Xbox 360 sells few units in Japan
“It’s not going to be a big hit in Japan,” said 26-year-old Kentaro Okamoto, one of the first Xbox 360 buyers. “I buy every new game console… but normally Japanese customers only buy a machine when it’s made by Sony or Nintendo.”
Hard-core gamers overlap with heavy computer users and many of them have a negative image of Microsoft’s Windows software because of its price, lack of after-sales support and unstable operating system, he said.
“Microsoft needs to make enormous efforts to overtake its Japanese competitors,” Okamoto said.
Another buyer, Mayuko Taniguchi, 28, said she knew she was in a minority of Japanese consumers who would buy the Microsoft console.
“I think many people would rather wait for PlayStation 3 or Revolution,” she said.
Analysts say the first Xbox, which was launched in November 2001 and came to Japan in February 2002, flopped in Japan partly due to a lack of games that appealed to local tastes.
Microsoft has sold 21.9 million units of the first Xbox console worldwide since 2001 but only 1.8 million were sold in the Asia-Pacific region including Japan.
Sony Computer Entertainment said at the end of November its shipments of the PlayStation 2 console had topped 100 million since March 2000, including 22.2 million in Asia alone.”
Apparently they only sold 39% of their inventory. Not sounding good.