Xbox360 price drop in Japan *already!*

mm\'s gonna love this

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Insane prices on ebay in the U.S. and discounting in Japan.. Send those over hear

http://kotaku.com/

"The train wreck that is the 360 Japan Launch continues. Unloved 360s consoles collect dust, and retailers are unable to return those unwanted Xbox 360s to Msoft due to contractual obligations. To cut loses and cover their arses, stores are left with no choice but to offer discounts. The originally 38,800yen (about $350 US) consoles have been lowered to 18,800yen (about $150 US) with Internet Service Provider contracts so that the shop could get some kickback money from the IP. And this is what, four days from launch?

Eds Note: While this style of pricing is common in the US, electronics stores in Japan tend to do this to move inventory they cannot sell."

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Microsoft Sold 28% of Xbox 360s in Japanese Stores

Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp., the second-largest maker of video game systems, sold 28 percent of Xbox 360 consoles on store shelves in Japan, according to preliminary figures from market researcher Media Create Co.

Microsoft sold 41,817 consoles in the first two days since the Xbox 360 was introduced on Dec. 10 in Japan, Tokyo-based Media Create said in an e-mailed statement late yesterday. The researcher will publish revised figures tomorrow.

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Just to compare launches w/xbox 1:

Microsoft sells 123,000 Xbox consoles in Japan

Microsoft Corp. sold about 123,000 Xbox video-game consoles in the first three days of sales in Japan, about half the company\'s initial shipment, an analyst said.

Buyers of the Xbox, which debuted in Japan on Friday, also bought an average 1.58 game-software titles for the console, said Jay Defibaugh, an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston Securities (Japan) Ltd., citing figures released by Famitsu, a Japanese game-industry magazine.

Microsoft initially is targeting hard-core game fans in Japan such as those who waited in line for hours before stores opened Friday. The real challenge for the company is to attract other consumers on the home turf of rival consoles, Sony Corp.\'s PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Co.\'s GameCube.

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The Japanese really are smarter than everyone else.  Why plunk down $400+ for a console with only a handful of forgettable games?

Everyone knew that the 360 was crashing and burning in Japan, and now there\'s a whole lot of evidence to prove it.  I can\'t believe more Japanese are buying it just to flip on Ebay, since they drained the North American and European stock of premium systems to get them over there for launch.

*Worst launch ever.....

(well, no.  I guess that would have to be the 32X, Nomad, or VirtualBoy).

----
*From a major player.

Lol... so fewer people bought it this time around in Fetishland? That\'s just a bit funny, with the talk about improved support blah blah blah.

I post on a few XBox forums, and boy you should hear some of these Xbox fanboys scream bloody murder at the japanese and Sony.


how could not anyone, especially MS realize to gain respect and market share over Sony, MS was going to have to have a rock solid, unforgettable type of launch.

Xbox 360 was an unforgettabl launch , but completely in the worng direction.

[GmanJoe]

It\'s selling like hot potatoes, you might say. No one will touch it.

Originally posted by ddaryl
I post on a few XBox forums, and boy you should hear some of these Xbox fanboys scream bloody murder at the japanese and Sony.

Heh, I just browsed a few for a laugh. And boy some of them are trying hard to spin it like it\'s not a bad thing... But come on, there\'s no denying it\'s a lackluster launch. And if PS3 does indeed launch this spring... bye bye Xbox360 sales in Japan.

If I was in charge of MS Xbox360 operations I\'d just forget about Japan and focus on North America and Europe. They\'d have a better chance of improving sales by focusing on us instead of Japan.

xbox 360 launch (worldwide) is a complete failure.

:rofl:

As far as software, this turned out to be a good system launch.

But my God.

Who knew it\'d be possible that even less Japanese gamers would be interested than before.

Wow.

Better buy up some games quick before the whole thing gets shit canned, eh? ;]

-Dan

well, it\'s not going anywhere

(except 3rd place this round)

[Titan]

Originally posted by mm
xbox 360 launch (worldwide) is a complete failure.

:rofl:

I have friends here at my college who are big Xbox fans and they keep thinking that the 360 launch was the best ever launch of a console....despite the complaints, the crashes and the flop over in Japan. Ok, its semi-successful in America but they are shitting the bed everywhere else.

what do you expect from xbox !!!!!!!\'s

like i said, you know a company fucked up when customers are making 200% profit selling thier product on ebay

[Evi]

you know a company fucked up when customers are making 200% profit selling thier product on ebay

People having been making 2-3 times the profit since the past few console launches. The PS2 was selling for absurd prices and people were still buying them. I should probably buy a few PS3s just to make a good profit on eBay. Stupid people are willing to pay lots of money for these things.

It seems like the average person has no idea what a "pre-order" is.

[clips]

meh microsoft can afford the hit but still,..that\'s just crazy!....meh i\'ve always been a sony  fan anyway..go sony..:fro:

It seems like the average person has no idea what a "pre-order" is.

you mean when 50% or more of pre-orders are still waiting to get thiers?
i know guys that paid in full for thiers months ago, and are still waiting...

PS2 launch was how many years ago?

[Evi]

you mean when 50% or more of pre-orders are still waiting to get thiers?
i know guys that paid in full for thiers months ago, and are still waiting...

That\'s just crappy business planning. I\'m just referring to the people who really don\'t know, not the people who got f^cked in the ass by MS with their pre-order waiting months on end.