Xbox 360 sees 157% sales growth in Japan this year

by Alexander Sliwinski on Oct 20th 2008 8:00PM

We're starting to get comfortable with the formerly apocalyptic notion that the Xbox 360 is finding ~~success~~ a niche in Japan. Famitsu Marketing data (via GameDaily) shows that year-over-year growth of the console has been an impressive 157% during the first seven months of this year.

Of course, with a fairly low Xbox 360 user base to begin with in Japan, a large percentage increase in sales doesn't mean much. The console has sold 748,992 and Microsoft hopes to hit the million milestone "as soon as possible." The console has seen significant sales spikes this year, thanks to Tales of Vesperia and Infinite Undiscovery. We've placed the Japanese lifetime unit sales after the break for comparison.

Lifetime unit sales (source: Famitsu):

DS Lite: 17,080,747
PSP: 10,181,888
DS: 6,449,206
Wii: 6,826,612
PS3: 2,369,484
Xbox 360: 748,992

Source

Tags: japan, microsoft, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (51)

Heh, RPG titles there will do that. Really, that is the only factor driving sales there.

Uninfinite Discovery, The Last Remnant, Lost Odyssey, etc, there's your 360 sales.

"Uninfinite Discovery"? A new game I haven't heard about? lol

Sorry, meant Infinite Undiscovery. It's a strange name to begin with, so easy to mess up!

Yeah, I know I just had to be picky. :)

Jack Tretton: This is the year for the Xbox360......In Japan.

Hey! That's also the percentage my wang grows when I see a hot Japanese chic!

Of course, with a fairly small wang size to begin with in your pants, a large percentage increase in size doesn't mean much.

Hey! I'm a grow-er, not a show-er!

its cold in japan :[

I'm a cyclist, not an underwear model!

I say we give a Memorial Burn of the Day Award to Sora.

157% of 1 inch is only 1.57 inches of growth.

Ahhh the internet, where boys sit around all day talking about one anothers genitals and still consider themselves heterosexuals.

Oh yeah? Well the jerk store called, and they're all out of you!

...I failed at this, didn't I? :(

you fail is like watching someone slip on ice, no matter how bad it is, its still funny. +1

(as long as there is no blood)

Everyone run!! It's the apocalypse!!!

Any Microsoft execs done the honourable thing and gutted thermselves over the shame of the hardware failiure rates?

/end troll.

Fun fact: Not everyone in Japan is a samurai.

Another Fun Fact: Everyone in Japan can be blindfolded with Dental Floss.

;p

Obviously, because then there wouldn't be any Ninjas.

For some reason I feel like humming a Billy Preston tune.

A cool growth for Xbox...But when I see those numbers, I only go "HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THE DS!!!"

well...technically you COULD combine the numbers in the name and the units sold...

Xbox: 360,748,992

LOOK AT LL DEM XBAUCK'S SOLD OMFG!

Technically you could take your wang out in a mall and pee all over an old lady, but I don't see the point.

:P

I'll be getting a Japanese 360 in a week. Mostly because this system is somehow becoming "the" system of choice for all the new shooters like Raiden 4, Death Smiles, etc.

DS & PSP are above all else because everybody likes gaming on the go and portables. Now, if only developers would start paying more attention to them, it would be great.

I think it's worth noting that the original xbox got about half a million in total in the region.

Great job MS.

I hope this trend continues. The 360 deserves it.

Microsoft could teach Sony a thing or to about marketing consoles to the Japanese

*thing or two

maybe 2 at most

I could see how that's valid with PS3s numbers up there being 3:1 to 360. Let's see, things Microsoft can teach Sony.... throw enough money at developers until they start deving on your console.

Meanwhile, in between these few games, 360 and PS3 look basically the same on store shelves over there. Seriously, check import sites.

Maybe the Japanese are finally realising that RPGs just aren't fun...

Ah, who am I kidding, of course not, they're all insane...

when you've been at the bottom, you've got nowhere to go but up...

Um no, you can go down. Look at Sega (Dreamcast).

My math isn't the best but isn't it highly likely that the PS3 will hit 3 million units by the time the 360 hits a million? 360 recently acquired games that Japanes players like which is why the sales. Marketing doesn't have a whole to do with it. The PSP sold a ridiculous amount when monster hunter came out. I will give the 360 props for getting out of it's 1000 units a week slump. It might last but I doubt it. Seems like the Japanese gamers have a flavor of the month, where one console sells much better than it was. DS is always the flavor of the year but sometimes they gotta try the Wii,PSP,360 or PS3.Anyone else notice the DS is only shy of about 5 mil units to reaching the PS2's sales?

I think a game called Little Big Planet will do well over there ... It's not an RPG but it has universal appeal

"As soon as possible" will occur almost eventually.

um.... PS3 is 2 million in Japan, the 360 still hasnt broken the 1million mark yet, .... but no doubt these are impressive numbers....but with White Knight Chronicles and the Avent Children Complete Bundles.. 360 will be back to where they were in Japan sorry :(

cha ching.... lol... i dont care.
but i do care about more games and the 360 is delivering more exclusives, however right now there is a good pick to choose from on all platforms.
The last remnant in november will continue this trend in japan for MS and i think there are few more RPG releases to come next year.

