Games For the 360's Japanese Comeback

Next Generation has an article looking at games that could save the Xbox 360 in Japan. Despite Microsoft's best efforts, the console is still puttering along with lackluster sales. Even with the country's diminished interest in the PS3, the 360 needs some big-name titles to get it back into the minds of Japanese consumers. From the article: "Blue Dragon is set up to be another stick of dynamite with Toriyama's name written on it, though how willing casual fans will be to pick it up depends entirely on its advertising campaign. In America, it's becoming a simple enough strategy to put a demo of something on Xbox Live and let it spread through word of mouth. This is not so possible in Japan, mostly because most people here don't have an Xbox 360. Polls for months have indicated that the majority of casual gamers would reserve their judgment of the 360 for when they could play Sakaguchi's games."

Comments

Comeback implies you were there ....

[gstoddart]

This isn't a comeback ... making a comeback implies you made it the first time.

This is, what ... a do-over? a second-debut? Still trying not to get market share?

It doesn't sound like they'd be making a re-surgence or anything like that, since they never surged in the first place.

Re:What a crock...

[jstultz]

This talk of "comeback" is a misnomer as well, because it implies that the situation was different at some point. In order to have a comeback, you have to have been popular before.

Not really. If in a football game, one team is up, say, 35-0, and then the other team ends up winning, say, 42-35, I would certainly call that a comeback even though the team coming back was never ahead in the first place.

Re:130k Xbox 360s In Japan

[Silent sound]

The latest confirmed by third party retail sales trackers puts the 360 at:
130k in Japan, 1.6 million in the US, 700k in Europe

Hi,

What is your source on these numbers?