Xbox 360 outsells Wii, PS3 in Japan - wonders will never cease
By Dave Parrack
Is it a miracle? No, it’s just the Xbox 360 beating the Wii and PS3 to rank as the best-selling console in Japan for the first time ever. Granted, it’s only over the course of one measly week, but it’s a major event that deserves some respect… probably because it’ll never happen again.
Okay, so that’s harsh, but I very much doubt the Xbox 360 will keep on selling in higher numbers than the Wii or PS3 in Japan beyond this month. That’s not to take anything away from this victory though, as it does at least show that Japanese gamers aren’t quite as nationalistic as we all suspected, and that Microsoft could have a future in the country after all.
At the beginning of August we saw a sales surge for the Xbox 360 on the back of the release of Tales Of Vesperia, a distinctly Japanese RPG that is a platform exclusive on the Microsoft console. That surge turned in to a landslide when the Xbox 360 managed to beat the PS3 during the following week.
Then, Microsoft declared the Xbox 360 had sold out in Japan completely and almost did a sex wee due to the excitement. Sure, that was probably only due to stock being kept very low due to the lack of interest shown in the console previously, but still, a sell out is a sell out.
And so we come to today, when it was announced by Enterbrain (via a translation on AndriaSang) that the Xbox 360 had now done the unthinkable and beaten not only the PS3 but also the Wii in hardware sales for the week ending September 14th. The Xbox 360 managed 28,681 units for the week, while sales of the Wii took a massive downturn to 27,057 units. The PS3 could only muster a paltry 8,050 for Sony.
The figure of 28,681 is a massive bump up from the previous week’s sales of 843 units. This is probably due mainly to stock filtering back in to the country’s retail outlets. But there are two other big factors behind this win for the Xbox 360: those price cuts kicking in, and the release of yet another Japanese RPG in the form of Infinite Undiscovery.
The Japanese price cuts for the Xbox 360 range were announced at the start of September, but the new cheaper 60GB model wasn’t released until September 11th. It seems many Japanese rushed out to buy one of those babies on the day of release.
They also bought a copy of Infinite Undiscovery, which was released the same day by Square Enix, and has sold an impressive 86,708 copies already. Basically, give the Japanese an RPG, even one that isn’t top notch, and they’ll do anything to get their hands on a copy, even if it means buying an American games console.
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September 17th, 2008
Wow, 3 and a half more times than Sony. Perhaps this is a sign of things to come. Seems the Japanese are gobbling the 360 up like a hungry orphan when it’s in stock.
September 17th, 2008
all i can say is… fuck M$ and their strategy of paying off devs for exclusivity, and fuck Square Enix for taking their money and offering all these rpg exlusively for 360, while it would of done 10 times better on ps3.
September 17th, 2008
Dave you have some bad grammar you wrote “Mirosoft” LoL. Xbox 360 is not going anywhere in Japan one week is nothing to celebrate. Sony owns all hardcore or just Japanese players. Luck.
September 17th, 2008
Ah crap, I’m usually not that retarded. Thanks for the heads up Ivan - fixed!
September 17th, 2008
JRPG + price cut.
Good for MS, but it won’t last…
Well until they drop the price again and release another JRPG.
September 17th, 2008
Yes, Ivan is the king of grammar.
These are interesting times. 360 sold out last month and only a trickle came into Japan for weeks. Microsoft then increase the numbers being imported and it sells 28,000 in one week. That’s huge!
September 18th, 2008
M$ has only sold 718,000 consoles in Japan since 2005. 360 has a long way to go to catch up to either the Wii or PS3 in Japan. We’ll see what happens but if it results in a price way… it’s only good for the consumer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360
September 18th, 2008
OH, just like how PS3 has a long way to catch up to the 360 in the gaming heartland, USA?
September 18th, 2008
yeah but the diffrence is ps3 sold more this year than the ps3 in the heartland and thats why they HAVE and NEEDED to cut the price on the 360. Fact is that year lead is almost gone.
September 18th, 2008
i ment than the 360 in the heartland my bad.
September 18th, 2008
@ harry.
Yup. I’m not denying the numbers… no need to get upset over facts. But I thought this article was discussing sales in Japan NOT the US. Maybe I should read it again…
Oh wait… it’s still talking about sales is Japan… nice try.