Lost Odyssey, Infinite Undiscovery were both good games IMO..

Good for them. The 360 is a great console. I've not had mine terribly long, but I can already see how amazing the console is (COUGH live COUGH), and why everyone's Wiis are collecting dust (this holiday kinda sucks on Nintendo's end :( ).

So I guess the Japanese are just kinda slow starting to the whole 360 craze, but there's still plenty of life in the 360 now to build that success up to possibly surpass Sony in the console front. If anything, the success of the 360 in Japan will mean a larger install base when their next system debuts.

The more games MS can get, like Ace Combat and all these RPGs that are only for that system and not PS3, the more people are going to flock to it instead. That and a lot of the famous games that are usually Sony exclusives, like Tekken and Devil May Cry, are for both systems. So it's not like the Japanese will be missing out on many franchises they've come to love over the years if they only buy a 360.

sorry...going from 3000 a month to 8000 a month is still nothing. if this were sony or nintendo going from 60k a month to 160k a month that'd be a whole different story. sure its the same percentage, but like people said when the ps3 was in its infancy...if you double sales of next to nothin, you still have...well, not very much.

It's beaten the PS3 a few times in a row now for sales, and games seem to be being made that Japanese players enjoy.. that's the big deal here. Granted while every console, even the PS2 is beating out the PS3 right now, this is still important. Sony is hurting their reputation right now, and if the 360 can swoop in, even if just a little bit at a time, and out sell them, it could spell better sales for them the end of this generation, or the beginning of the next.

I was always kinda curious to see how long the whole 3 console bit would last. Not by any means saying I want Sony gone, but when you have two systems that are very similar with near identical libraries.. you gatta wonder if one of them could be nudged out of the competition with a few amazing exclusives. Funny how last generation everyone thought that would be Nintendo, and now the biggest candidate for that is the one who's had more system sales last generation than it's competitors combined. Funny how times change.

the japanese sales are out weekly. i'd like to see the growth of ps3 in the US. i think so far it's out sold the 360 this year and it did better numbers last year.

i think, to honestly think that the 360 would catch up to and surpass the ps3 (or even the wii) in japan is laughable. look at it this way, even though the console costs a hell of a lot less and had a 22 MONTH head start, its still losing in lifetime sales by about 700k to 2.3 million. That is not good, and in coming months as the ps3 library expands, its not going to get any better. i know the 360 did beat out the ps3 a couple months, but isn't that because they saw a few exclusive jrpgs? i dont think the japanese are huge fans of FPSs, but i know RE5 (though not exclusive) LBP, GT5, KZ2, R2 and that white knight chronicles (i heard its supposed to be a biggy as far as jprg style games, not my cup of tea) game will def move some consoles. sony has beaten it in japan and euro, it just really needs to work on the NA market which the 360 dominates. after a 167% increase, it would still have to see another 167% increase just to make even w/ the ps3...so catching up in terms of the sales lead is probably out of the question.

"i think, to honestly think that the 360 would catch up to and surpass the ps3 (or even the wii) in japan is laughable. "

why do you phrase it that way? you make it sound like its more likely that the 360 could catch the wii than the ps3. the ps3 has sold 3x as much as the 360 in japan. it's unlikely to catch up to that number. the wii has sold 7x or 8x what the 360 has... that's far harder to catch up to.

in all honesty, though, all MS wants is to make the 360 a legitimate contender for mindshare and shelf space in japan, similar to what they did with the original xbox in the US. the original xbox was not a dominating force in the US, but it converted enough people to make the 360 a success here. it seems they are aiming similarly in japan with the 360.

@ josh...
the reason why i said its laughable is they control around 7.5% of the market. which is pretty bad, (and this isn't going to take into consideration the ps2 which is still being sold, otherwise it'd probably be closer to 1 -2%) but as time goes on, it would only get worse. the ps3, wii and probably the 360 will still be on sale for maybe another 2 years, if thats the case its marketshare would shrink to around 5%. I'm sure they wanna make a push mentally to show they can compete...but if current trends continue, they'll continue to get shutout.

I was just in a game shop here in japan, and buying a 360 is looking tempting. For one thing, 360 games are almost half the price of Wii and PS3 games.

Wii games go for around 5000-7000 yen (there seems to be a lot of variation).
360 games are all around 3600 yen.
(DS games are around 2000 yen to 4500 yen, GBA games around 2000 to 3000).

Well, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then.

not surprising to me. the 360 is certainly where it's at as far as RPG's this gen. it still sounds funny saying that but i actually just bought a 360 myself based on the strong RPG line up they have. the PS3 just aint cuttin it in that department yet.

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Xbox 360 sees 157% sales growth in Japan this year

Reader Comments (51)

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