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Blue Dragon Pushing 360 Bundles in Japan

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the oh-now-they-want-it dept.

1up is reporting that Blue Dragon 360 bundle pre-orders are selling fast in Japan. Maybe, finally, Microsoft has a product that will get the Japanese market on its side. From the article: "According to one retailer, Microsoft is planning to produce 100,000 of the Blue Dragon hardware bundles, and 10% of these will be the limited set with all the cool Blue Dragon merchandise we mentioned. With all the Toriyama fans in Japan, it might not be surprising to hear that these 10,000 limited sets are being snapped up pretty quickly, but hey, we're talking about the Xbox 360 in Japan -- the machine has been struggling to sell more than a thousand units each week recently. At the end of the first day of pre-orders, most retailers are now sold out of the limited set."

8 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Looks like deep pockets counts for something by ProppaT · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Here's hoping MS pulls this one off. As much as I dislike MS, at least they're grounded in reality unlike Sony these days. Maybe some (hopefully) good competition from MS might make Sony reconsider their attitude for a while. I'll always be a Nintendo fan at heart, but I'm also realistic. As sucessful as the Wii might be, I'll still want a 360 or PS3 to games that just aren't geared for that system.

    --
    Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
    1. Re:Looks like deep pockets counts for something by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It would be an outright disaster if Microsoft departed the market because that would leave us with Sony and Nintendo. The saying has kind of always gone that there's room for three players in the game console industry - First place, second place, and Nintendo. I don't want Sony to take two places! The only thing that might get Sony to change their act would be if they tanked and Microsoft picked up the slack, then had some press releases or conferences where they talked about how Sony abused their players etc etc. Please please PLEASE let this happen... sigh.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Looks like deep pockets counts for something by ProppaT · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Except for the fact that you can't destroy Nintendo. They're the number one game company in the world, selling more copies of games than any other company out there. People will always buy Nintendo consoles for Nintendo first party games and Nintendo will always be sensible enough with their consoles to makes sure they, at very least, break even on production costs. I could give a crap about Sony. They're the Japanese equivalent to MS. No better, no worse.

      --
      Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
  2. Expect 360 sales to take off... by the+computer+guy+nex · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...not because the 360 has changed, but that reality has set in that PS3 will have fewer features for a higher price.

    1. Re:Expect 360 sales to take off... by jdubois79 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, with the recent price drop in Japan, as well as the inclusion of HDMI in the "lite" version, that holds less and less true.
      I was completely anti-PS3 until I saw their offering at the Tokyo Game Show this year. They really have their act together, and while it might not seem so in America or Slashdot (same thing for me, as I get all my news here), the reality is that Sony is probably going to dominate this round as well, with Nintendo getting a hefty 2nd place.

      I know personal anecdotes are horrible for proving things, but in the Japanese company I work for, there are 12 people in my section. 3 of them have special savings that they've been putting away just for a PS3.

      I personally would love to support the 360, but I see that this generation is going to play out just like the last one in Japan. I also have no use for live, so for me, I'm relegated to buying a Wii and a PS3.

      --
      --------
      Nothing can be done before the tremendous power!
      RabidComics
    2. Re:Expect 360 sales to take off... by DrEldarion · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Lets face it, square has been coasting off of FF7, has had some serious blunders since then

      IIRC, the Kingdom Hearts series actually did quite well, and FFXII comes out in less than two weeks, and many say it's the best one out of the past couple console generations. If you're going to count Enix in there, DQ8 was very strong as well. They seem to be turning themselves around.

  3. X-Box 360 is teh suck! by Channard · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually, I as a 360 owner, I'd have to say there there's one important area in which the X-Box beats the 360 hands down. Specifically, the X-Box was pretty damn bug free. Why? Because Microsoft had specifically stated that Live could not be used for updates. I never had a single X-Box game crash on me. 360 games, on the other hand. Ppfft. While I wouldn't give up Dead Rising, Just Cause or any other of my 360 games up, there have been several problems. Ignoring the red lights issue, several games such as 'call of duty' were released with significant bugs that needed to be fixed. Same for Dead or Alive. Both had to be patched over X-Box Live. And the 'disc read' errors are definitely not overheating related. They're down to cache problems on the hard disk. How do I know this? Because I got a reproducable error in Dead Rising, and it didn't go away till I formatted the HD and transferred my save back off a memory card. I still think my 360's a great console, but I wanted buggy games, I'd use a PC. As for this being the game that brings the 360 success in Japan? Er, no. I'm expecting a complete rerun of the X-Box 1 situation. The only thing that really made headway with the original X-Box was cutting the price. And even that didn't have a prolonged impact.

  4. Re:Nintendo MS Vs Sony. by trdrstv · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So far this YEAR the X-Box 360 has been selling worse than the Gamecube in Japan. In calander 06 they sold about 75,000 units in that territory, and Gamecube sold around 76,000 - 78,000 (in Japan, in 2006). With only 100,000 PS3`s on launch day (for Japan), and low manufacturing yields, the DAY the Wii comes out in Japan, it will outsell either of them, likely both.