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360 To Be Relaunched In Japan
GamesIndustry.biz reports that Microsoft is planning to relaunch their next-gen console in Japan ... now that there are some games to offer players. The event is scheduled to happen in June, to coincide with that country's launch of Ghost Recon, among other titles. From the article: "It's not yet clear what form the relaunch might take - whether it will see the console's pricing or bundles being changed, or if it will simply be a new marketing campaign focused on the locally relevant software available for the system. Japan was the only territory where the Xbox 360 did not sell out at launch, despite having a smaller allocation than any other market, and in fact the launch underperformed by comparison with the launch of the original Xbox - itself hardly a stellar success story in the region."
Why fail something once, when you can fail it twice at twice the cost?
I encrypt all my files with Double XOR Encryption!
I blame the Xbox360's lackluster sales in Japan (and poor reviews in the states) on the fact that the release wasn't very impressive-- the games just weren't there. Now that they're building up a library, I think that more people will pay attention (the lack of games at launch were what kept me from buying a Nintendo DS). While I'm hardly an Xbox fan, I hope this move works for them.
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I guess this is what mean when they call Microsoft a 500lb gorilla bullying their way into whatever market they feel like dominating? I don't know any company that has deep enough pockets to go through this much effort to gain foothold in a particular region. (Albeit, a very important region). I would really like to know how much money they've spent in the Japanese marketon marketing and development. I heard they really beefed it up for the original 360 launch because of the dismal failure the original xbox was in Japan. Only to see it fail even worse. Hmm .. maybe you can't just through money at 'culture' and expect to win them over after all?
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"Never time to do it right. Always time to do it twice." Saw this a lot as a consultant. Never rings truer!
Didn't Nokia try that with the N-Gage?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Does that mean it will be recrashing, too?
'Loose' is when your pants are three sizes too big. 'Lose' is when you misuse 'loose'.
What games does the 360 have that appeals to the Japanese market? I know MS must be smart, but this is just stupid. Do they really not get it?
They're relaunching it to coincide with the launch of Ghost Recon? Again Microsoft show they have made no attempt to research the Japanese market.
maybe you can't just through money at 'culture' and expect to win them over after all
Unless you got a Great Artist to culture bomb a city.
Got Game/Music/Movie? In NZ? Swap Them Here
so they are calling for a do over...Game informer actually got it right in their Game Infarcer joke section...that's sad.
I wonder if they will call for a third try when the Mistwalker RPG's are released and 99 knights come out.
Oh wait, Tom Clancy's Ghost recon Advance warfighter is just now getting released in japan? Hell I can understand why they want a do over, That game is really going to push 360's in japan, Everyone knows how well FPS' are recived in japan after all.
Japan doesn't need or want a FPS game like Ghost Recon. What they want is Brain Training and Nintendogs. They want Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. They want Zelda and Mario.
If the second launch doesn't include any new genres, then I expect it to succeed as much as the first one. That is to say, not at all.
Funtime Candy Wow! - my plan for eventually conquering Japan.
Once GhostRecon comes out. I'm in the States, not Japan, I'd like to point out, but GhostRecon's latest offering seems like a very attractive title. And, of course, now that Oblivion is out...
Informatus Technologicus
Final Fantasy XI is slated to be released next month on the Xbox 360 along with the release of the Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion. I've heard rumors that MS plans to ship 360s in Japan with FFXI already installed on the hard drives to boost sales. PS2 and PC users (I use the PC version) will need to get the expansion while the 360 version will already include it.
FFXI on the 360 looks just like FFXI on a high-end PC with high-res textures and bumpmapping. The overall artwork won't look that different than the PS2 version but it will not be quite as fuzzy and will look better. Its expected that there will a PS3 version since its inconceivable that SquareEnix would abandon their VAST army of current PS2 users.
FFXI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan for the PC and PS2 is coming out April 30th similtaneously in Japan and the US.
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
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http://thezorch.googlepages.com/home
What is this "relaunch"? A console can only launch once.
Are they going to bundle a game with it? Nintendo's done that with the Gamecube like 4 times and they weren't called "relaunches". Are they going to ship more consoles? No... that's not neccessary. Are they going to market it agressively? That's still not a "relaunch", that's a "marketing campaign".
Maybe it's just a different interpretation of the word "launch". To me it means "the first time you sell your product to the public". Maybe to them the meaning is "the first time the public buys your product".
Sure, I'm looking too much into this, but a term like "re-launch" peeves me. It's like how the little things got to the Seinfeld gang.
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
Microsoft realizes and understands that the Japaneese market is HUGE; capturing a decent portion of that market brings devs to the table that focus on game genre's American / European developers traditionally avoid.
They'll never be #1 if they give up on the Japaneese market. Likewise, it would be rediculous to invest all of that money and give up at the first sign of trouble -- a "relaunch" is cheap -- well worth the risk compared to the outcome of "giving up".
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6146924.html
The Xbox360 will be bundled with EA's 2006 FIFA World Cup along with face plates that match Japan's national soccer team's colors and some accessories. I can imagine other themed bundles will soon follow.
500 lbs is too generous with Microsoft. 800-1000 lbs is the more common figure ascribed to them.
i wish i had the points to mod you up...that just made me crack up. :-)
No, but I used to work for Microsoft.
You can only launch a product once. There's no such thing as a re-launch. After that, you're just making a new campaign. This is just a way of making it seem like the console is going to get a fresh start with new direction. But really, it's just changing the direction of the old campaign and re-focusing attention on the console in hopes that people will forget all of the opinions surrounding the console's launch.
Twinstiq, game news
I really wish MS would concentrate their efforts on the U.S. and Europe. Why on earth are they wasting their time with this crap when they still don't have enough players to stock American or European retailers?!?! Forget your stupid relaunch Bill! Turn those ships around, and put those players in stores where people actually WANT them.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.