GameCube Outsells PlayStation 2 In Japan

Thanks to Gamesindustry.biz for their article discussing the latest Japanese console hardware sales, in which it's revealed that the GameCube marginally outsold the PlayStation 2 this week, by 35,600 units to 35,300 units, largely "thanks to the release of Namco's RPG Tales of Symphonia", whose success we mentioned a couple of days back. Unfortunately, the third major console fared less well: "The picture was a little less bright for the Xbox, which slipped behind the PSone in the rankings again - selling 650 units to the PSone's 960. In market share terms, it was only one tenth of a percentage point ahead of Bandai's SwanCrystal. Ouch."

Comments

Stop the Bleeding!!!

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

650 compared to 35,000??? Those are not good numbers. My first reaction to seeing that was to wonder why Microsoft wasn't pulling out of the Japanese market. But I suppose that the Microsoft thinking is that you've got to get the name associated with console hardware so that XBox2 has a better shot. Of course, I think that could really backfire on them. It seems that once you have a console that doesn't do well, you've got a stigma attached. Look at Atari, they reigned supreme but then fell off the face of the planet with the 5600 and that stigma stuck with them as can be seen by the Jaguar. I don't think many consumers took the Jaguar seriously. Likewise with Sega - their SegaCD and 32X hurt sales of the Saturn and subsequent sales of the Dreamcast. Obviously there were more issues involved in these instances but it seems like once a company is seen as a hardware loser, it is very hard to get back in the game on the next go-round. So what can Microsoft do to sell the XBox2 in Japan? Anything?

It's a tough question. Of course, maybe someone at Microsoft will see this post and say, "Uh oh, this Acidic_Diarrhea guy on Slashdot thinks we're in trouble in Japan! I better call Bill."

Or maybe not...

Not only Tales of Symphonia...

[GrosTuba]

Another great RPG was released very recently, which quite boosted Nintendo's both living-room and handheld consoles sales : Final Fantasy : Crystal Chronicles

In fact, in the charts I read, the GBA SP was first, followed by the Cube, and then by the PS2, and I just thought FF:CC might be more than a bit responsible for this...