What causes Japanese disinterest in the Xbox 360?

For the past year I have befuddled by what's going on in the Japanese market. Not because of the explosiveness of the Wii or staying power of the DS, but more by what the seemingly 'hardcore' gamers seem to be buying.

Admittedly, the bulk of Wii and DS systems are bought by casuals, and that may be an opinion but it is very close to fact. In other words this is my disclaimer to say that I meannothing against Nintendo by excluding them, just that I'm not gonnahave my post sidelined by their great products. It is just that with the Japanesesoftwaresales looking as they do, whatwould that lead anyone to believe? Yeah, there are a lot of casuals playing video games.

Hardcore Japanese gamers are buying PS3s (not in such amounts as, oh say, the Wii) at several times the levels of Xbox 360s. It's one thing to say that a console doesn't offer much to a market, but it has be markedly proven that the 360 has games that are made for the express reasons of capturing Japanese interest (Blue Dragon, for example). The PS3 however only has the promise of future releases (FFXIII, VS XIII, MGS4, etc) and really doesn't offer much in the way of games that cater the Japanesemarket directly right now. The Xbox 360 has had several titles in the market at the moment(Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata, Forza Motorsport 2, Dead or Alive 4, etc)and many more on the way (Lost Odyssey, Devil May Cry 4, etc)that seem to fall right into what many would the idea of the 'ideal Japanese game'.

Maybe it is the advertisements, Sakaguchi ardently complained about this before (Do, Do, Do/Don't, Don't, Don't). The Xbox 360 just isn't 'hip' enough.
Maybe it'san over-riding stereotype that it's a console full of shooters and sports games (clearly the opposite if onewould look at the line-up) that might be over there as well (we surely knowthe stereotype'shere in the states toan extent).
Hell, it shouldn't be, but could it be xenophobia kicking in?

I don't know what it is, and I've tried to be asfair as I could be in writing this post. Any thoughts? Please post intelligently.

because it doesnt have enough rpgs?

i dont know

nationalism. You can say it's this or that, look at any number of minor issues with the Xbox360's appeal to that market, but it the end it boils down to nationalism, pure and simple. It's part of their culture.THETRUEDOZAH

Generalizing is fun!

[QUOTE="THETRUEDOZAH"]nationalism. You can say it's this or that, look at any number of minor issues with the Xbox360's appeal to that market, but it the end it boils down to nationalism, pure and simple. It's part of their culture.Zero_Fate_

Generalism is fun!

Um, maybe it doesn't apply to games but many there are nationalistic.

you should do a poll. Options:

type of games

console design/ reliability

marketting

racism/xenophobia

I dont have access to all the information, but I have seen articles about how the japanese like well built machines and the 360's unreliability is a fatal flaw. Marketting, wow strange commericials. Other args there more obvious

There are multiple reasons.

Nationalism is one of them like one poster mentioned. That also is rather large reason why Xbox 360 is doing well in America too.

few other reasons would be, that 360 selling point happens to be that it has large number of quality shooters, which does not fit Japanese people's taste in gaming.

Another problem is that many 360 games are being ported to PS3, which PS3 has Final Fantasy XIII scheduled to release. To many Japanese people it probably is more attractive to get PS3 due to Final Fantasy XIII and the fact large number of 360 games are coming to PS3.

I also heard ads for 360 in Japan was horrible.

i think its mostly bad marketing coupled with the fact that japan doesn't see that the 360 is different than the original xbox, hopefully over time with Lost Odyssey, Cry on, Infinite undiscovery, and Magna Carta 2 they will see 360 is a nice choice.

anyway, the 360 is doing better than the original xbox since no original xbox game that i know of has sold 200,000 copies in japan(i am talking about blue dragon).

[QUOTE="Zero_Fate_"]

[QUOTE="THETRUEDOZAH"]nationalism. You can say it's this or that, look at any number of minor issues with the Xbox360's appeal to that market, but it the end it boils down to nationalism, pure and simple. It's part of their culture.soulsofblayck

Generalism is fun!

Um, maybe it doesn't apply to games but many there are nationalistic.

I was referring to the "It's part of their culture" part.

One thing you have to understand is that until the DS came out the gaming was dieing in Japan every year sales went further and further down. Then the DS and Wii came out and changed gaming on it head and because of that it brought mass appeal in Japan. HarlockJC

Because, based on the NPD, it seems as if they prefer quirky mini-games and depthless bad games, which the Wii is PERFECT for. It's basically turned into the land of casuals.soulsofblayck

Um...No. "The law that forbids Japanese stores to sell newly appeared Dragon Quest games on working days, for fear that people will leave work and school to be able to get hold of the game, illustrates best the series' tremendous popularity." - Source of Quote.

