Games For the 360's Japanese Comeback 78
Next Generation has an article looking at games that could save the Xbox 360 in Japan. Despite Microsoft's best efforts, the console is still puttering along with lackluster sales. Even with the country's diminished interest in the PS3, the 360 needs some big-name titles to get it back into the minds of Japanese consumers. From the article: "Blue Dragon is set up to be another stick of dynamite with Toriyama's name written on it, though how willing casual fans will be to pick it up depends entirely on its advertising campaign. In America, it's becoming a simple enough strategy to put a demo of something on Xbox Live and let it spread through word of mouth. This is not so possible in Japan, mostly because most people here don't have an Xbox 360. Polls for months have indicated that the majority of casual gamers would reserve their judgment of the 360 for when they could play Sakaguchi's games."
MSoft should just let Sony dig it's own grave. (Score:1, Insightful)
Comeback implies you were there .... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is, what
It doesn't sound like they'd be making a re-surgence or anything like that, since they never surged in the first place.
Re:What a crock... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:130k Xbox 360s In Japan (Score:4, Insightful)
130k in Japan, 1.6 million in the US, 700k in Europe
Hi,
What is your source on these numbers?
Re:the only way to increase sales in japan... (Score:2, Insightful)
- Demand for detail. Japanese consumers are generally not trained to accept that low price = low quality. Even for entry-level merchandise, you have to at least create the perception that you are not cutting corners. You do this by paying attention to details, like eliminating defect, reducing points of failure, down to proofreading manuals. Japanese engineers and marketers know this and package their wares accordingly. Most foreign vendors don't fully understand this and simply ship low-quality ware for low price points. Low quality, low brand premium, low sales at any price point.
- Sales force quality. Japanese retailers are very demanding on vendor salespeople, and foreign vendors (regardless of industry) often have inferior service compared to locals. Bad salespeople, poor storefront promotion, low sales.
- Stupid expat managers. I've worked with many multinationals in Japan, and I've lost count of expats in management who have no clue about Japan, no inclination to learn anything about Japan, and have no clue in general--yet feel like they know what is best for the company simply because they are from the Headquarters. Naturally, the motivated people get upset and leave, leaving POS engineers and sales force. Bad people, bad product and marketing, low sales.
- Stupid brand management. RCA is (was) a celebrated brand name in the US. It doesn't count for anything in Japan, though, because it didn't have much of a business here. Yet...sometimes foreign vendors get the impression that just because a brand name is established elsewhere that it will work in Japan. Nope--you have to build brands from the ground up. And if your product sucks, that beccomes your brand--low quality, low price, low sales.
- Nationalism. The nationalism leading Japanese consumers not to buy Xbox or RCA isn't really the same as the one behind the "buy American car" movement of the 80s. In the latter, the proponents were advocating buying American cars, regardless of quality, because they fed American workers. The Japanese, in contrast, buy Japanese electronics because they perceive Japanese-made (or at least Japanese-engineered) products to be of higher quality. It isn't really about economy: Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, etc. products made in China sell briskly, and at a premium compared to their Chinese rivals. It also explains why iPods far outsell Japanese vendors: consumers simply accepted that Apple products are as good or better in quality compared to Japanese vendors.
Yeah, there may be some influence by the implicit racism in Japanese culture. But I don't think the challenges for foreign vendors in Japan isn't much more complicated than what Japanese manufacturers had to overcome in the US in the 60s and 70s--trying to build a "made in Japan = good stuff" perception into a prejudiced, racist population after decades of selling them crappy merchandise.Re:Couldn't the answer really be... (Score:3, Insightful)
This simply is not true. Apple is huge over in Japan, and their iPod has outsold anything and everything Sony has released, and countless other Japanese and other Asian based companies. The same can be said about a whole ton of other markets.
Japan doesn't have a problem with Microsoft being a western company, it's just that Microsoft just doesn't have the lineups that the Japanese market craves. Microsoft needs to simply invest huge amounts of cash into companies like Square/Enix, Atlus, Bandai, etc. They need the games made exclusively for their system, and not side projects, but actual games that wont be on the PS3 or Wii. They will win no love for having FFXI on their console when it is available on the PS2 and PC.