XBox 360 Japan Launch

Sony is a national if not THE national brand of Japan.  With an 80% market share in the gaming console space and dismal sales of the original XBox (only 500,000 were sold in Japan), Microsoft had a huge barrier of entry into the market with their latest XBox 360.  They did everything right this time and still it's been a weak start.

The first XBox was a huge black box with clunky controllers.  They changed this and developed a great form factor with changeable faceplate's.  The controllers have been modified and are now wireless (another barrier last time).  The software and hardware architecture has obviously been updated and the 360 is 30x more powerful than the first XBox.  Finally, they beat the PS3 to market by about a year.  So why are sales so slow in Asia?  Nationalism? Brand Perception?

The positive news is that European sales are hot.  The European market had the same issues with the first XBox and it seems that Microsoft have redeemed themselves in this market.

They played it right this time and still no traction.  I'm clueless here.

Comments

[unier]

> The first XBox was a huge black box with clunky controllers.

I still think second Xbox is a huge and heavy white box with heavy controllers.
Besides, it got a huge adapter, and noisy fans (2 for Xbox, 1 for adapter), and
noisy DVD. Design is nice, though.

[Ron]

That's a great point, the external adapter could be an issue, although the Gamecube (which does very well in Japan) also suffers from the big adapter.

As far as the controllers, I believe the wireless feature obviously requires an internal power supply. I don't think the "wired" controllers weigh much.