[MW Forums]

Microsoft's Xbox 360 console sold just under 44,000 units in its first two days on sale in Japan, a market research company said Friday. more

[Bernardinho]

This may prove a problem for non-Japanese users of Xbox 360, because the Japanese developers won't be developing many games for 360 unless sales pick up considerably. That would leave Xbox 360 users with an imbalance of U.S. style first person shooting games, ignoring the wider varieties of gamers. And innovation has to count somwhere for such a powerful machine. After all, look how much the DS is outselling the PSP in Japan, and it must be the games that are tempting the 300,000 (nearly ) Japanese people who bought the Nintendo handheld during last month alone. Microsoft might wish they had not used territorial lockout, so they could deliver unsold Japanese machines to the thousands queuing in Europe!

[Reenee]

How many total consoles were sent to Japan? I heard it was around 160,000.

[tallscot]

Sony sold 940,000 PS2 consoles in the first 3 days of sales in Japan when it debuted.
They sold 500,000 PS2 consoles in the first 24 hours in the USA.
These figures are easily obtained via Google and I wish they were included in this report.
This is a huge blow to Microsoft.

[tabasco_hot]

PS3 should match that easily if Sony offers headsets with microphones for online play. That is what makes the XBOX so appealing in the US is XBOX live. It's awesome. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[keath66]

In reply to:

---

Sony sold 940,000 PS2 consoles in the first 3 days of sales in Japan when it debuted.

---

Well sure, in three days. These figures are for just two days for the 360.
/forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[tallscot]

In reply to:

---

PS3 should match that easily if Sony offers headsets with microphones for online play. That is what makes the XBOX so appealing in the US is XBOX live. It's awesome.

---

I agree. The PS3 is going to have a new service like Live, right?
And if the Cell processor's yield is much better than the PowerPC processor Microsoft is using, watch out.

[OM_user]

In reply to:

---

Well sure, in three days. These figures are for just two days for the 360.

---

And your point would be what? Look at the numbers again. Even taking that 940,000 figure and dividing it evenly across 3 days, the PS2 sold over 7x the number in just ONE day than the '360 sold in two. So again, what was the point you were trying to make?
I don't think there's any question- the 360 is NOT selling well in Japan. At least not as well as MS had hoped I'm sure. Then again, it's mostly Sony territory, so I can't imagine they had huge expectations out of the gate.

[Peter Cohen]

In reply to:

---

what was the point you were trying to make?

---

I think the point was the smiley-face at the end his post.

[jdb8167]

In reply to:

---

And if the Cell processor's yield is much better than the PowerPC processor Microsoft is using, watch out.

---

That is an interesting problem. Microsoft is first to market but with a relatively weak showing in the US because of supply chain problems (namely they can't get enough Xenon PPC chips from IBM.) Microsoft also rushed to market without much in the way of software which appears to be hurting them in Japan more than in the US.
Sony is going to be relatively late to market but it is likely that they will have the chip supply problem solved and maybe better software on release. It should be an interesting comparison. But also don't count out the problems that Sony might have caused themselves by going with a new, untested architecture in the Cell with its odd SPE units. This is in comparison with Microsoft which is using a fairly traditional RISC architecture now. Fun stuff.

[jackaxe]

Anybody else notice that an estimated 44k of these things were put up on eBay this week. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
<]=)

[Dubbalubagis]

Hi,
I find it hard to believe that Sony is just waiting to perfect their entire system launch. You would have to believe they are in a mad rush to get it out the door and are just falling behind because of the new architecture. They will probably have short supply at launch, poor launch titles, and every other issues that haunts console system launches....well everyone but Nintendo /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif.
I also read that John Carmack personally loves the architecture and ease of software utillities for creating games for the 360. I have HEARD nothing but trouble with the cell architecture that Sony is using once again because it's relative freshness in the console market or any market for that matter.
On another note, we need some new Nintendo news to get the hype up for them. I personally can't wait to try out the Revolution!
Dubbalubagis
Apple iBook G4 12" 1.2GHz, 768MB, 30GB, Combo Drive, and an iPod mini 4GB
Debug Computer Services http://www.click2debug.com

[Uncle_Deercamp]

It appears that Microsoft has dropped a bomb on Japan.
But it's a dud.

[tabasco_hot]

In reply to:

---

Hi,
I find it hard to believe that Sony is just waiting to perfect their entire system launch. You would have to believe they are in a mad rush to get it out the door and are just falling behind because of the new architecture. They will probably have short supply at launch, poor launch titles, and every other issues that haunts console system launches

---

Sony has not fallen behind on anything. They were not intending to launch this early #1, or hoping to get a rush on x-mas sales like the 360 was. And that appears to have backfired on them (MS). They (SONY) still has 90% more consoles out there than Microsoft does anyway. They have far more experience in electronics, and in this case a particular market "gaming" than Microsoft, or anyone for that matter. They are certainly in no rush now. Their PS3 system has far superior specs than the 360, and it's a much bigger spec, and performance leap than the xbox had over the PS2 last time, and that still didn't help the xbox overcome Sony's dominance. These sales figures probably give sony a lot more breathing room than even they had anticipated. I don't think the XBOX 360 is really that impressive anyway. It's no where near the leap ahead that came when the PS transitioned to the PS2, and sony want's to have the PS3 be as much of a leap ahead as it was last time. Except this time their specs are a far bigger leap ahead. They are not out to show they have the better system, and they can out do the XBOX. They are going to prove they own console gaming.