Japan to get the 360 price cut we all knew was coming

by Justin McElroy on Oct 22nd 2007 10:10AM

With all of the 360 SKUs available, it can be a little confusing trying to keep track of them all. One helpful thing to keep in mind though: The cheapest of the models can now be found in Japan, as the Core there will be cut on Nov. 1 to around $243. Furthering hopes of the 360 topping its 6,161 sales last week, the standard model has gotten a similar treatment.

Forget about rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, Microsoft is slashing prices on them. You want three chairs for $20? Done. You want four for $25? You got it. You want to pay 34,800 yen ($304) for your standard Xbox 360? Then it's yours! ... What's that Japanese consumer? ... You just want some chairs. ... Oh, OK, sure. No problem. Chairs it is.

Source

Tags: japan, pricecuts, Xbox-360, xbox360

Reader Comments (56)

That picture is really disrespectful to all the fictional characters that died with the titanic.

you're retarded (read: SLOW). it's called "comedy" or "satire". if you want politically correct gaming news, go somewhere else.

Oh come on, Rose survived that crash and lived beyond a hundred years! On the other hand, Jack got frozen and got revived in Titanic 2. =P

Trailer => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iOuYkbrx4w

Dear Mr. umm.... hello???

It is best not to lecture upon such notions of "comedy" and "satire" when one "does not get it".

KTHXBAI.

He's not retarded. He was being just as sarcastic and satirical as you were attributing to the article. Notice the word "fictional" on there. Pretty funny, if you ask this guy.

That was funny Ford, and the best part was all the dumb asses who didn't get your jest. SquadXp Podcast 4 evar!!!

umm....hello???

Whens the next MENSA meeting swifty? Quite the lecture from someone who couldn't see what was an obvious and funny joke.

Might increase sales a bit but they are never going to break into the Japanese market.

Desperate price cuts ain't gonna sell the 360 in Japan, and they ain't gonna sell PS3 in the States.

yeah, the japs are too big of sony fanboys

I'm pretty sure the term "japs" is kind of offensive..

isn't gaijin offensive too?

Qucik, can someone tell me how easy it is to get American games working on a Japanese 360? Doing the math, I'm thinking the cheapest way to get a 360 would be to just import one.

Though I'd appreciate the irony of an American going through an importer to buy a console made by an American company.

I think the 360 is region free.

That IS some delicious irony!

360 isn't region-free. However, developers do have the option of region-locking games or not.

Play-Asia has a list of games that are/are not region locked (note that not all games have been fully tested yet).

And, well, importing a system is never cheap.

It's like a liquidation sale over there!

xbox 360 is a good system, i love mine more than the wii at the moment, but japan will be a tough nut to crack, probably will be a loss this gen, but maybe next time

*note to self, use less commas; more periods

Microsoft said as much a year ago. they knew it was going to be a slow process to break into the Japanese market and would take several generations to grab mind share over there.

Japanese retailers are probably still selling through their launch inventory.

My heart will go on~~~~~~~~~~~!

I hate you. Now I have that crappy song in my head.

Make that two, you Celine-Dion-song necromancer.

This will help Xbox 360 in japan for sure, even if only 1-2 thousands more Xboxes.

Now if only they would cut the price of the 360 in Canada! We're paying $415 US for our Pro system, a $65 premium. This discrepancy looks really bad in light of Sony's decision to make the price for the PS3 the same in the U.S. and Canada. Making the PS3 a far better deal for Canadian, shame it has no games that I want to play. If MS does adjust pricing before Christmas I know what I'll be putting under my tree.

you anywhere near the border? you could come down here for a weekend

I want a price cut too but right now you can get Guitar Hero II for free along with Forza 2 and Marvel Ultimate alliance when you buy the system at Future Shop.
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10095080&catid=

I bet it's cheaper in Japan because its cheaper to ship. It is made in the region. Just a thought.

Thanks for your thoughtful observation! Although I think they also cut the price to break through in the Japanese market.

Kudos!

It's just crazy how much Japan rejects American consoles.. Best games on the market, good price, lots of 3rd party support.. That's what MOST people base their opinions of a good console on. Over there.. they base everything on whether or not it's a Japanese console.

Well most of the 360 gems do not appeal to Japanese culture, so I think your comment is pretty dumb. The Wii and the PS3 have more games that appeal to the Japanese people. So in conclusion, although your comment contains a grain of truth, it is not THE reason the 360 is failing in Japan.

They could be relating it to reliability. If is indeed that, they are justified. Maybe there are a lot more horror stories about having to deal with the returns when living in japan. idk, just speculating.

don't they like metroid over there? if so, i don't see why they wouldn't like halo

Not really. Japanese people base their opinion on the "high rates of failure" and "FPS murder games" from the 360 as depicted by the media. Unlike the Japanese, US consumers have a much higher tolerance for failure and murder.

Get ready to be flamed for being ignorant.

iPods have no problems selling in japan, as well as American Music and Movies.

