"We expect to win" next-gen battle in Japan
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Jun 15th 2005 at 12:10PM }
Guess who? Sony? Nope.
Nintendo? Nah. Microsoft?! You got it. It's no secret that the Japanese market has not been kind to
Microsoft's Xbox. So excuse us for asking, but what are they smoking? Well for one, Microsoft plans to "enter
the Japanese market around December," hoping that an early start will lead to increased sales. In addition, the company
believes they've made outside moves to attract Japanese gamers, like teaming with ex-Suare/Enix exec Maruyama who had
some choice words for the competition, "This time, as well as launching first, we have focused on designing the machine
and the games for the Japanese market. We expect to win." Holla.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
haddo @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
xboxs are just computers not video game consles. come on nintendo!
Myria @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
If MS made their console out of solid gold and sold it for 1 yen, the Japanese still wouldn't be interested. One would hope that this is clear to all and sundry and that MS won't end up cannibalizing what made the Xbox great in a futile effort to please Japan.
One would hope...
Matt Selnekovic @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
So, bias anyone?
Conde @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
NEVER GUNNA HAPPEN! japan is obsessed with sony and nintendo.(more recently nintendo for its "ninten dogs"). plus they have a sony console that was release 1 1/2 ago called the psx. its exclusive for japan.(in america the psx is just the ps1 remodeled) so y would they buy an xbox now?
Mark @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
"So, bias anyone?"
The article that Joystiq linked to is biased?
Smiling Politely @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
It would be pretty embarrassing if the XB360 gets outsold by the PS2 on its release.
Monmin @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Microsoft hired Maruyama expressly to help them compete in Japan. So of course Maruyama is going to say Xbox will win in Japan.
However his views are not necessarily in line with other peoples views. I believe both J. Allard and Ballmer have admitted they probably will not win in Japan, but they do hope for higher market share than the first xbox.
MS is being much more open when it comes to letting their employees talk to the media and post blogs and such. It has pros and cons though. For one we get a lot of conflicting statements and PR that MS probably doesn't want. OTOH, MS gets a lot of information out to the public that would otherwise never be known.
Bryan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
But he wouldn't come out to say "we have focused on designing it badly. We expect to lose.", would he.
So... of course he'd say they mean to win. Duh! :)
xbox360-forums.com @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
This bickering between Microsoft and Sony is giving me a boner
Matt Selnekovic @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
"The article that Joystiq linked to is biased?"
No, Joystiq's take on it.
kfffjffff @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
i would lose respect for them :(
wizard @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
It's not gonna happen... everyone knows that the Japanese are biased toward "Western" products.
Dralt @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
The Japanese demand quality products that are taylored to their requirements.
Therefore, Microsoft is dreaming. It won't happen.
They will be very lucky if they beat the Revolution, actually.
Alex K. @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
and in other news, Microsoft has announced that it will be impossible to write a virus for Longhorn
Peter Rojas @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Accusing a blog of being biased is completely asinine. The whole point of a blog is that it's someone's point of view.
Pureshooter @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Nobody should take these comments seriously. I doubt Microsoft actually thinks they have a chance in hell of winning the Japanese market. They'll be lucky to come in second, but they could never say that. This statement is targeted at gamers who thought the first Xbox lacked Japanese support from a software standpoint (which it did). This is solely to grab the interest of the Japanese gamer and the U.S. gamer who wants games from Japanese developers. Don't take this at face value.