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Xbox Struggles With Lackluster Sales In Korea
Thanks to the Korea Herald for its article outlining the disappointing performance of Microsoft's Xbox compared to the PlayStation 2 in South Korea. The article notes: "Just a year ago, Microsoft Korea, a unit of U.S.-based software giant Microsoft Corp., envisioned a bright future for its spiffy Xbox video game console... [they] initially aimed to sell 150,000 units during the first year. However, sales have fallen far short of this target at just 60,000 units." In comparison, "The Korean market has so far snapped up 600,000 PlayStation 2 game consoles since its debut 22 months ago." The piece attributes Microsoft's problems to the Xbox lacking "killer titles that instantly grab the attention - and the pockets - of game lovers", but also notes that "some critics attribute the glaring failure of Xbox on the Korean market to Microsoft Korea's poorly managed marketing."
This may be a little off-topic but who cares? I went out last night and finally bought a X box console, mainly because of the X box live feature. After getting home and checking out the 2 free games that comes with it, Star Wars and Tetris World, I was pretty excited because the gameplay and graphics were great(One could expect nothing less from Microsoft)although Star Wars and Tetris World aren't my kind of games. After playing for a little while I decided to go out and rent a couple of games. My first stop was at Movie Gallery, which to my disappointment there were hardly any games available, in fact there were nearly 3 to 4 PS2 games for every one X box game. So I left and decided that Blockbuster Video might be a better choice, and to my suprise it was the exact same way there. Now I know that PS2 has been out in the U.S. for a good while now and has had time to make plenty of games but give me a break. X box has been out for a few years now and there are hardly any games available for rent at rental stores. Now, I dont know about anybody else but I rent games before I buy them, seems pretty logical to me. Im not sure what the deal is, weither X box games are too expensive for rental stores to purchase games or it may be that X box isnt popular enough to buy many games for. My thinking is that this my in fact hurt X box sales. A person isn't going to buy a gaming console when find out that there are only a handfull of games, sucky games at that, at your local rental store. Just a Thought.
HaHaHaHaHa
The Live pack with 12 months of access and the headset goes for 60,000won, which is roughly $50.
Right now there's a bundle pack which has the system, Ghost Recon: Island Thunder and Splinter Cell, plus two months of Live service for 229,000won. (About $192)
The best deal is in Japan, though, where it's doing just as poorly. System, one additional controller, DVD kit, Halo and Project Gotham 2, plus two months of Live service - all for 19,800yen. (About $184)
The only strong selling point for the Xbox here in Korea is mod-ability. You can take it to the electronics market in Seoul (if you didn't just buy it there) and get it fitted with a modchip for about $40. The installer will also load you up with emulators, some roms and the region-free DVD hack - at no extra charge. Once that's done you can then buy any Xbox game for 15,000won. (About $12) You can also get emulators for nearly every classic console and have the ultimate retro-gaming machine if you want. The only people buying legit titles are the ones who haven't chipped their systems or if they want to use the game on Live.
Korean games market in "closer to Japan than the US" shocker!
The PS2 outsells the XBox roughly 10 to 1 worldwide, why shouldn't it do so in Korea? They may have had high expectations, but those expectations were frankly unrealistic.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
I can't speak for all of Asia, but the general view in Japan before the XBox came out was caution. People weren't dogging the system, but there weren't many fanboys either. People didn't know what to expect. However, when it came out, Microsoft got hit by a 1-2 punch. First, the XBox is huge. I own one, and love it, but I actually remember, before buying it, calculating where in my room I would have space for it. Admittedly, my apartment was so small even Japanese were surprised, but in a market where space is a commodity, making the largest system was a huge minus. Then, and far more damaging, was the CD scratching issue, which Microsoft tried to completely blow off. If I remember right, their stance was "the scratches don't affect game playability, so ignore it." BAD move. That's a bad approach anywhere, but in Japan, customer service fucking rocks. Sure, things are overpriced, sure, companies have a lot of control, but when a product ships with a malfunction, you fix it, apologize profusely, and hope to god that it doesn't do your product in. Microsoft's going to the other extreme of dismissing the complaints struck a humongous disonant chord, and even after Microsoft relented and took back the defective units for repairs, XBox sales never really took off.
Past that, it's just been the standard snowball effect of "few users, so few companies produce games for the system. Few games for the system, so few people buy the system." Keep in mind that the Japanese XBox has something like 1/3 of the number of games that the U.S. one does, and the actual breakdown is more depressing: while not having games like GTAIII, SSX 3, KOTOR, Tony Hawk, etc., they do have separate Mah Jong, Shogi, Igo, and Othello games. Sure, people like these types of games, but nobody decides to buy a system because of them. The Japanese selection of games, while having a few bright stars, is basically a collection of muck. I even distinctly remember them hyping Nezumikkusu (Sneakers) as a groundbreaking flagship game.
Sorry, a little long-winded. Still, I would say that XBox's failure in Japan was less due to cultural perceptions of Japanese customers, and more to do with Microsoft not trying to adapt to the Japanese culture. That is, it wasn't so much the perceptions as the actual reality that shut down XBox viability in Japan.
Personally, I was one of the dumb ones who bought an XBox here when it first came out. Luckily, no scratching problem, but when I noticed that all the games I wanted to play were released only in America (note that my tastes differ from Japanese tastes, as I am American), and the Japanese games were scraping the barrel bottom, I eventually caved in and bought a US XBox. I now have a great game system that I enjoy, sitting on top the biggest, blackest region 2 DVD player on the market.