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Xbox 360 manages to briefly outsell PS3 in Japan

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Dela @ Nov 12, 2007 20:46 | 9 comments

Even though the amount of time involved is not very significant especially in the Japanese territory, gaming sites are reporting that Microsoft's Xbox 360 console managed to briefly pass out sales of Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3). While Microsoft would hope that Japanese gamers have just warmed to the console suddenly, the logical reason for the jump in performance was Namco Bandai's Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.

The title debuted at number two in the Japanese charts last week. According to data from Media Create, the Xbox 360 moved 17,673 units during the week, compared with just 3718 the week before that. In the same time, Sony moved 17,434 PS3 units, just 239 units short of the Xbox 360 figures. In the previous week, 18,785 PS3s were sold.

During the same period, the handheld consoles from Sony and Nintendo showed the lasting demand for both. The PlayStation Portable (PSP) sold 59,714 units and the Nintendo DS sold 78,597 units. The Wii console continued to leave its competitors watch it move further ahead, selling 37,617 units during the week.

Source:

GamesIndustry.biz

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Comments

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Nov 13, 2007 05:17)

At first I thought I was at joystick and the news was in trollish, but what you know it is a interesting lil bit of info.

Comment by: kyo28 (Nov 13, 2007 10:31)

It can't be! Lots of Xbox fans have claimed that Japan is the bias against Xbox ...
See? This just proves the point that as long as you adapt your product to the Japanese market (in this case, get games Japanese gamers are actually interested in), foreign brands CAN sell in Japan.

Of course, it'll take more than one game to keep up this trend but it does disprove the assumption that Japanese don't buy the console purely out of a bias against foreign brands.

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Nov 13, 2007 16:06)

Originally posted by kyo28:
It can't be! Lots of Xbox fans have claimed that Japan is the bias against Xbox ...
See? This just proves the point that as long as you adapt your product to the Japanese market (in this case, get games Japanese gamers are actually interested in), foreign brands CAN sell in Japan.

Of course, it'll take more than one game to keep up this trend but it does disprove the assumption that Japanese don't buy the console purely out of a bias against foreign brands.

Its always been games on the Xbox brand the JP consuemrs would want keeping it from selling well, and in the end that will what keep the unit sells down, it might have outsold for a month or a week but it can't keep it up.

Comment by: goodswipe (Nov 13, 2007 17:26)

Yea surprised me, I figured half those Japs where all Sony fanboys.

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Nov 13, 2007 17:28)

Originally posted by goodswipe:
Yea surprised me, I figured half those Japs where all Sony fanboys.

Games+price always win, the PS2 had both the PS3 dosent really have either yet.

Comment by: Hardwyre (Nov 13, 2007 20:38)

I really doubt there's any bias against US branded hardware. I game with a number of Japanese gamers, and they all say that they're just waiting for the right games to come out for XBOX. Many of them say that they would not be surprised if Sony falls from the limelight soon, as many people are getting increasingly upset with Sony's latest business practices.

See, in Japan, copying and distributing media is generally regarded as a compliment to the artist/company by the general public, and they are very unhappy with the whole BD+ protection method.

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Nov 13, 2007 20:52)

Originally posted by Hardwyre:
I really doubt there's any bias against US branded hardware. I game with a number of Japanese gamers, and they all say that they're just waiting for the right games to come out for XBOX. Many of them say that they would not be surprised if Sony falls from the limelight soon, as many people are getting increasingly upset with Sony's latest business practices.

See, in Japan, copying and distributing media is generally regarded as a compliment to the artist/company by the general public, and they are very unhappy with the whole BD+ protection method.

Tell that to the anime studios and Nintendo ^_~

But really MS has a more or less solid platform what they lack is games, they really should drop another 20Mill into the pot and get JP devs aboard and then do basic translations (no dubing) and ship them to the US/UK focus on delivering fresh games lines with no heavy localization raping to destroy the nuance of the game, its WIN,WIN they gain ground in the JP market and gain a niche market in the US/UK for translated but not locolized.

MS could make it cheap for devs to dev and trans for the 360 and then sell their games in the US bolstering their line up 2 fold.

MS is missing a big opportunity here as much if not more than PS3s dcking around with the PS3.

Comment by: borhan9 (Dec 02, 2007 23:38)

to me this is just like a spike that goes up and then goes back down like the stock market.

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Dec 02, 2007 23:58)

Originally posted by borhan9:
to me this is just like a spike that goes up and then goes back down like the stock market.

Same for the PS3 sells really.