Japanese game shops, lately burdened by a huge surplus of unwanted Xbox 360s they cannot sell, are now offering to buy used Xboxes for a paltry ¥500.
One shop explains their decision:
“We’re buying Core 360s for ¥500… A lot of places won’t buy them at all, you see.”
“We’ll buy Arcades for ¥3000… Elites sell for more.”
Most shops will also have nothing to do with older models.
Reportedly there are Xbox 360 owners actually willing to sell their units at this price.
It would appear Microsoft’s withdrawal from the Japanese market is not far off.
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The problem with xbox isn't only that it has a high failure rate, or that the games aren't 100% focused on the Japanese market. The problem lies with it not being a Japanese brand. Same with the iPhone, as many didn't want anything to do with it since "it's not Japanese".
I wouldn't mind one considering how poor Bayonetta (extreme example)on the PS3 is compared to its 360 counterpart.
blame Sega they wont release a patch 4 the ps3 version -.-
I've played both version and don't know what's wrong with everyone but the PS3 version is very much playable. Sure there are some minor faults but it's nothing game breaking.
@ Flaskis: It lies with the 360's high failure rate, poor hardware, and typically bad brand association (like giving up on the original Xbox after only 4 years - which has to be one of the shortest console cycles in history). I don't think you should look for why the 360 did poorly in the East, but rather look at why it did well in the west. The *ONLY* reason the 360 sold as well as it did in the west is for 1 simple reason: People here worship the almighty dollar.
There really wasn't a lot of reason to pick up a 360 @ launch in 2005 when the PS2 was still going strong and was a much cheaper console. But when 2006 hit and gamers saw the Wii would be last year's model with a control gimmick and the PS3 was going to be 500 smackers at minimum, people just said, "might as well get a 360!".
Despite it's 54% failure rate, it's overheating issues, the fact that it eats your games, no blue-ray, old hardware, and the fact that it was only cheap because MS stripped the console down so they could charge you ridiculous fees for everything else ($100 for a Hard Drive, $50 just to play your games online, $120 for a WiFi connector, $50 for cables, etc etc).
But hey, who cares about all that, right?! CUZ IT'S CHEAP! The 360 is an absolutely atrocious console overall. However, it *did* get ahead of the game early on and because of that secured some nice exclusives from developers focused on the western market (Valve, BioWare). That's the only redeeming quality it has: a solid lineup of exclusives.
You say the Japanese are Xenophobic and hate western products, yet our movies are hugely popular over there. So are our movies and TV shows. Guess what? Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare 2, and Grand Theft Auto 4 all sold really well over there too!
They're not Xenophobic. They just don't buy shitty hardware because it's cheap.
Plus, Sony has a great reputation over there, not just because of their products, but because of their other stuff like music, etc.
It seems like they weigh those two companies. Microsoft with their bad hardware or Sony with their good one... and its other things.
I guess their gaming preferences do play a role too, but I dunno to what extent.
And also Mr 12:35:
you forgot to mention the extremely good warranty even if screws up with RROD they will send by post pre-paid all you have to do is give them a call and they will do it for you not to mention the nice Service Microsoft will give to you and the readily information at hand, they at least admit they stuffed up and willing to fix it.
On the other hand Sony are the opposite no hardware that has been given bought by Sony will be replaced without drawing blood out of a stone or when a rocking horse shits. Also if you break it the faults on you no matter if it should be resistant to extremely short falls, customer service will try and pin the blame on you.
Keep in mind Eastern people are quite different from Western people. Western people will kick up a fuss and crack shits if something goes wrong whereas Eastern they tend to keep it in and blame the fault on themselves, which they should know better.... damn my eastern side time to time :S
you know what?
my ps2 is still working, and i bought it when it was coming out...
So why should i not trust a sony product?
psx AND ps2 are still 100% working.
As well as my psp...
So dont gimme the "blame sony" crap please.
I agree, of course there weren't any claim for PS3 compared with X BOX's "nice claim" propaganda.. coz Sony's hardwares are so tough, the customers never have to make claim at all!! ^_^
God, you morons are so quick to play the race/xenophobe card nowadays...
If that's the case, then what the hell was the deal with the iPod's success over in Japan anyways? You do realize that nobody, not even people in the United States wants an iPhone nowadays, right?
