Slashdot Mirror
The Xbox 360 and Japanese Nationalism
Ant writes "4 Color Rebellion has a transcript of a segment included with its recent Podcast. The piece concerns the launch of the Xbox 360 in Japan, a launch that's amounting to one of the weakest in Japanese gaming history. The authors look into the reasons behind the failure, and try to dissuade gamers from some poorly thought-out rationalizations for the console's lack of success." From the article: "McDonalds knew that some of its tastes would not appeal to the Japanese so they changed their menus. Along with the standard Big Macs and fries they also have Teriyaki burgers, fried shrimp burgers, and other things for the Japanese pallet. They didn't force the American tastes on the Japanese and thus, they thrived. Now look at the Japanese Xbox 360 launch lineup. First person Shooters, sports and car games. Games that sell really well in America but other than the car games are not to the Japanese taste. Had they launched with RPGs, simulation games, party games, gambling games and fighters, they might have done a whole lot better. McDonalds changed their company for the Japanese taste. Microsoft tried to change the Japanese taste for their company."
They should have used better Japanese advertising, such as: "XBOX 360 - Beautiful Happy Exuberance Maker!!"
Teriyaki and Fried Shrimp face plates for XBOX 360. Thanks for making me hungry with your analogy, jackass.
FTS/A: "[McDonalds sells] other things for the Japanese pallet"
The Japanese pallet? Stuff for Japanese straw beds? Huh. I knew the Japanese have some strange boudoir practices (to my sensibilities, anyway), but McD's?
Oh, wait... palate misspelled... I see.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
No, clearly they are referring to a base for a shipping containers. See, Japanese pallets are smaller than American ones, and the XBox boxes don't fit on them quite right, so the Japanese, looking at how that would mess up their JIT delivery systems, said, quite rightly, "it isn't worth the hassle".
You could've hired me.