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GameCube (Games) PlayStation (Games) Entertainment Games

GameCube Outsells PlayStation 2 In Japan 52

Posted by simoniker from the not-something-you-see-every-day dept.
Thanks to Gamesindustry.biz for their article discussing the latest Japanese console hardware sales, in which it's revealed that the GameCube marginally outsold the PlayStation 2 this week, by 35,600 units to 35,300 units, largely "thanks to the release of Namco's RPG Tales of Symphonia", whose success we mentioned a couple of days back. Unfortunately, the third major console fared less well: "The picture was a little less bright for the Xbox, which slipped behind the PSone in the rankings again - selling 650 units to the PSone's 960. In market share terms, it was only one tenth of a percentage point ahead of Bandai's SwanCrystal. Ouch."
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GameCube Outsells PlayStation 2 In Japan More

GameCube Outsells PlayStation 2 In Japan

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  • Response to marketing tactics? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by the Man in Black ( 102634 ) <jasonrashaad&gmail,com> on Friday September 05, 2003 @11:00AM (#6879641) Homepage
    Normally I would applaud any failure on Microsoft's part, but in this case I see it more as a Japanese backlash to and American company attempting to gain a foothold in the historically closed Japanese market. Anyone versed in the auto industries similar attempts over the years will understand where I'm coming from.

    "Buy American" is just a slogan here in the States, whereas the Japanese consumer is much more likely to support the home team, especially in something like consumer electronics. Is this a good/bad thing? Doesn't make a difference, and it's their choiice what they buy and don't buy. I'm just saying this to say that maybe we should pay more attention to sales data here in this country as an idea of how popular the Xbox is.
    • Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

      It's time to make the Console Wars into an U.S. vs. Japan conflict? Hot damn boy, I will go buy a few XBoxes right now and tell everyone I know that they should not buy a PS3! (I think the PS2 has pretty much gotten into everyone's home already.) Those Japanese don't know what's coming! I will only buy from American gaming companies! Let's see...well, EA is based out of L.A., right? Who else?

      The console wars just got a whole lot more exciting.

    • Insightful???? Yes, that's right, the XBOX's failure in Japan is not because it is too expensive, not because its games are not appealing to the Japanese people, not even because there is no strong third party Japanese software. Not even because it is so HUGE that it doesn't fit in the average Japanese appartment.

      Of all this you chose a nationalistic non-explanation that bears very little relation to the reality of Japanese people. It is not market protectionism that doomed the XBOX in Japan, it is shit ma

    • Re:Response to marketing tactics? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by vitaflo ( 20507 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @11:51AM (#6880122) Homepage
      Normally I would applaud any failure on Microsoft's part, but in this case I see it more as a Japanese backlash to and American company attempting to gain a foothold in the historically closed Japanese market.

      I don't think it helped that Microsoft's code name for the Xbox was "Project Midway", taking a cue from the Battle of Midway in WWII which ultimately let to the Japanese surrender (in this case, Nintendo and Sony). Pretty tasteless if you ask me.

      But hey, MS made the thing as big as a battleship, perhaps it was meant to sink.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Personally, I thinkg Microsoft shouldn't worry about how their doing in Japan. What's important is how they do in the global market. Even tough they're not even close to third in Japan, what's important is that they're number two in the world. Not too bad for a company's first console.

        The actual numbers don't back you up here. The GameCube is ahead, worldwide, but not by a whole hell of a lot.

        Microsoft has a little over 1.2 million lead in America, a few hundred thousand unit lead in Europe, and over

    • Re:Response to marketing tactics? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You bring up the backlash against American automobiles as if that's intended to SUPPORT your hypothesis surrounding consumer nationalism. If we were talking about American-grown rice, you'd be pretty much right. But rather, since we're talking about electronic luxuries, it points out its flaws.

      American car manus. back in the day did not produce cars that suited the Japanese market well. Earlier on, cars were released with LEFT-HAND DRIVE, while Japan is a RIGHT-HAND DRIVE country. American cars were un

  • Stop the Bleeding!!! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Acidic_Diarrhea ( 641390 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @11:00AM (#6879644) Homepage Journal
    650 compared to 35,000??? Those are not good numbers. My first reaction to seeing that was to wonder why Microsoft wasn't pulling out of the Japanese market. But I suppose that the Microsoft thinking is that you've got to get the name associated with console hardware so that XBox2 has a better shot. Of course, I think that could really backfire on them. It seems that once you have a console that doesn't do well, you've got a stigma attached. Look at Atari, they reigned supreme but then fell off the face of the planet with the 5600 and that stigma stuck with them as can be seen by the Jaguar. I don't think many consumers took the Jaguar seriously. Likewise with Sega - their SegaCD and 32X hurt sales of the Saturn and subsequent sales of the Dreamcast. Obviously there were more issues involved in these instances but it seems like once a company is seen as a hardware loser, it is very hard to get back in the game on the next go-round. So what can Microsoft do to sell the XBox2 in Japan? Anything?