Its failure has more to do with how the Xbox brand has been marketed since it it had been conceived. The the Xbox brand is predominately associated with first-person shooting games, which obviously aren't anywhere near as popular in Japan compared to turn-based/strategy RPGs, visual novels and puzzle games. Most people in Japan don't look at an Xbox and say "Xbox? A system made by an American company? Pass." Otherwise, they would've never bought that $2000 computer with an American operating system made by the same fucking company back at home. When they look at the Xbox brand, they say "Xbox? That system with all those mindless shooters? Pass." Don't you get it? Most Japanese don't like FPS games--Regardless of the actual lineup, you really expect them to be interested in a brand name that's known for being conceived with FPS games in mind?
You can't really garner much interest in your system outside of a small niche if your brand has a huge reputation for being firmly associated with something that your target audience isn't interested in. If its failure were just on the basis that "it's not Japanese", then series like GTA would have never sold well in Japan at all.
This comes from an actual survey where Japanese people have been interviewed about their views on the iPhone. Along with things like "It has a bad camera", one of the more frequent reasons were about the fact that they do want to use a Japanese cellphone, and not something imported.
"You do realize that nobody, not even people in the United States wants an iPhone nowadays, right?"
I don't know what people you're talking about, but from what I see, more and more people are buying the iPhone.
Anyway, I was merely using this as an example. The 360 has failed in Japan. But it's not solely because of the RRoD.
reasons why Japanese people don't want an iPhone:
No infared
3G is considered slow
Softbank is shit
Better phones available from different carriers
No place to put cell strap
Exposed screen (Japanese people have this weird phobia of electronics with exposed screens)
Ummm... what? How the screens in Japanese touch cellphones look like, then? I'm certainly curious.
Wtf who wants infrared? Why use outdated technology when the japanese have something better? I'm pretty sure most of japans low-range mobiles are better than most american mid-range mobiles.
There is nothing special about anything apple, it's all in the brand name, remember how sony used to be a respected brand name?
@anon 22:40
*Rim-shot*
The majority of smartphones in japan are iphones. However, the usage of smartphones themselves in japan is fairly low.
iPhone and iPod are both shit, that's all.
So is XBOX with its lovely RRoD.
So why buy them when you have something much better?
Where are you guys getting your information?
Yes, it's true that a lot of US consumers are actually over the iPhone and are moving onto newer alternatives, such as phones with Droid OS. But this mentality is typically in the more coastal regions, like California and New York.
Being tech and fashion forward's common in these places, but the rest of the US (which is the majority), not so much. They'll still believe iPhones are at the top, and not even consider other alternatives.
But as for the iPhone not being popular in Japan? No, actually... the iPhone was REALLY trendy. Many people wanted it, even despite Japan having other phones of better technology BECAUSE it was trendy (and because it was touch-screen). But again, these are only in the urban areas where it really matters. When H&M and Forever 21, the line went on for several city blocks. Why? Because it's trendy and foreign, despite having cheaper/cuter clothing shops all around the city.
I was stationed in Japan near the beginning of 2000 to 05 and did indeed notice that most used closed cells.
Another thing about them is that most liked the tactile feel of buttons separated from the screen so that they could have a bigger canvas to work on. Every teenage girl I saw had a cell open while they typed away at speeds beyond what I've seen in America too. I did see a cell that had a clear cover and was also a touch screen, but it wasn't an iphone.
"You do realize that nobody, not even people in the United States wants an iPhone nowadays, right? "
News to me. Source?
his ass
the fact that ATT is still the sole carrier of the iPhone
once verizon gets its grubby little hands on it the thing will sell like crazy
No smart carrier will sell the darn things.
For the same reason most mobile providers shy away from it by now in Germany.
The App-Store is run by apple, meaning apple makes the money off of it, not whatever company is selling it.
Apple makes money from the apps, carriers/providers make money from the data transfer used to download the apps- this is extremely profitable as data transfer costs them next to nothing... But I believe Apple even gets a percentage of the monthly plan cost in their pockets too, otherwise they will not allow that carrier to sell iPhone plans at all. All carriers in Australia have the iPhone but 3Mobile (a former employer of mine) was the last to get it because they did not want to sacrifice profits to Apple - then they realised they were losing customers in droves so they caved late last year. The iPhone is VERY popular here... but surely there are heaps cooler options in Japan..
