Xbox 360 not selling well in Japan is normal, it has little to do with japanese favoring their own manufacturers, but more to the fact that the Xbox 360 has a poor lineup of games that would attract the typical japanese.
In Japan the successful games genres are party games (singstar, buzz, Wii sport, DDR), asian RPGs (think final fantasy, not oblivion) and action/fighting games. FPS are not very popular. Also Japanese tend to prefer nice graphics rather than realistic graphics (think anime rather than live action). This is pretty much the oposite of the Xbox360 lineup! With no party games and a weak JRPG lineup the Xbox360 can't compete.
Also in Tokyo space is at a premium (a lot of young singles or couple live in one room) so you either need to sell them a small unobtrusive machine (the Wii) or a large machine that will cater to all their surfing and multimedia needs (what the PS3 tries to do). Xbox360 is a big box just for playing.
It's not that the Xbox 360 and it's game lineup are bad (they are not!) , it is just that they are not at all well adapted to the japanese market. If Microsoft realeased a thiner Xbox360 with integrated web browsing and good multimedia capabilities, a series of good party games (DDR, Karaoke, a response to Wii sports) and a much stonger lineup of JRPGs (not realistic stuff like oblivion) as well as better action games (where's microsoft equivalent ro mario and sonic). And forget Halo 3, that's a FPS with realistic graphics, that will be irrelevent in Japan (FPS + realistic = very bad in Japan).
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Xbox 360 not selling well in Japan is normal.
Xbox 360 not selling well in Japan is normal, it has little to do with japanese favoring their own manufacturers, but more to the fact that the Xbox 360 has a poor lineup of games that would attract the typical japanese.
In Japan the successful games genres are party games (singstar, buzz, Wii sport, DDR), asian RPGs (think final fantasy, not oblivion) and action/fighting games. FPS are not very popular. Also Japanese tend to prefer nice graphics rather than realistic graphics (think anime rather than live action). This is pretty much the oposite of the Xbox360 lineup! With no party games and a weak JRPG lineup the Xbox360 can't compete.
Also in Tokyo space is at a premium (a lot of young singles or couple live in one room) so you either need to sell them a small unobtrusive machine (the Wii) or a large machine that will cater to all their surfing and multimedia needs (what the PS3 tries to do). Xbox360 is a big box just for playing.
It's not that the Xbox 360 and it's game lineup are bad (they are not!) , it is just that they are not at all well adapted to the japanese market. If Microsoft realeased a thiner Xbox360 with integrated web browsing and good multimedia capabilities, a series of good party games (DDR, Karaoke, a response to Wii sports) and a much stonger lineup of JRPGs (not realistic stuff like oblivion) as well as better action games (where's microsoft equivalent ro mario and sonic). And forget Halo 3, that's a FPS with realistic graphics, that will be irrelevent in Japan (FPS + realistic = very bad in Japan).