Japan is a “Longer-Term Effort” for Microsoft, Says Shane Kim

Xbox failed in Japan. Xbox 360 is also a failure in Japan. It’s just the fact of the matter; I know Microsoft and 360fanbots would like to disagree, but neither system has managed to find much of any success in the country — that’s how it is. Even so, Microsoft isn’t ready to give up. Newly-appointed corporate VP Shane Kim says he knows it’s a “longer-term effort” and that Microsoft has “always taken a long-term view on our various competitive battles, and Japan is no different.”

“We’ve been very realistic about our near-to-mid term opportunities in Japan, specifically with respect to the current console generation,” he told GI.biz shortly before his promotion was announced. “Obviously it’s a challenging market with well entrenched competitors.

“I’m excited to see developments such as the new RPGs from Japanese developers – I think that’s a recognition in the developer-publisher community that the Xbox 360 is a great platform, and we’ve got a great installed base in the rest of the world.

“From a business perspective I think they all know that they need to take the platform seriously, and my hope is that through that process we’ll start to see more Japanese content that will stimulate greater demand in Japan and start to turn our fortunes around.”

Kim believes there are opportunities that haven’t really been explored fully, and those will become part of Microsoft’s future. Some might call it futile, but Japan is simply too big of a market to ignore.

“While we still need to fight in Japan and try to continue to improve our results there we also need to look at other opportunities for growing the business.”

image via Flickr