Dragon Quest is not a quirky mini-game franchise, nor is it a bad game franchise with no depth whatsoever. As a matter of fact, it's an RPG franchise. RPGs seem pretty hardcore to me, don't ya think?

American Made.GhettoTaxii

But then again, it can't be just because of American Made. Look at iPod, it is a international hot item, has sold over 100 million total.GhettoTaxii

You saved yourself there. Saying that it is because of nationalism is a silly argument because so many other American products sell wonderfully in Japan.

What's left then? Yes, that's right. The terrible hardware in the 360 and the awful marketing.

[QUOTE="HarlockJC"]One thing you have to understand is that until the DS came out the gaming was dieing in Japan every year sales went further and further down. Then the DS and Wii came out and changed gaming on it head and because of that it brought mass appeal in Japan. Ultimas_Blade

Where I was trying to go with this is even if the Wii or DS had not come out. I don't think that the PS3 or 360 would be doing much better. In general Japaneses were losing their faith in gaming and sales of all systems were going down.

[QUOTE="Ultimas_Blade"][QUOTE="HarlockJC"]One thing you have to understand is that until the DS came out the gaming was dieing in Japan every year sales went further and further down. Then the DS and Wii came out and changed gaming on it head and because of that it brought mass appeal in Japan. HarlockJC

Where I was trying to go with this is even if the Wii or DS had not come out. I don't think that the PS3 or 360 would be doing much better. In general Japaneses were losing their faith in gaming and sales of all systems were going down.

Most asian people think american products areinferior. I live in Detroit auto capital of the world, 98% of the the people here buy amircan vehicles ford, gm, or chrystler.When ever I see a toyota or honda on the road chances are its an asian person driving. I've worked with asian people at ford mo co and they refused to buy a ford. I asked one why he said "american car garbage". jdc6305

So because you worked with some Asian people in the car industry you say "Most Asian people think that American products are inferior". Sorry, but working with some Asian people doesn't equate to "most Asians", nor does them saying that "American cars are garbage" equate to most Asian people thinking that American products in general are garbage. Where on Earth did you get this horrid logic from?

In addition to that, American cars are in fact garbage. Ever seen An Inconvenient Truth? It portrayed how American cars were indecline whilst Japanese cars were on the rise. Guess why that is so.

not enough rpgs

way to many shooters

Here goes a thought. It's the same reason why American made cars, bikes, computers, etc. don't sell there. Japanese people may just like buying Japanese stuff. Japan is dominated by Japanese companies like Toyota, Mitsubishi, Sony, and Nintendo.

Whereas the US is a whole melting pot of people and companies so I suppose there really isn't much bias here.

Here goes a thought. It's the same reason why American made cars, bikes, computers, etc. don't sell there. Japanese people may just like buying Japanese stuff. Japan is dominated by Japanese companies like Toyota, Mitsubishi, Sony, and Nintendo.

Whereas the US is a whole melting pot of people and companies so I suppose there really isn't much bias here.

eastsidehucker

That concept has already been dismissed. Thank you very much.

The lack of Japanese style games maybe? Just a guess.briguyb13

Maybe also the fact that there literally aren't ANY Western third publishers in Japan *besides the very newly fonded EA* so the games we get don't get released there, and if they do they get handed down to niche publishers like Spike and Marvolous who are the equivlant of Atlus and NIS to America. So it could possibly be that the Japanese don't even know about games like Call of Duty and Oblivion due to them getting handed to those niche publishers and selling so badly. I don't just a wild thought.

One word, three syllables: Microsoft.

maybe it's to do with interest in other consoles rather than disinterest in 360.Pangster007

[QUOTE="THETRUEDOZAH"]nationalism. You can say it's this or that, look at any number of minor issues with the Xbox360's appeal to that market, but it the end it boils down to nationalism, pure and simple. It's part of their culture.Zero_Fate_

Generalizing is fun!

[QUOTE="Zero_Fate_"]

[QUOTE="THETRUEDOZAH"]nationalism. You can say it's this or that, look at any number of minor issues with the Xbox360's appeal to that market, but it the end it boils down to nationalism, pure and simple. It's part of their culture.Thanatos465

Generalizing is fun!

Because you've been to Japan right?

dosnt eny one see? the reason japanies dont buy 360s is becouse of the games. while american gamers are most into violent fps which 360 has the most of. japan gamers r notlegend26

Maybe they don't want faulty hardware ? And microsofts 1st party games are basically all sci-fi shooters which is a turn-off as welll.Just_in

You guys are on the right track.

[QUOTE="legend26"]dosnt eny one see? the reason japanies dont buy 360s is becouse of the games. while american gamers are most into violent fps which 360 has the most of. japan gamers r notHexagon_777

Maybe they don't want faulty hardware ? And microsofts 1st party games are basically all sci-fi shooters which is a turn-off as welll.Just_in

You guys are on the right track.