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Microsoft wants to make Europe top priority for Xbox 360

22 September 2007 19:55 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 20 comments

After data figures showed that worldwide sales of the Nintendo Wii have overtaken the Xbox 360, Microsoft has decided to firmly set their sights on Europe.

Talking to an interviewer from Bloomberg, Microsoft's group product manager Aaron Greenberg said "The number one objective is to win on a global basis and that may mean winning some markets and losing others."

"Europe is our priority focus right now."

Last week however, Microsoft said it planned to not give up on the Japanese market by increasing the number of game titles available there. Even so, sales of the 360 have stalled since its introduction, lagging far behind the Wii and even the PS3.

"It's difficult to see Microsoft capturing a significant share'' in Japan, said Hiroshi Kamide, a Tokyo-based games analyst at KBC Securities Japan. "After two years on the market, Xbox's position in the country is such that it makes you wonder whether further efforts are even worth it."

To date, 446,201 Xbox 360s have been sold in Japan, accounting for a meager 8.7 percent of the new console market. On a per week basis, the 360 is regularly outsold by the PS3, the Wii and even the PS2.

My question to the reader: Should Microsoft give up on Japan?

Source:
GI.biz

Permalink to this article | Topic: Consoles

Sony plans European PS3 price cuts for holidays (4 October 2007)

Halo 3 leaked, thousands download (21 September 2007)

Xbox 360 sees sales boost in August (19 September 2007)

Nintendo promises large Wii supply for holiday season in North America (16 September 2007)

NPD: Nintendo remains dominant in August (15 September 2007)

