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Has The Xbox Failed In Japan?
Thanks to GameSpy for its article interviewing Microsoft executives about the Xbox's popularity in Japan. According to the article, 400,000 is the 'magic number': "...the number of Xbox consoles Microsoft has sold in Japan since launching the system in February, 2002. It is roughly the number of copies of Grand Theft Auto that Capcom has sold into the Japanese market. And, historically speaking, it is the approximate number of 3DO consoles in Japan as well." Apparently, "'That is the yogei-acceptable number in Japan'. [The term "yogei" refers to foreign or Western.]" However, Mike Fischer of Microsoft suggests that "game developers are tired of Sony's dominance in the market, and that that more Japanese-appropriate hardware will lead to better sales in Japan which will lead support from companies like Square/Enix which will then lead even greater acceptance in Japan."
Wow. What a bunch of crap.
Have you ever visited Japan? You know who the two biggest commercial draws in Japan were in 2002? Bob Sapp (a washed-up NFL player, turned K-1 "fighter".) and David Beckham.
Japanese markets eat stuff that's huge in the States and Europe up BIG TIME.
The XBox is failing on many reasons. It's HUGE, the average Japanese house has very small living room space, and it's common space. It's also commonly used for sleeping. Kind of hard to do that with a huge-ass console plus controllers there.
Second, the XBox commercials SUCK. The XBox Live commercials in Japan were easily the worst video game commercials. One had this scantily cald woman, who looked like she was on drugs, creeping along a wall that's littered with pie remnants. She slinks up to one of them, and tastes the pie. That's it.
In version 2, a man is in an elevator. A demon pops out from the ceiling. Man's elevator falls through the floor. This makes me interested in a system's online capabilities, how?
What are the biggest console game sellers in Japan the last 3-5 years? RPGs. By far. Pokemon, FF, Dragon Quest. If you ain't selling them, you ain't selling consoles.
What does the XBox not have? An RPG.
Why is the average Japanese RPG fan going to buy and XBox and Live when a PS2 and FFXI is going to take up all his time?
Figure out the answer to that question, and then go apply for a high paying job at Microsoft. Until then, the system fails not out of jingoism, it fails because of Microsoft's failure.
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I know it's not a lot, but at least this kind of humility is a start. While there is still arrogance throughout that interview, I think Microsoft is finally getting the picture that you have to earn respect in Japan before anything else, and the same blitzkrieg marketting tactics don't work their like they do here.
Jingoism aside, the XBOX is a very American-centric system. It's big, bad, and proud of it, pretty much why everyone hates all things American at the moment. It's hard to buy loyalism this way.
As a counter example, I present Apple. Apple takes up a significant computer market share in Japan, despite being an American company. The Japanese love Apple products because they're simple and elegantly designed. As a corollary, this is also why they like laptops.
All things aside, the XBOX is a great console. From a developer side, it's a godsend. It unfortunately has the problem of being a Microsoft product being marketted by idiots. It is also so American it might as well bleed red white and blue.
If MS would just drop the arrogance and American pride for some humility, as well as hire a competent marketing team with global marketing experience, and finally hire some hardware designers with some modicum of zen aesthetic design, Microsoft would be a force to be reckoned with.
--jedi\/\/.