for different reasons. I use my 360 for personal gaming, the Wii for when my daughters and wife want to play as a family, and the PS3 is still just a Blu-Ray player, but a damn good one.
I find myself using the web browser for the PS3 more and more when I need to look up useless facts or settle an argument that can be solved via Wikipedia.
The Wii's web browser pretty much sucks and MS would have to be a fool to put on on thier console.
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|Well, really it's not like MS owns one and could just throw it on there anyway. :)
I'm with you. I don't think the 360 needs a web browser at all. The Wii's is clumsy even if you use a keyboard. It's so much easier just to leave a laptop in the living room.
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|The PS3's browser lets the left analog stick act like an eraser mouse on a notebook and it's much more slick and easy to use. At least the Wii's only cost $5.00 worth of points.
I'm glad the 360 is selling well, it is the best of the three IMO. Ever play Grand Turismo HD on the PS3? Ugh.
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|I thought about renting Blu-Ray movies from Netflix, but I noticed that they're charging $1 extra a month to do it. Yeah, I know I'm a cheap ass, but DVD's are good enough for me.
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|What?! I never got charged $1 extra a month to rent Blu-Rays...I am using Blockbuster now, but I was using Netflix only a few months ago and this was not the case.
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|Yep. I'm not exactly when they started doing it, but I was going to do it until I noticed they were going to add $1 a month. It has a check box that you have to agree to when you try to add a blu-ray player.
I think I read that there were some people that didn't even know they were being charged $1 more until they saw the news and checked their bill.
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/14980.cfm
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|Lets see if the internetworld person starts bringing in his BS.
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|Japanese market is very prone to buying stuff made in their country. For the same reason apple and nokia can't break the Japanese sell phone market. Getting #1 in Japan and being an American company says a lot.
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|The reason the american can't break the cell phone market is the lack of features that the japanese cell phones already have. Japanese use their cell phones to pay for things and phones such as the iphone do not offer that feature.
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|the fact that Xbox beats the PS3 _IN JAPAN_ sais quite a lot, in my eyes, as to how popular the Xbox has become...
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|Right... But then again, week after week, the PS2 sells as much as the PS3. Which should also tells us something about how popular the PS2 still is, or more exactly how unpopular the PS3 has become :)
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