20 Reasons Why The 360 Might Fail in Japan

1up.com has an interesting look at the forces ranged against Microsoft in Japan, as the 360 poises for a major push in foreign markets. From the article: "There are enough reasons (we have ten) to believe things will be different next round, and Xbox 360 will eat away at PlayStation's dominance in Japan. Yet there are those who still believe Japan will never embrace a non-Japanese game console (and we've got ten reasons why these arm-chair analysts are correct.) Warm up your typing fingers as we give you ten reasons why Xbox 360 could kick ass in Japan, and ten reasons why it could bomba bomba in Kutaragi's backyard."

Comments

Re:Um

[Evro]

It's a Zonk article, and it links to 1up.com, apparently some kind of kickback site judging by the rate with which Slashdot links to them.

From what I can tell in his bio, this is now Zonk's full time job... you'd think he'd put a modicum of research into the stories he posts.

I don't blame the Japanese

[alan_dershowitz]

For not wanting to play American games. I Don't want to play american games. I spent my teenage years playing Dragon Warrior and Phantasy Star, Mario Brothers, etc. Japanese RPGs are awesome, and their puzzle games are extremely creative. On the other hand, in the USA you get a slightly updated NFL game every year, or shit like BMX:XXX, Gex, and a shitload of terrible movie licenses.

American games feel like they were designed by marketers, not artists, because they are.

It does say they have "all" Japanese publishers on board this time...Maybe it'll be different then, I hope so.

PLEASE NOTE: The preceding was a generalization, there are some good american games. But clearly not enough that appealed to the Japanese market, or me.

--Proud Dreamcast owner, still has some of the best games ever.