Xbox 360 sales best PS3 for first time in Japan
I’ll admit this post is more about poking (in a friendly way) fellow VTOR author Darius who once debated with me that the Xbox would never be accepted in Japan. Check out this Reuters story, Darius:
In fairness to Darius and others who also strongly believe Japan won’t accept the Xbox 360, this was the first time the Xbox 360 has ever outsold the PS3. Nearly 3 to 1 for the week ending sales, according to the story. Microsoft ripped a page out of the Sony book by closing an exclusive Xbox 360 only title with the RPG Tales of Vesperia. Japan gamers flocked to this title in big waves. I haven’t played this game yet, but now it’s on my radar.
Bottom line: when it comes to gaming I believe it has little to do with what company makes the console, even if the console hardware has the worst ever failure rates (we’re on our 6th Xbox 360 console in less than 30 months). If you make a killer game and it can only be found on ___ console, they will buy the console for one game. Remember games on Neo-GEO once cost as much as some game systems did at the time.
Although I admit to not knowing much about the Japanese culture, it seems to me that they appreciate good games, especially RPG. Those who do know more about Japanese culture, am I missing something that would have them protest against Microsoft other than being more loyal to a home team company like Sony?
August 19th, 2008 • 
TD Goodliffe • 
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comment | August 19, 2008 at 04:44 | individual comment-link
It was a brilliant move by MS. Although why they didn’t do it earlier is beyond me. Like I’ve said time and again. Japan = RPG. You have to play RPG world. Just as MGS4 made waves for PS3. The point being that if it’s bundled with the right game, and people were waiting for the system anyways… that’s the tipping point on the scale.
Personally? I still think that your overall 360 sales in Japan are going to slide after this spike. Microsoft just doesn’t understand the culture and isn’t pumping out the horror/RPG realm. They’ll buy, if it’s decent, not if it’s Sony.
Remember our discussion about cutscenes? Asian gaming is all about it.
pingback | August 19, 2008 at 10:10 | individual pingback-link
[...] North America but not so fabulously in Japan… well, there you go. Apparently they finally are getting it though. Took long [...]
comment | September 4, 2008 at 07:15 | individual comment-link
I think with all of the extra features that the Xbox 360 offers that the PS3 just doesn’t (think playing all of your music/picture/video files on your media center pc from your 360), that it’s only natural that the 360 succeeds. I like my 360, I’ve been using it for over 3 years, had the red rings once, fixed it myself, and have been happy ever since.