@ spencer
You hit an important point. Globally, M$ has lost its year head start to Nintendo and now the PS3 has, my several data collection agencies and M$’s and Sony’s, fiscal results are showing Sony’s pretty much caught up to the 360 in Europe.
September 18th, 2008
Oops, typo. I meant to say “by” and not “my”. Speaking of the “heartland” Nintendo has already beat the 360 in the US. M$ is worried, a company doesn’t fire sale their products if sales are “excellent”. That’s just my opinion, though.
September 18th, 2008
Nice work, captain obvious. Of course 360 has a lot to catch up on in Japan. And PS3 has a lot of catching up to do in the gaming heartland, the USA.
Anyway, Nintendo doesn’t count because the Wii a Gamecube with a gimmick. So 360 is still winning this generation, and won’t be taken over ever.
September 18th, 2008
Harry- so what you are saying is the 360 is such a great machine that it is being beat in sales by a console with old technology? That says alot! I do know where you are coming from, but since the Wii was released this generation it has to be included.
September 18th, 2008
@harry sachz: Why are people like you still in denial over the Wii kicking ass in this gen.
You must be Ivans retarded brother.
Wake Up!
September 18th, 2008
Harry’s in denial, THE WII ISN’T WINNING IT’LL NEVER BEAT MY PRECIOUS 360 HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA! THE PS3 ISN’T CATCHING UP BECAUSE AMERICA ONLY COUNTS AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA WORLDWIDE SALES DON’T COUNT AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
September 18th, 2008
LOL
September 18th, 2008
Hehe John D. I’ve always wondered why there are more PS3 fanboys on this site than 360, and it dawned on me. It’s because they don’t have any games to play, and they need to waste time on the internet defending their shiny black dust collector, and ganging up on the 360 fans. Well at least they can go back to folding once their fun is over.
September 18th, 2008
go microsoft…
September 18th, 2008
whatever….10 year cycle
September 18th, 2008
Hey the PS3 is a great machine that does a lot of amazing things, it just doesn’t play games that well. Stop picking on it!
September 18th, 2008
I would hope the generation isn’t decided by the tech. in the machine…
Anywhoos, you can not count the machine harry, but everyone else does
September 18th, 2008
Who cares who sales more in Japan ?? I bet none of us lives there, and anyway, I don’t know what happened with Japanese developers… the other day I saw a game from a Japanese Studio for the NDS about going shopping to a mall !!! (WTF?????)
I know some good stuff is out there from some Japanese people (Sakaguchi, Itagaki, Kojima and Kamiya), but damn… if they are really soo happy with the Wii and crappy games I don’t care about who sells more as long as I have the games I like.
September 18th, 2008
lol @ me.
September 23rd, 2008
Microsoft Japan, is who cares who sells good in Japan.
And why shouldn’t they, sales in Japan matter from the standpoint of getting recognition with developers- and as long as more Japanese developers jump on board its just a win win.
The Xbox360 is in the game to WIN Europe, and completely dominate North America.
It does not need to WIN Japan but it will compete, quite headily, as its almost at 1 million sales there and that means a milestone as the PS3 still has sold barely 2.6 million in Japan.
Cracking the 1 million mark will be a major barrier for Microsoft Japan, because they will have broken through the wall, and any future Microsoft console will be a much better success in Japan due to its Japanese RPGs and puzzle games thousands of which are on arcade.
And they definitely want that. I expect to see even MORE Japanese RPGs announced for the 360, and MORE strategies done by MS Japan to burn their signature into the terrritory.
Microsoft fights on a global strategy like any company, while they do everything centered around Europe and NA, their Japanese division still makes the console a success in Asia.
I want it to happen BIG TIME, shower the 360 with Japanese RPGs and adventure games and permanently dethrone Sony now…..
PRICE WAR!!!
September 23rd, 2008
Japan doesn’t care about nationalistic crap that’s a bunch of lies, the actual consumers who are mostly the college kids and mom & pops will buy ANY console that has the games they want.
Plain and simple thats the only reason the original Xbox failed not that crap about it being too Western. All in all the original Xbox sold 423,000 in Japan which was a joke and a mistake.
But the fact that the original Xbox, which few remember there, had near ONLY first person shooter games, action games, WESTERN GAMES that Japan simply doesn’t want nor need at all.
