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Tomorrow's Xbox 360 Japanese Launch
rAiNsT0rm writes "The BBC has a great story covering the looming Xbox 360 launch in Japan tomorrow." Next Generation is reporting that, while there are no firm numbers yet, the 360 likely sold about 320,000 units in its first week on the retail shelf. From the BBC article: "Pre-orders on the internet look solid, but I don't think the retail stores will sell out of Xbox 360s in the first day ... Serious game fans will likely rush to buy them, but I think most people are going to wait and see."
The Xbox 360 is set to make exactly the same splash in Japan that the original Xbox made. Which is to say, not very much.
There are ads for the 360 around - mostly in convience stores (Lawson's and 7/11, that I've seen). These are more like general stores in Japan - you can get games at some convience stores, its not considered a real hardcore gaming place. And the ads aren't even that big.
I recently purchased a DS and in actual game stores there is next to nothing about the 360.
On TV I've seen the commercial for Resident Evil 4 for the PS2 a dozen times in the last few days. I've seen exactly one Xbox 260 ad (for Perfect Dark) and that was at 3 a.m. (granted game commercials play mostly at those times, but I saw the Resident Evil/Biiohazard commercials during prime time too).
The DS on the other hand is eating up the game market. It looks to be the next PS2 (and that is still running strong out here).
I read the BBC article right before it was posted to slashdot and I don't think hardcore gamers here will buy the machine. There are zero Japanese interest games for the machine. Without even Dead or Alive, the machine's sunk. There's no interest that I can see here (granted I'm outside Osaka, and not Tokyo, but even considering Denden town, there's no interest).
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
Will the Japanese have the same problems with bundling, like those that purchased their 360s at Best Buy, in the USA?
Highly doubtful as nobody's expecting a sell-out as it is. With low demand, forced bundling would just reduce sales further. A customer can just walk out of the store and buy somewhere else, which was not really an option here.
Do retail outlets even DO bundling over there? I don't know.
I have never seen stores do it (factory bundles like pack-in games that come in the box are more common there, though), but that doesn't mean the idea won't ever catch on there like it has here. The Japanese have no problem copying ideas that they see have worked elsewhere.
On the other hand, antagonizing consumers is still considered "bad business" in Japan, so forced bundling may never catch on.
It is more than the base console, which is only $300.
$200 in 2002 dollars is $213.49 today, according to the inflation calculator here. So, no, the GameCube was not more than the base X360 console.
The Dreamcast also cost $199 when it was launched in 1999, and that's only $228 today.
The Xbox 360 core system is not really more expensive than most, but it is hardly the cheapest ever at launch.