Well, in my line of work I get to use next to any phone, Japanese, American, iPhone, whatever. Use iPhone and Sharp myself. It would be also good that the majority of Japanese use NTT DoCoMo carrier with its content pool (forgot the right name, in Eastern Europe they called it i-Mode) assigned to a separate button. Very popular among younger generation. (Just like Apple with their Appstore, but nationwide, and dominating the market)
Hmm, I agree that the FPS games are a definite factor for the Japanese, but I don't necessarily think that saying they want to buy Japanese means they're racist, or rather, I don't quite believe that that's what flaskis was going for. To use some tangentially-related examples lot of Americans believe in "buying American" or being against outsourcing not because they hate other countries, but because they want to support their economy or truly think their manufacturing process is safer, higher-quality, etc. But to use a better example, it could be just this: the Japanese may want a Japanese product because they feel that it was created with their market in mind and therefore addresses their needs. This makes exact sense with your argument-- that the Japanese don't prefer the American console that carries mostly games that Americans prefer.
I totally agree, some people are like that, but I have faith in the japanese community that they're not moronic/idiotic enough to not like it just because it's not "japanese." There are plenty of other better reasons to not like the xbox (like paying for xbox live every month, high failure rates, no blueray drive, etc) for them to go down the tubes.
However, there might be the consideration that the xbox 360 doesn't have a tendency to support as many anime based games as the PS3 either. That doesn't mean they're not all like that, but look at how many games were anime-based on the PS2 compared to the xbox. A lot of people who play games in japan like anime, but i don't think it's got anything to do with the machine itself not being japanese.
Sure people in the US don't want an IPhone yet there are over 10 million IPhone users and I personally know about 40 people that have it and more of them telling me that they are getting it. I tell them not to due to the cost of the plan, I tell to get a Palm or a Droid phone,In New York city there are so many IPhone users that the have effectivly broken the network, so your logic kind of fails a little bit.
Well, personally saying on the iPhone matter. It's relatively simple.
I've got a laptop, the hell do I need a downgraded PC-in-a-phone with a higher cost then my regular cellphone/MP3?
The problem lies with Xbox 360 being a big piece of trash...
Trash My ass. I've yet to see an xbox 360 catch fire like PS3 and the Wii have in actuality. I'm not a fanboy by far. I want all three systems because each have games only for each system. But in all seriousness the 360 is more advanced then any other games system on the market. People prefer to get games that are made for the 360 because generally they are made better and overall look better.
bullshit, sure ported games may look better on the 360 because they were made with a sourcecode more compatible with the 360 but ps3 exclusives are far better looking than 360's because the ps3's processor and use of the blu-ray disc allows it to be so. blu-ray discs contain 25GB of space, a dual layer contains 50GB of space but a DVD-9 which the X360 utilizes can only max out at 9GB of space so from a technical standpoint, yes ps3 exclusives are superior but cross-platform games, for the most part, look better on the 360. the keyword here being "better looking." as for the content of the games themselves, it depends on taste i guess, 360 has mass effect, ps3 has demon's souls, it's all about taste.
quit masking your 360 fanboyism in a cluster of words when you don't have the info to back up your shit
I love when people use the blu-ray = best graphics arguement, so they decided to not compress the graphics as much because they have more space, when will people read some facts.
More space != Better Games
More space == More Dev's being lazy about using compression
@22:10
Name a game that really has used all 50GB of space.
NONE not even WOW has exceeded this making your argument quite mute. Nice try PS3 fanboi please try and flame more with more facts backing this up
NAME a GAME THAT USES ALL 50GB of SPACE IN A BLU RAY DISC
It's all about price and reliability. Xbox 360 was cheap to begin with so most people have games in their library that're xbox 360 only.
However now that the PS3 is cheaper, some people are more willing to buy a stable system that has graphics that are ATLEAST just as good(f not perhaps better) than the Xbox 360, and not worry about having to buy a new one every 6 months because it blew up.
Other people couldn't be bothered and just keep on rebuying it. It's got nothing to do with how great the xbox is, it's got everything to do with how much money is already invested in the game counsel via game libraries.
Blu-ray will never catch onto PC games, DVD's are so dirt cheap, I don't think any dev's care about fitting all the data on one disc when the game gets installed and you never need to use the disc again until next install or insert to play(DRM).