WESTERN GAME CULTURE, is not popular in Japan on the whole. But CULTURE is, whether WESTERN or EASTERN, very popular in Japan.
Japan doesn’t give two cents about Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty.
They want EPIC ROLE PLAYING GAMES like Infinite Undiscovery which has the funny name, they want FINAL FANTASY, they want PUZZLE GAMES, STRATEGY ARCADE GAMES and mostly alot of other type of 2D games.
They LOVE 2D RPGs and things like that, and they buy the Nintendo DS more than anything that comes out because it has 2D games and 2D RPGs.
Microsoft *LEARNED* its lesson with the Xbox 360, and for nearly all intents and purposes, loaded up the Xbox 360 with ALL types of games especially puzzle games and 2D games.
And then Japanese RPGs, and simulation games are the most important. It took a while to make Japan aware of the 360 games, and/or the fact MS LEARNED its lesson…….but it paid off.
Sony is now the one who sends shooter games and shovelware like Gran Turismo to Japan every week, and they wonder why their console sells like garbage.
Its because NOBODY WANTS THOSE GAMES in Japan they only want, WHAT THEY PLAY, musical games, great RPGs and non violent puzzle games and questing games.
JAPAN WILL NEVER CHANGE. THEY WILL ONLY EMBRACE JAPANESE CENTRIC GAMES FOR DECADES THANKS TO NINTENDO.
September 23rd, 2008
Xbox360 at 760,000 and climbing up, will have sold at a rate of over *3 TIMES* as good and as fast as the original Xbox.
The newcomer, will have turned things around *COMPLETELY* after facing such an uphill struggle.
That’s what people should really look at, and take a good dissection of the facts. If only Sony had *DONE THAT* with the PSP, by looking at how the newcomers handled the market, they would not have been so brutally murdered in sales. Nowadays they do barely marginally better. PSP is not a bread and money maker.
But these pitfalls effect everyone…..and for Microsoft Japan they were EXTREMELY costly pitfalls. MS Japan should have launched the 360 with 2 or more Japanese RPGs on DAY ONE, not been naive and thought they could just rush in.
Like they originally believed back when they would try to sell the Xbox using sneakers.
With the Japanese, there’s only a WINDOW OF TIME to have their attention. After that closes, its over and they just ignore it all. You have to guarantee and grab their attention with a large epic RPG or yes puzzle game, and KEEP their attention, or they will forget you exist.
Make no mistake, they’re like this with all companies, no matter what country its from. Its just a fact of life there. And if the next Xbox since it will be on firm footing does not realize they should launch with a Japanese RPG and two well known Japanese franchises, then they are deserving to fail at launch.
Xbox360 would have done major damage to Sony and its Konami games, had it launched with Blue Dragon and another RPG on day 1 in Japan. That’s a fact they would have been ALOT more competitive on a whole, really holding off the other very well.
They blew it, and it didn’t get any real RPG or big title until a year or more AFTER its release. So sad, so pitiful. All are doomed to make those mistakes with Japan and the Asian market.
Well now they have something very real, credibility with the Japanese public. Capturing Star Ocean 4 gave them the hearts and minds of many thousands of Japanese gamers. I wouldn’t be surprised that, over time, MS Japan gets their first million selling RPG.
But on the whole, companies can’t make the same mistakes two or three times or they can expect to get slapped..Sony knows what that is..
October 11th, 2008
MS should thank Square-Enix (Two of my favorite RPG developers during the era of SNES) for their success in Japan. Now, it looked like we are going to see more of Square-Enix’s titles for the 360. I am optimistic that more Taito, Bandai, Capcom, and Konami titles are coming to the 360. Brace yourself!! JRPG are making a big comeback.
October 13th, 2008
Well, if we’re going on basing the success of a console by it’s RPGs in Japan, then the Ps3 will eventually win. Even though X360 managed to get their hands on Final Fantasy 13, they still don’t have Final Fantasy 13 Versus which will stop them from winning the sales over the ps3. As well, have any of you seen White Knight Chronicles? If the Japs love epic, well, time to see what looks like will be a RPG that will sell more then all rpg lover’s main game, Final Fantasy 7. (I shit you not, look at the trailer) Level-5 Ftw.