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Discuss this article!
xtago (Newbie) 23 September 2007 5:17
yes [ + quote]
sssharp (Junior Member) 23 September 2007 5:51
They need to pull a Sega and leave that market for the others. [ + quote]
saltynuts (Inactive) 23 September 2007 7:15
*Originally posted by sssharp:* They need to pull a Sega and leave that market for the others. Why the 360 is a good console with some good games and a very good online community.and a high fail rate but there is a warrenty program in place to fix it ASAP [ + quote]
nurbenji (Newbie) 23 September 2007 8:50
maybe its not doing so well outside america because its been on watchdog for being a faulty product. do a recall already or would that be too much bad publicity that no one would buy one. unless you are american, damn those guys are stupid. they buy it because its microsoft, hmm software company. they'll make a good peice of hardware huh. d'oh! [ + quote]
mrtoast2 (Newbie) 23 September 2007 8:58
No. Its because the Japs do not like to buy American products. If you have ever lived in Japan you can see that all over the place, they even have certain "establishments" that have signs stating "Japanese Only" and they don't allow americans or europeans. The Japs hate us, they are really a sneaky two faced people. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 23 September 2007 8:58
vinny13 (Inactive) 23 September 2007 9:03
1945. [ + quote]
DVDBack23 (Staff Member) 23 September 2007 9:23
I feel myself doing this alot.. if I hear one more racist comment or any reference to World War II, that person is getting banned. Hopefully this is understood. [ + quote]
jimmer (Newbie) 23 September 2007 10:14
if Microsoft had those perverted/pedophile sim games those japs seem to love, then the 360 would be flying off the shelves [ + quote]
bennyb815 (Junior Member) 23 September 2007 10:44
Beautiful Katamari appears to be an attempt to help their sales, being an exclusive 360 game, but realy, they are quite fux0red in nippon [ + quote]
jezchrizt (Newbie) 23 September 2007 11:00
bout f***ing time [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 23 September 2007 11:40
Lets see what they do befor we congratulate them, they always treated the EU as 2ndary since they are dead in asia, lower prices more support more games get it done! [ + quote]
ChromeMud (Junior Member) 23 September 2007 13:12
It would be a good move by Microsoft to focus on Europe. I think this could also work for Sony to follow suit. Sony have treated Europe the worst though with a high console price compared to the rest of the world,no Emotion chipset which should of lowered the price not raised it and releasing the PS3 so late. I hope things will change for Europe but I'll believe it when I see it... [ + quote]
kyo28 (Junior Member) 23 September 2007 23:21
*Originally posted by mrtoast2:* No. Its because the Japs do not like to buy American products. If you have ever lived in Japan you can see that all over the place, they even have certain "establishments" that have signs stating "Japanese Only" and they don't allow americans or europeans. The Japs hate us, they are really a sneaky two faced people. Kinldy keep your racist remarks to yourself please. And no, the 360 isn't failing in Japan because it's not a Japanese brands. As I've repeated over and over again, a lot of foreign brands perform well in Japan like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Coca Cola, McDonalds and many others. The reason those brands succeed is because they've adapted to the local market, something Microsoft hasn't been able to do as of yet. [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 24 September 2007 9:09
*Quote:* *Originally posted by mrtoast2:* No. Its because the Japs do not like to buy American products. If you have ever lived in Japan you can see that all over the place, they even have certain "establishments" that have signs stating "Japanese Only" and they don't allow americans or europeans. The Japs hate us, they are really a sneaky two faced people. Kinldy keep your racist remarks to yourself please. And no, the 360 isn't failing in Japan because it's not a Japanese brands. As I've repeated over and over again, a lot of foreign brands perform well in Japan like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Coca Cola, McDonalds and many others. The reason those brands succeed is because they've adapted to the local market, something Microsoft hasn't been able to do as of yet. That was a bit OTT, I think Jp populace jsut buys what they like much liek the US populace. [ + quote]
vinny13 (Inactive) 24 September 2007 14:47
*Quote:* *Originally posted by mrtoast2:* No. Its because the Japs do not like to buy American products. If you have ever lived in Japan you can see that all over the place, they even have certain "establishments" that have signs stating "Japanese Only" and they don't allow americans or europeans. The Japs hate us, they are really a sneaky two faced people. Kinldy keep your racist remarks to yourself please. And no, the 360 isn't failing in Japan because it's not a Japanese brands. As I've repeated over and over again, a lot of foreign brands perform well in Japan like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Coca Cola, McDonalds and many others. The reason those brands succeed is because they've adapted to the local market, something Microsoft hasn't been able to do as of yet. Dude. That's fashion and food... Chinese food does well here too... The PS3 doesn't. That doesn't make sense does it? [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 24 September 2007 14:58
*Quote:* *Quote:* *Originally posted by mrtoast2:* No. Its because the Japs do not like to buy American products. If you have ever lived in Japan you can see that all over the place, they even have certain "establishments" that have signs stating "Japanese Only" and they don't allow americans or europeans. The Japs hate us, they are really a sneaky two faced people. Kinldy keep your racist remarks to yourself please. And no, the 360 isn't failing in Japan because it's not a Japanese brands. As I've repeated over and over again, a lot of foreign brands perform well in Japan like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Coca Cola, McDonalds and many others. The reason those brands succeed is because they've adapted to the local market, something Microsoft hasn't been able to do as of yet. Dude. That's fashion and food... Chinese food does well here too... The PS3 doesn't. That doesn't make sense does it? PS3 is failing because of a lack of games and the OTT price(soon that will be out the window with a 400$ core and MGS and FF),MS is failing in Jp because of price lack of games and poor barnd power in the market. [ + quote]
kyo28 (Junior Member) 25 September 2007 1:26
*Quote:* *Quote:* *Originally posted by mrtoast2:* No. Its because the Japs do not like to buy American products. If you have ever lived in Japan you can see that all over the place, they even have certain "establishments" that have signs stating "Japanese Only" and they don't allow americans or europeans. The Japs hate us, they are really a sneaky two faced people. Kinldy keep your racist remarks to yourself please. And no, the 360 isn't failing in Japan because it's not a Japanese brands. As I've repeated over and over again, a lot of foreign brands perform well in Japan like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Coca Cola, McDonalds and many others. The reason those brands succeed is because they've adapted to the local market, something Microsoft hasn't been able to do as of yet. Dude. That's fashion and food... Chinese food does well here too... The PS3 doesn't. That doesn't make sense does it? It's makes perfect sense to me. I replied to the following statement of another poster: "Its because the Japs do not like to buy American products." So I gave examples of US brands that are doing well in Japan to counter this argument. Such generalized and borderline racist presuppositions are not valid reasons to explain the failing of the 360 in Japan. US or any foreign brands CAN succeed in Japan provided they adapt their product and marketing strategy to the local market. MS clearly didn't hit the right spot with their product to seduce Japanese consumer, because the don't have enough games aimed at Japanese gamers, virtually no brand recognition and poor customer support/quality. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 25 September 2007 1:29
cartucho (Junior Member) 25 September 2007 3:02
of course!!! they figure out they just can;t do anything else in the US and Canada.. they finally figured out Wii and PS3 will own the market in the next few years so i guess they are moving to Europe. Not sure if they will be able to pull another HALO franchise game. Maybe gears might do the trick but not too sure if the second one will be as good as the original. [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 28 September 2007 16:09
*Originally posted by sssharp:* They need to pull a Sega and leave that market for the others. I tend to agree here due to the fact that Microsoft is a computer software company not a gaming company. However sega was great and was a gaming company you can not compare the two in the same boat. [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 28 September 2007 16:23
*Quote:* *Originally posted by sssharp:* They need to pull a Sega and leave that market for the others. I tend to agree here due to the fact that Microsoft is a computer software company not a gaming company. However sega was great and was a gaming company you can not compare the two in the same boat. MS needs to setup acouple of repair factories and call centers if they can keep devs to make multi regoin games I think thats all MS really needs to do, unless you want crappy locolized dubed games :P [ + quote]