Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft's Tokyo Game Show Showing
Microsoft's Tokyo Game Show press conference had quite a few choice revelations, above and beyond 1080p for the 360. Several 360 titles are now platinum with games like Kameo, Project Gotham Racing, and Perfect Dark Zero becoming available for about $30 in October. For those with Xbox Live, the first bring it home content is now available from TGS. Demos are expected later this week, but so far all we have to show for the event are some picture packs. The hopeful Xbox presentation, located as it is in Tokyo, has prompted some consideration of the 360's future in Japan. Despite the upbeat tone, the general consensus seems to be Microsoft has already lost the Japanese market, before the other systems are even on the market.
They almost did have a PS1 emu. Connectix, the company that MS bought VirtualPC from, used to make a PS1 emulator for Mac and Windows. However, Sony bought it from Connectix after failing to win a lawsuit over it.
This guy's the limit!
Microsoft needs to take 100,000 Premium Xbox 360 systems and lend each of them out for a week in Japan free of charge. Repeat 12 times. They could make a deal with the Japanese video stores to lend them out and after the 12 weeks they could take ownership of them. I know that there isn't video game rental in Japan, but it could be to Microsoft's advantage if they tried it. If each of the consoles had 8 games with it, it should give a diversity of play. It would be a test drive. The Japanese are very familiar with Nintendo and Sony consoles, but are not familiar at all with Microsoft consoles. People could borrow it and play around with, try Xbox Live Gold online play. It would create product awareness. Most people are reluctant to shell out a few hundred dollars before they try something. Total cost for Microsoft, about a hundred million dollars. But, it would almost certainly be worth more than that in free press coverage.
In the event that no one wants to even try out the Xbox 360, Microsoft has to abandon Japan as a console market. If you can't give away your product, how can you sell it?