Microsoft, arguably one of the most powerful forces in the world, finds itself stumbling once again for the second time in the same week trying to win over the Japanese gaming market. A re-prelaunch was attempted again yesterday in select Japanese cities.
The lack of actual understanding of the Japanese culture and basic geographical knowledge in marketting appears to be hurting, analysts say.
For example, an ad showing Bill Gates in Judo attire with the quote in bold oriental-looking text, "My system is coming to take over your country like a ninjer!" was shunned by the public.
Other ads feature Gates saying nothing but little-understood English. The Japanese that do understand were either offended or laughed at Gates\' attempts to win them over.
The popular Japanese magazine "Da!" had no less than 10 ads in one issue this month. All featured Bill Gates holding some food product and show a quote of his pertaining to the game machine.
The first inner page shows Bill Gates holding one chopstick in each hand, looking comically confused about it as he tried to eat a slice of pizza with them. This one has the text "These chopsticks have caused a General Protection Fault! Ha! Buy XBox!"
An ad towards the center of the mag has Gates wearing Iron Chef attire and Geisha makeup. His quote for this ad is "Happy! Happy! XBox will feature countless dating sim with nothing but picture and text! Silly stupid game like you Chinese like! Hello XBox!" This sparked a lot of bad blood with Japanese gamers for numerous reasons.
Higher-ups in the gaming market found distaste in a popular money magazine\'s ad telling the readers "You owe us for the tariff thing... so buy a U.S. system. Happy-Hyper-Super!"
The ads unintentionally belittling other Japanese gaming mainstays such as Mah jhong, Pokemon, a picture of Bill Gates dress like Chun Li of Street Fighter fame, and a back page ad showing Gates dressed like a World War 2 vet for no apparent reason are best left not mentioned.
A spokesperson for Microsoft informed us they researching the feedback they received from polls and market observations and will use the results and learned lessons to forge a third attempt
this coming weekend.
Japanese analysts largely agree that the Xbox is not looking good to the market but there are several possibilities for success, including Bill Gates dying or the entire nation of Japan being held at gunpoint to buy one. Another analyst pointed out even little details, like Gates\' addressing the nation as "Chinese" can be ironed over to give a better impression.