Contrary to what you think, Japan actually LOVES american stuff. The problem with the Xbox360 is the marketing. It has 2 pretty big JRPGs, with Square furnishing at least 1 more in the near future. Right now the PS3 has what, Zero JRPGs on it.

The PS3 has more western centric games on it than the 360 has. The only reason 360 doesn't sell is because nobody knows this fact.

the japanese didn't have any problem killing chinese by the thousands in the 40's, i doubt they've changed that much in 60 years

ooh check out the hot sellers in japan last week:

1. DS Nishimura Kiyoutarou suspense new detective series Trap of Kotou murderous intent of the Kyoto & Atami stopping sea

2. Dragon ball Z sparking! Meteor

3. Gundam battle chronicle

4. Exploratory party at the time of Don John of ポケモン wonder

5. ????

6. Exploratory party of the Don John darkness of ポケモン wonder (sounds a lot like number 4?)

7. RISE FROM LAIR (ライズフロムレア)

8. アルカイック sealed heat

9. Foundation Japanese Chinese character performance test association official recognition Chinese inspection DS2 + usual Chinese character dictionary

10. The DS insight which forges the power which you see with practice (メヂカラ) training

one ps3 game, 2 ps2 games, and the rest are portables

@Crono: Thanks for not reading. It helps when you read my comment and noticed I said nothing of iPods or any other product and clearly pointed out only consoles. Call me ignorant? Say what you will, but you can't read. :)

That said, I agree with you that the marketing could possibly be off over there, but unless you know exactly what their marketing strategy is and provide proof, then I am forced to believe you are just spouting gibberish based on what YOU think is the case in that region as opposed to what the popular belief is.

@Slaziman: You might fail to realize the 360 has more JRPGs than the PS3. The PS3, as Crono also states, has very Western-centric games which makes your statement incorrect.

Because JRPG's are the only games that appeal to the Japanese amirite? Games like Heavenly Sword, Lair, Folklore, and the Gundam games (I believe one of the Gundam games (Musuo?) even caused a spike in sales) appeal more to them than Gears, Halo, Bioshock.

And much like the majority of PS3 owners on this site, they probably bought the PS3 based on what (they hope) is coming, or in other words, its potential.

Justin, it would help a lot if you just admit that you hate the Xbox 360, because the bias is clearly showing in this "news article".

OMG JOYSTIQ IS TOBIAS!

who's Tobias? i thought the author of this post was Justin

Tobias is one of the creators from the Mortal Kombat series. His name backwards is Saibot in which the character Noob Saibot was formed. Boon, was the other creator from the MK franchise, his name backwards is Noob, the first name of Noob Saibot.

An MK founder now works at Joystiq? Jerkface said it first!

Jerkface, your screenname is so appropriate...

Welcome to Joystiq ferrarimanf355 (wtf?)! Please note that Joystiq is a blog that loves making little jokes about EVERY console, when the chance is there. They make as much jokes about the 360 RRoD and its failure in Japan as the jokes they make about the Wii's lack of games, horrible minigame fests, and graphics. And the PS3 gets constantly burned on this site.

So please, keep your ignorant JOYSTIQ IS TEH BIAS comments to yourself.

Those who says that xbox lack of success in japan is not because it is a US console, please tell me is there any Western games that succeeded there?

The main reason xbox keep on faling in Japan is because it is not JAPANESE!!!!

That is so true. Japs dont like anything thats not Japanese. That's why No one should buy the stupid PS3/Wii in the US. Oh wait a second. No one is buying the PS3........

Just a tiny bit of flame bait there sorry. :)

The costs of the price cut will be partially offset by the decline in the value of the US Dollar. Win/win really for MSFT and Japan. That is IFF Japanese people start picking it up.

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Japan to get the 360 price cut we all knew was coming

Reader Comments (56)

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 10:21AM FordGTGuy said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:01AM ummhello said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:10AM ThornedVenom said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:11AM ThornedVenom said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:12AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:41AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 1:08PM Duke said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 10:22AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 10:33AM copa said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:16AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 1:39PM kip said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 3:12PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 10:23AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 10:30AM Crono141 said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:13AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 8:17PM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 10:28AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 10:32AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 10:35AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 12:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 10:44AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 10:44AM rTwelve said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:11AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:12AM ThornedVenom said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 10:52AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 10:53AM bigE said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:11AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:17AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:00AM Ironmanxrs2 said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:21AM Slaziman said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:22AM wirikidor said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:17AM Chibi Chaingun said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:23AM Slaziman said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:28AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:30AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:41AM Oogle said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:47AM Crono141 said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:57AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 12:21PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 12:21PM Chibi Chaingun said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 1:20PM Slaziman said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:34AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:38AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:43AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 12:25PM Chibi Chaingun said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 12:57PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 1:26PM Slaziman said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:37AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:58AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2007 11:40AM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Super Joystiq Podcast 004: 38 Studios meltdown, Gravity Rush, Civilization 5: Gods & Kings, Dragon's Dogma

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW