Japan to Get Cheaper Xbox 360
By Shawn on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 4:38 PM PST In Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Games Industry, Microsoft, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony
Microsoft has announced a cheaper model of the Xbox 360 will begin selling in Japan on March 6. The model for sale will be similar to the Arcade SKU sold in the US. The unit has no hard drive and comes with HDMI output, a wireless controller and a 256MB memory card.
The Wii and PS3 has been outselling the Xbox 360 console, with only 257,800 Xbox 360 consoles sold in Japan last year compared to 1.2 million PS3s and 3.6 million Wiis.
The stripped down Xbox 360 will retail for JPY 27,800 (USD 260), which is about one-fifth less than the current price.
I don’t really think it matters how much Microsoft discounts its console. Money isn’t the issue here. The PS3 is more expensive and has sold almost five times as many units. I’m afraid that Microsoft’s not going to get the kind of sales figures in Japan as it would like.
it’s a classic text-book case of denial and MS has invested (ie; wasted) too much money to pull out now.
they never had a chance with the original xbox, persisted and ultimately failed. not content to learn from history they forged ahead with the 360, failed to make the proper adjustments that doomed the xbox, wasted even more money in marketing and..well…the numbers speak for themselves.
what’s that old saying about ‘those not learning from history’?
They’re doomed to repeat it…..
They’re not really dooming themselves. They seem to fully realise that Japan is a no-go-zone for them, but there’s nothing stopping them from trying. If they fail in Japan, which lets be honest, they have done, it’s not going to make that much diffeernce, if any.
um, yea, too bad Microsoft hasn’t failed, they are doing better this time around as far as the Asian market goes, look at the Japenese RPG’s that Microsoft is getting, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata, enchanted arms. Technically if you want to look at it PS3 is failing in america. The only console truly doing good is the Wii.
There’s no arguing that Microsoft is doing horrendous over in Japan, but really — for them to stop trying would be silly. It’s not like they don’t have the money to keep going.