Tuesday, December 13, 2005

69,865 Consoles (32%) Less!

In Japan the Xbox360 has sold 62,135 consoles in the first two days of sale.
Originally in Japan the Xbox sold 123,000 consoles in the first three days of sale. Meaning that at the moment the 360 is an even bigger flop in Japan than the Xbox was.

I have no idea why the 360 has sold less, but I don't think this can be all down to DOA4 not being a launch title. DOA3 was an Xbox launch title, but common! LESS! Nobody was sure of the Xbox before it was launched, the console was the size of a house, the controller was big and horrible, Live wasn't working and nobody was sure about having a hard drive in their console or what Microsoft wanted to do with it. In retrospect we can look back and see that Microsoft changed everybody's perception of what a console can be, leaving Nintendo and Sony playing technological catchup, but the Japanese haven't honoured that.

I really have no idea on this one. I see flying to Japan, kidnapping a few gamers there and interrogating them as the only option in this matter.

I did think it was safe to say that the PS3 will outsell the 360 in Japan even if the PS3 is a pile of shit, but I also thing everybody was expecting the 360 to at least be able to compete against the PS3 competitively. Sales will probably pickup and it is longterm sales that Microsoft will be looking at, but still, LESS!!!