JP 360 Stock Moves Slowly

Omkar writes "According to Kotaku, the Xbox 360's price has been cut to a mere $150 by several Japanese retailers. Apparently they can't send unsold inventory back to Microsoft, so they're desperate to free up space." Indeed, Next Generation reports that something like 60% of all Japanese stock goes unsold. However, 1up has found that the price cuts aren't the whole story. The price cuts aren't because of consumer interest, but a result of specially priced bundles. From that article: "... this is simple another example of Japan's hardware bundling practices. So, although the 360 isn't selling as quickly as it did in North America (about 28% of the units shipped have been sold so far, according to a Bloomberg report), the photo doesn't indicate that prices were slashed after launch day as some sort of desperate measure - it means that Japan has bundled offers that are just as annoying as the ones we have in North America."

Comments

Re:Umm..?

[UnidentifiedCoward]

Because this is slashdot and posting inane, misleading or false stories makes for better journalistic integrity.

And before I get accused of Microsoft bashing, M$ hating, free linux loving hippiness, I confess to wanting an XBOX360, but I am not going to buy until there is a title out for it worth buying. 12 of 19 ports? Some of them terrible? Let the hungry few get there christmas day release, I am waiting for a couple of titles worth playing and hopefully the market to cool off before I purchase one.

Of the employees I am friends with at MS, all of them are waiting to grab their console after the new year for aforementioned reasons. Now, if that is anything, that is news worthy.

Well here is a reference point

[SmallFurryCreature]

360 is sold out in the US and EU with even pre-orders not being fullfilled. Where as it seems you can just go to a shop in japan and pick it up.

At current supply levels it will be a while before you can just go to a western shop and pickup a 360.

That I think is very telling that right now the 360 is not a hot item in japan.

Of course there is one tiny little difference. It is the holiday season in the west, the time to give expensive gifts to your loved ones or even your kids.

Do the japanese have a similar season or have they adopted christmas for that purpose?

I find MS comments that hopefully DOA4 will cause sales to pickup funny. If you cannot shift a mere 150.000 consoles in japan on launch you have lost that market. Maybe the japanese are just upset at being last this time. Usually it is the EU that has to wait.

Anyway who cares. Instead of constantly chasing a market you cannot win focus on the US and EU market. Better OWN those markets totally instead of wasting resources on a half-assed conquest of japan. It is the smallest of the 3 markets.

Sigh...

[Schezar]

I guess the Japanese are smarter when it comes to gaming.

Buying a system on release is practically useless beyond the "hey, guess what I have!" factor: hardly any games, high prices, and first-generation bugs/issues.

Even if you really want an Xbox360, there's no reason not to wait. The games that are actually worth playing won't be out for a while yet, and the release catalogue is laughable. Having the system early only gets you some negative cashflow.

Now, don't think I'm some Nintendo fanboy or Microsoft detractor. There's no reason to buy ANY system on launch unless it has a decent game catalogue.

IMHO, the people spending thousands on Xboxe360s on Ebay are fools. Maybe if Halo were already released...

Re:Sigh...

[Coltman]

Buying a system on release is practically useless beyond the "hey, guess what I have!" factor: hardly any games, high prices, and first-generation bugs/issues.

I don't know if that is generally true. I remember 'huge' lineups and short supplies of PS2s in Japan when it was first released. They even got the first-first-generation of the PS2. It wasn't until the second or third line did North America get thier first look at a PS2, and then it was a while after that before Europe got it. There were hardly any games for it and it was pricey. I remember I paid $500 CDN for mine, and then I only played PS games until some good ones came out. (Just for the record, I bought it because my PS crapped out and I didn't have a DVD player yet)

I would guess that the XBox didn't do so well there for a number of reasons:
1. Functionality and size - The more stuff you can pack into a smaller area gets well recieved in the asian markets. The smaller the better.
2. Games - the lack of Asian brewed games. While MS has done market research in the asian market for games, the ones made by asians in the asian community seem to be better recieved. (No I don't have any proof, its just from personal experience from watching the markets)
3. The Company - Again asian brewed hardware and software that comes from an asian company gets better recieved than from an outside company. MS has an uphill battle when it comes to breaking into a patriotic marketplace.

Of course the 360 has improved much (size and functionality) but it still has to compete with things such as the PS2 slim model, and companies that have the patriotic edge. I am not surprised in the least that it is a slow sale there, I think that it will be better than the XBox, but it won't be as well as the PS3 and I think the revolution will be even better if the games are as revolutionary as the hardware.

IMHO

Re:Sigh...

[Evangelion]

Americans have been buying Japanese made consoles since 1985. The PS2 was not "breaking into" the market.

The X-box was really the first major American made console in over 15 years to be sold in Japan (and that's only if we're counting the Atari 2600)

Re:Reference point?

[badasscat]

So 360's are sold bundled in Japan. Fair enough. Are PS2's sold bundled in Japan? If they are, how much slower are 360 bundles being sold than PS2 bundles? Don't give me "percentage unsold" -- that's horrendously misleading.

Well, the thing about this whole bundling issue is that it's not a forced thing. You can either walk out of a store with an Xbox 360 for $330 or you can buy one for $150 with a year of net service. This is pretty common in Japan, but the point is the choice is still there. It is not like bundling here, where you have to take what the store wants to give you. (I'm not even sure that would be legal in Japan.)

So the real deal is that the Xbox 360 still isn't selling. It's not like all 80,000 or whatever of the unsold consoles are unsold because people didn't want to sign up for internet access at the same time. If a customer doesn't want that bundle, they're free to buy one without it. They're choosing not to. That's the story here.