August 2009

Present Situation of Xbox 360 in Japan

Present Situation of Xbox 360 in Japan
Xbox 360 is difficult in Japan.
It is the Second in terms of world's share. However here in Japan, Wii's console sale is top, then comes PS3 and Xbox 360 is the last. Though Xbox 360 launched one year before PS3, it was a hard fight for it to hit 1 million.
This was accomplished on March, 2009. It launched in Japan on December, 2005, so took 4 years for that.
By the way, PS3 hits 3 millions.
And there is another factor affecting the actual sales of Xbox 360 in Japan right?
That's true. You know Xbox 360 can be malfunction easily, and the same user is buying a few Xbox 360s to replace, so the actual number of users should be less but that is not the point. The specific problem in Japan is...
Is?
Most of the sales is for further export towards Asia market.
You mean for illegal customize in order to play pirate software.
We will talk about that later. But you should note that the so-called 1 million sales in Japan actually included the amount for further export and those for replacing malfunction consoles.
Got it.
By the way, my Xbox 360 failed to work and I bought a new one. So I have contributed 2 for the 1 million figure.
There is nothing proud for that...
As for software, the best sales figure is 0.2 million. As the actual number of users is less than 1 million, this mean that 1 out of 4 Xbox 360 users bought the same software.
And the titles are Star Ocean: The Last Hope (Star Ocean 4), Tales of Vesperia and Blue Dragon.
They all sold 0.2 million. On the contrary, famous foreign title like Halo 3 only sold 80 thousand.
But it sold 10 million worldwide.
By the way, 1 out of that 80 thousand figure is contributed by me.
No one care about that...
So from the point of view of foreigners, situation of Xbox 360 in Japan is unbelievable. We will talk about the reasons for that another time. Let's grasp the difficult situation of Xbox 360 here in Japan first.

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Sengoku Basara (Devil Kings) Received Japanese Female Gamers' Attention

Sengoku Basara (Devil Kings) Received Japanese Female Gamers' Attention
We had introduced female game users in 『Japanese Female Gamers』, and now there is a game receiving their attention.
Oh you're talking about that one by Capcom.
No one knows what you're referring if you just say "that one"...
Capcom's Sengoku Basara (released in North America under the title Devil Kings) is hot among particular female gamers. It is a fighting game with characters from Japan's Sengoku Period. Game style is similar to Street Fighter.
We should explain Sengoku Period a bit.
Japan's Sengoku Period, or Warring States Period, was a period lasted from A.D.1467 to A.D.1573. But generally it would include up to A.D.1600. In that time, there were regional lords throughout Japan ruling their territories. Sengoku Period was a time of constant military conflict between regional lords. The wars were for expanding territories.
Any example for foreigners to grasp the image?
Just imagine governors of the 51 states of the United States declaring war on each other in order to get others' land.
This make us harder to understand...
Nothing special for wars to get land. The point is in the small space of Japan, this situation occurred frequently. And there are charming stories about people of that era, many Japanese love that.
Sengoku novel, manga and anime are available. Television drama is also a constant.
And Sengoku Basara is a fighting game featuring characters from Sengoku Period.
The point is, these historical people are refined and become some handsome manga characters.
That is it. "As handsome as manga" make female OTAKU take a note of it. As a result, it becomes a title receiving female gamers' attention.
Normally female gamers don't play fighting games, but this one is special.
Becoming an anime, it becomes hotter and hotter. And recently, female fans just like to travel to those places related to these historical people, e.g. temples.

image

 Sengoku Basara Animation Vol.1

Selling Date: July 1, 2009
Price: 5,985Yen

Click the image and check it out atamazon.co.jp(Japan)

Temples have space for visitor to write message. And news are talking about some temples' message space have been illustrated.
So you can grasp the boom of Sengoku Basara. For foreign female gamers, you may not feel Devil Kings' attractiveness as you knowing nothing about our Warring States Period, but you can enjoy the game much more than its graphic if you know the stories around the boom.
That's right.
Of course not for female only. We hope male gamers knowing more about Japan's history too. Warring States Period is an important era you know. You don't need to go more ancient than that, knowing history after A.D.1500 can make you a Japan mania. By the way, the newest Sengoku Basara 3 will be out in 2010 for PS3 and Wii here in Japan.

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