Survey Sees Tough Times for 360 in Japan

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that a survey recently conducted by Japanese news agency C-News would tend to suggest that the Xbox 360 will encounter consumer resistance when it is launched in Japan. From the article: "The poor showing for the Revolution is perhaps understandable, given that Nintendo has released only sketchy outline details regarding the console so far - but the figure for the Xbox 360 will come as a disappointment to Microsoft, which has focused heavily on the Japanese market in recent months." GameDailyBiz has a look at the survey as well, concentrating on the PS3's popularity.

Comments

Protectionism?

[UberChuckie]

Is protectionism a factor in the same people many people would only buy domestic cars?

Re:Protectionism?

[danzona]

Is protectionism a factor in the same people many people would only buy domestic cars?

I don't know if I would call this protectionism (maybe nationalism?) but I agree with your example.

The same mindset that made Americans (back in the 70s/80s) insist that American cars were better than Japanese cars, despite overwhemling contrary evidence, probably exists in some Japanese making them insist that Japanese consoles are better than American consoles.

Although in this case they are probably right.

Re:Protectionism?

[badasscat]

May I enquire if you have been there?

Only about a hundred times, both as part of my former job in the video game industry and for pleasure.

Since all of us have AIDS and enjoy raping japanese youths, you won't live long enough to enjoy the close company of many Japanese.

You'd probably want to inform my wife of that. She was born and raised in Ryu-Gasaki. How do you think I know about western Japanese weddings?

btw, you are one of the "people" I was referring to in my original post. If this is your idea of what Japanese people think of us, then you are at best misinformed.

You missed a detail.

[AzraelKans]

Your theory (which is what it is after all) seems interesting except for a detail, if western is so "IN" then shouldnt they be interested in western games as well?

I mean, when anime was completely "IN" America, anime games were also "IN". Suddenly Japanese can handle 2 hours of Pearl Harbor (dear god their resistence for crap is amazing) but they cant play halo ( a space soldier fighting aliens? there must be at least a 100 animes/manga with the same theme) or a Fighting/Volleyball game with girls showing cleavage? (I mean seriously THEY invented that genere)

Anyway if you look at it from a pretty strict point of view, the reason why there arent enough Japanese related games for the xbox is because there arent Japanese developers for the Xbox in the first place, so Why the japanese dont want to develop games for it? since a western console is so "IN" according your theory?

Also the xbox is technically speaking just like and in some details even better than Japanese consoles. So no, technology is not an issue. (and in case you were wondering yes there is xbox live and DSL in Japan)

Sorry but your theory doesnt hold water at all.

Guess what? people who believe the Japanese are a bit protectionist may not be idiots after all.

Re:You missed a detail.

[badasscat]

Your theory (which is what it is after all) seems interesting except for a detail, if western is so "IN" then shouldnt they be interested in western games as well?

Two things:

1. They are interested in western games. They are just not interested in bad western games. American and to some extent European audiences don't seem to see the difference. I mean what are you expecting, a crap GTA ripoff like True Crime: Streets of LA to sell as many copies in Japan as here? A mediocre shooter like Halo selling millions of copies? The fact that American gamers have lost their sense of taste doesn't mean everybody else in the world has.

But good western games do sell there. GTA3 has sold close to 500,000 copies and Vice City also topped the charts, as two examples. EA's sports games also do pretty well. Right now, a Ghost Recon game is sitting at #17. So it's not true that they will not buy western games; they will buy them if they think they're good.

Also, you're assuming every western game is even released there, which is not the case at all. The Xbox library in Japan is miniscule in comparison to here. The number of PS2 games from the west is also tiny there. If they had the choice, they'd probably buy even more than they do - I mean the Xbox is not the only system in the world that western developers release games for.

But...

2. Just because a culture is considered hip or cool doesn't mean every single aspect of that culture has to be accepted. The point I was making is that it's foolish to suggest that the Japanese are generally xenophobic or nationalistic - they are no moreso than any other country, and the fact that so many western brands and products are popular there is proof of that. That doesn't mean they need to have exactly the same tastes as we do, or that they need to accept anything we shove down their throats. This is exactly what MS thought would happen when they released the Xbox originally there, and when it didn't, they acted shocked and surprised. You've got that same mentality.

On the one hand you can take something and say "oh, the Japanese love western culture, so as long as we market this, they'll buy it", and on the other hand you can throw up your hands and say "oh, they're just a bunch of xenophobes, they hate everything that's not Japanese". Neither of these statements is true in the slightest, and I was neither implying nor stating they were.

What I was stating was that there is no ingrained bias against foreign products, and that in fact in parts of the demographic there is an ingrained bias in favor of foreign products. That doesn't mean you don't still have to take individual tastes into account.

There is no big mystery about the Japanese consumer mentality, but it still seems like so many people just don't get it. In almost all basic ways they are just like us. That doesn't mean they have the same tastes as us, but they do make their decisions basically the same way - i.e. "has this company made products I've been happy with before? What is their reputation? Do my friends like their products? Does the product look good? Will the product fit in my house? And do the sub-products [e.g. games] that go along with it also meet those criteria?" It really is not rocket science, but it does require some homework to identify and understand the differing cultural tastes at work.

Guess what? people who believe the Japanese are a bit protectionist may not be idiots after all.

I see you've taken that personally. Looks like I hit the mark.