As for consoles, having too switch RE4 disc for gamecube never bothered me once, as it was only once you were 2/3 threw the game, and also the extras.
The only time I would be bothered by disc switching if it required multiple switches. For example you travel from area 1 - area 2 and switch disc, but you need to travel back to area 1 for an upgrade or something so you need to switch back to disc 1, that would piss me off.
MGS4 was over 50GB until they took some things out
"This is certainly something interesting. The disc has a massive 50GB capacity. Then the voiceovers have already been lessened, freeing up more space. We can only imagine the things that will be jam packed in the game. Hours and hours of hi-definition sound? Or wait, what about HD cutscenes of the game?"
Considering what it looks like(haven't played), I think they just got lazy with compression.
FMV's take up crap loads of space as well.
@00:19
WoW has craptacular graphics and no FMVs(if I'm not mistaken)
It's not a very good example, just saying.
I still agree with the rest of what you said.
Metal Gear Solid filled the bluray because of the pirdeful as fuck Japanese goin "OH BUT I DON"T WANNA COMPRESS MY BEAUTIFUL GRAPHICS, EVEN IF YOU NEED A SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE ON A 100" 1080p TO SEE THE DIFFERENCE".
"I love when people use the blu-ray = best graphics arguement, so they decided to not compress the graphics as much because they have more space, when will people read some facts." I love it when people misspell "argument" ... makes you seem very credible.
So...
any of these arguments reputable?
err...if you have done your research, you would find out that iphone is the best selling phone in japan...
Yeah, it was.. for a week when the 3GS was released.
The iPhone doesn't have many of the features the Japanese take for granted, and add in the fact that phones in Japan are rarely sold seperately, but are released as special editions from the various service providers.
Japan didn't embrace the I-phone because their phones were already good. Americans on the other hand flocked to their local AT&T to buy the cool new gadget, and have those early bills to prove it.
Im Japanese.
I think Xbox 360 failed in Japan because Its not Japanese brand. (Japans game market has expanded by Japanese games. So Japanese people prejudice against foreign game products and want to buy domestic products.)
However, iPhones are selling well more than Japans mobile phone, though Japans mobile phone market had expanded by Japanese brands.
Japan has some isolation markets and xenophobic sides.
However, I think some US people who based on the racial discriminative view assume that Japanese never buy foreign products.
I love both USs and Japans cultures. So Im very sad that some US people provoke Japanese to anger and look down. (and Japanese trolls are shit too.)
I somehow don't think your japanese. Not that it matters.
WE LOVE JAPAN! WE LOVE JAPAN! WE LOVE JAPAN!
@20:26
However you think we are a majority we aren't
and don't back up with some bullshit saying that we all use Sony products and they all come from Japan etc etc. Most products are made in China nowadays.
Besides the Japanese have some views on US Technology like us to them keep in mind they are a minority much like us in the western world.
even with all that said, they really didn't try that hard to appeal to Japanese players, just like the original XBOX
There are more RPG's on the Xbox 360 than the PS3 for the longest time so they did try at first, but clearly they need to fire their marketing team in Japan :P because they failed big time.
Anyway they seem to be doing fine without that market share regardless
True...part of the reason it hasn't been a top seller is because it's not Japanese. And they don't have the games, obviously, that the market wants.
Having said that, the sourcing on this 'story' is weak. Considering the fact that the accompanying photo is actually in the 'news story' I'd like to see a less biased report.
You've come to the wrong place for articles without bias.
Sankaku: It's a sony!
No Sanksku is just a troll.
a troll is fine too... as long as you've got a +3 broadsword to slay the beast
please check this link and you judge :D
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_n_8?rh=n%3A15783231%2Cn%3A15783281&bbn=15783231&ie=UTF8&qid=1263914088&rnid=15783231
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_n_8?rh=n%3A15782591%2Cn%3A15782641&bbn=15782591&ie=UTF8&qid=1263914287&rnid=15782591
The trouble here is that no-one wants the shit vanilla version. Really, who would want the half version?
Well, the iPhone (+ iPod Touch) is doing pretty well now in Japan.
See here for more info: http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2009/12/the-iphone-is-doing-great-in-japan.html
i disagree/w first statement. it was doing fine in alot of countries, but it seems their underhanded tactics are costing them. i just wish they weren't responsible for windows, because i like windows, but hate xbox.
Holy fuck!
INTERNET ARGUMENT!