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

C stands for Captain obvious?

[Fr05t]

"C-News would tend to suggest that the Xbox 360 will encounter consumer resistance when it is launched in Japan."

No tell me it ain't so! I really expected the Xbox 360 to do so well in the Asian markets!

Oh crap I forgot to open my tag.

Re:C stands for Captain obvious?

[ZephyrXero]

I think this survey has happened too soon personally. Xbox360 hasn't had any real showing in Japan yet...just here in the states. The only thing the Japanese gamers know is from what they've seen happen over here and in magazines. Isn't MS having a big press conference later this month in Japan? And aren't there supposed to be alot of big name Japanese developers on board this time? I think they need to redo this survey after that happens...and then maybe once more when the official prices come out.

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]

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

(I'm guessing your first "people" should be "way")

Some people (or as I like to call them, "idiots") suggested when the Xbox first bombed in Japan that it was because of some sort of "racism" or xenophobia against westerners. You don't seem to be going that far, which is good, but I should probably try to head this off before it goes down that road...

The Japanese have no xenophobia towards westerners. In fact, just the opposite - American and European products are "in" in Japan and have been for some time now. Levi's, McDonald's, Starbucks, Gucci, Prada, all incredibly powerful and popular brands in Japan. Western-style clothing has completely replaced Japanese-style clothing, western-style weddings are now standard (even if the participants are not Christian), and for a while the #1 film of all time there was Titanic. Even Pearl Harbor did pretty good box office, considering!

So to even suggest there's protectionism, xenophobia or worse, "racism" going on is at best ignorant.

The fact is MS just got it so completely wrong with the original Xbox that they will probably never recover there. They paid absolutely no attention to the wants of Japanese gamers at first - they do have different tastes, and they have different wants and needs as far as the design of the console itself goes. The system was not what they wanted, the games were not what they wanted.

One thing about Japan is there is a lot of brand loyalty, and conversely a lot of brand avoidance. If a company gets a reputation, it is very hard to shake that reputation. The Xbox pretty quickly got a reputation as being big, ugly, unreliable (the scratched disc issue was a big story there), with bad games that nobody wanted to play. Despite the marketing for the 360, that reputation is going to be a very tough thing to overcome there. If you ask a gamer in Japan what they think of when they hear "Xbox", the most likely answer is going to be "kusoge" (I'll leave you to look that up).

Even ignoring that, though, I'm not convinced the Xbox 360 has overcome all of the original Xbox's issues. It is still big. It is still not styled the way the Japanese expect a console to be styled. (Painting the thing white does not automatically make it look like a Japanese product.) The PS3 has some issues too, but Sony's brand loyalty can overcome that. MS is not operating from that position of strength there so they really had to nail the design of the system, and they didn't. At least not for Japan, despite all their best efforts (including consulting with a Japanese design studio - who they seem to have totally ignored).

I have a feeling MS will get more than 2% of the market when all is said and done, as they really are making a push with developers there this time. But they will still be a very distant third, and I'm not sure the ROI is going to justify the effort and expense.

Re:Protectionism?

[ZephyrXero]

I think it has less to do with nationalism and more to do with the fact that there weren't many Japanese made GAMES on the first Xbox... Where the system is not nearly as important as the actual games they're playing on it. There's supposed to be about 10 times the Japanese support this time, so it should do alot better this go round on that factor alone.

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.

Re:Protectionism?

[Khuffie]

Wait...did you just say the PSP went through a great deal of quality control?

Look at the current titles

[Iriel]

Just a glance at the games available for the Xbox and another look at some of the most popular games and genres in Japan should shed some light on this big mystery that Microsoft can't figure out.

While not all, most of the Xbox games are pretty geared towards American pop-gaming trends, and you can't expect to market to another country when you don't speak their language (figuratively, of course). You have to know your audience.

No Shit

[rAiNsT0rm]

Wow, this took a scientific survey? The Japanese are not suckers like we are here, in fact Europe is not either when it comes to consoles. One mediocre game (Halo) is not enough to get them excited in the least. They demand innovation, sometimes wacky, and also games that are targeted to them. Xbox will never supply this. How many unique puzzle games on Xbox... yeah. How many dating simulators/train simulators/anime/etc. titles on xbox... yeah. How many Hentai, Mahjongg, puyo pop, Katmari Damacy's... yeah. Oooh, a ton of crap-ass eye-candy FPS titles and an old GC rehash of Kameo redone... gee, I wonder why the Japanese aren't buying MS's bullshit marketing toward them.

Please, I just wish Americans would wake up and realize that these new FPS/media "consoles" are about as lame as vanilla ice cream when it comes to trying to push gaming forward.

Re:No Shit

[Cornflake917]

Wow, you modders have some serious issues. Any time some one says something along the lines of "Americans are naive and stupid," they get modded insightful. Why is that? The parent's post is nothing but flamebait.

There are no such thing as "FPS/Media Consoles." Hentai and dating games are not innovative (serously you're trying to tell us porn is innovative?) And Americans aren't clueless about video games. They just have a different and less socially inept taste of video games than the parent's.

Doesn't surprise me

[alvinrod]

Given how the Xbox sold so poorly in Japan, I'm not surprised that the Xbox 360 is expected to. To get an idea of just how much the Japanese seem to dislike the Xbox take a look at this article from GameSpot about sales in Japan for various games/consoles.

The Xbox sales for the first half of this year are 9,000 some units. Well that's to be expected from old hardware right? Wrong, the PS2 sold over one million units in the same time frame, and it's older than the Xbox. Additionally the top selling Xbox game in the period was Fable, selling 12,000 units. A re-released PS game sold more copies than it.

I'm not sure what it is about Japanese consumers that turns them away from the Xbox. Maybe it's the fact that both Sony and Nintendo are Japanese companies whereas Microsoft is from the US. Even with games like FFXI slated to come out for the Xbox 360, I don't think it's going to do much for it in the Japanese market. I firmly believe it will be #1 in America, but in Japan it might as well not even try.

Re:Doesn't surprise me

[thesandtiger]

I think it is largely a cultural difference, not a nationalistic difference.

Look at the styles of the games that do well in the larger markets in Japan and the US. For the most part, the Japanese mainstream just doesn't get into the same stuff that makes the USians buy games, and for the most part the reverse is true in the US.

If Microsoft wants the 360 to do well in Japan, they're going to need to make a huge investment in getting a large library of games that the average Japanese person will want to play. Sony did it right with the PS and PS2 - they have a huge library of games for Japanese gamers, and another huge library of games for USian gamers.

Now as to the FFXI game for the 360 - that's *one* game. And, there will be a few more that are *sort of* geared towards the Japanese market. But, unless Microsoft can come up with a must-have like Nintendogs, these few titles just aren't going to cut it.

To put it in reverse: Imagine if the PS2 library of "american" games numbered less than a dozen - no sports games, no beat-em-ups, no driving games, none of that stuff. How many USians do you think would buy a PS2 just so they could play Parappa the Rapper? My guess - about the same number proportionately as the number of Japanese who'll buy a 360 for FFXI.

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.

Re:Sick of people calling the Rev a poor E3 showin

[Saige]

Second the games shown on the systems were fucking pre-rendered crap that wasn't even running on the console. Whoopty fucking doo.

You mean, other than the 360 games that were running on Alpha dev kits at E3? At least one system was showing actual games...