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Slow Start For the 360 in Japan
psycln writes "Microsoft may have to try a little harder in marketing the Xbox 360 to Japanese consumers if initial reports coming out of the country Saturday are correct. Several news reports indicate a slow reaction to the new console from Japanese customers. Apparently next day delivery is still an option to the Japanese consumer!" From the BBC article: "One senior store official said the customer reaction had been somewhat "subdued", with fewer than 50 consoles sold in the first two hours. However, Mr Moore said that several hundred units appeared to have been sold at the store he was at within the first three hours. Takeshi Tajima, a BNP Paribas analyst, told Reuters news agency that serious game fans would rush to buy the new console but 'most people are going to wait and see'. "
It's pretty obvious why the 360 isn't selling well in Japan. Microsoft just kind of half ass their advertising over there.
In Japan, O is synonymous with "correct", and X is synonymous with "wrong" (they flipped the PS controls in America, in Japanese games "O" is almost always accept, and "X" is cancel). Instead of just meaning "beyond" or whatever it means here, X has the added connotation of failure. So "Xbox" can be translated as "failure box". One poster on /.J pointed out that if you "translate" "Xbox360", you get "failure box", with a hastily appended circle to make it succeed.
Sendou Wave Kick!!
I'm guessing the main reason X360 sold out in the US is due to eBay. Have you searched for xbox 360 on eBay? Have you seen the people that bought 12-20 xbox 360s at launch in order to sell them for 3-5x more than they paid for them? I do hope at least half those people end up stuck with hardware they can't break even on!
All people in Africa are black and will rape small babies and eat them if given a change. Oh and people in Germany fart saurkraut and set fire to Jews for Kwanza. And Japanese people have no souls.
-Dipster