    It's a tough question. Of course, maybe someone at Microsoft will see this post and say, "Uh oh, this Acidic_Diarrhea guy on Slashdot thinks we're in trouble in Japan! I better call Bill."

    Or maybe not...

    • Look at Atari, they reigned supreme but then fell off the face of the planet with the 5600 and that stigma stuck with them as can be seen by the Jaguar.

      Ummm... there was no Atari 5600.

      There was the VCS, known as the 2600 later on. Then the 5200, and the 7800. Along with the 400, 800, and 1200 home computers. There was also a post 7800 system that came out after the NES, but didn't seem to do much - I do remember seeing commercials advertising that system, comparing the NES robot to the included light
      • Hi Saige... surprised this discussion hasn't been archived yet, but I know this one anyway.

        The system was the "XE games system"; basically, a 65XE computer without a keyboard (the 65XE was a 400/800-compatible machine with 64KB).
        Of course, the 5200 was based on a slightly improved 400/800 design, but I guess they weren't 100% compatible (??!).
        I remember reading that circa early '87 they were going to sell the 7800 in the UK, but the UK operation wanted something that utilised the existing 800/XL/XE base
    • From my very limited understanding it appears that Japan are really really big on RPGs. Look at what this most recent RPG has done for Nintendo, why couldn't it do the same for the Xbox?

      The Xbox is currently pretty short on RPGs - sure there is KOTOR but that is pretty American, and less likely to appeal to the Japanese. Microsoft should either get a first party to develop an RPG aimed solely at the Japanese market, or better yet, purchase an established developer that already has a big name in RPGs.

      Squar
    • You're right, the XBox2 should do much better in Japan, now that they'll be entrenched... especially if they can get more Japanese developers behind them. Now as long as Microsoft doesn't repeat mistakes of the past and codename XBox2 Project Hiroshima, they should be fine.
    • Misnamed Atari 5600's aside, the Jaguar failed because it had shitty software. Doom was the only one worth playing.

  • Not only Tales of Symphonia... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GrosTuba ( 227941 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @11:02AM (#6879660)
    Another great RPG was released very recently, which quite boosted Nintendo's both living-room and handheld consoles sales : Final Fantasy : Crystal Chronicles

    In fact, in the charts I read [gamekult.com], the GBA SP was first, followed by the Cube, and then by the PS2, and I just thought FF:CC might be more than a bit responsible for this...
    • Except that the GBA:SP often does outsell the PS2, and when it doesn't, it's not by much.

      I think the bigger picture is that there aren't many games that are going to be able to cause a significant spike in PS2 sales any more, since so many people already have PS2s. On the other hand, a single (or in this case a couple of) good game can spike the sales on the GameCube, or even the XBox.

      I'd expect to see a spike in the US sales of GBA-SPs next week, as we see the black and red consoles coming out, as well a

  • Also the GameCube player (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Mr. Darl McBride ( 704524 ) * on Friday September 05, 2003 @11:21AM (#6879838)
    Not mentioned in the article, but also significant for these numbers, was that this is the second week where the GameCube player is being included for free with all new GameCubes sold in Japan.

    A similar bundle has been available in the US for a couple months now, but they held off on introducing this in Japan, presumably because they didn't have as much inventory to liquidate.

    GameCube production has been stopped a while as warehouses were already full of the units. Rumor on the game boards is that if the volume keeps up at these levels, production will start up again before Christmas, and we'll see a few new GameCube colors AND TEXTURES! I don't know if it's speculation or more, but the models are rumored to include a black case with glow-in-the-dark green details and a limited edition brushed aluminum model, either tied to some contest or sold at a premium price.

    • My bad, I'm a bit of a mormon. s/GameBoy player/GameCube player/ -- the attachment which goes underneath the GameCube and accepts GameBoy cartridges.

      Incidentally, the GameBoy backup carts work just fine with these. You can probably fit 8 of your favorite GameBoy titles on a Flash2Advance 256 and justify the GameCube/GameBoy Player purchase there alone. If you loved old 2D cart games and would love a break from gratuitous 3D usage, then you know you want to.

      • Re:Also the GameCube player (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        You can probably fit 8 of your favorite GameBoy titles on a Flash2Advance 256 and justify the GameCube/GameBoy Player purchase there alone

        Buy your video games, goddamn it. Unlike CDs, the good games are worth every penny. Unless you're putting 8 Mary Kate & Ashley games on there, that's ok. But seriously, if you want to play Super Mario Advance 4, buy the fucking game.

  • Actually the Wonderswan outsold the Xbox.. (Score:3, Informative)

    by stovey ( 698291 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @11:23AM (#6879869) Homepage
    According to this list:
    Nintendojo [nintendojo.com]

    The combined sales of the two wonderswans is 700, where the Xbox is 650. The crystal and color wonderswan is the same except the crystal has better battery life and a nicer screen.

  • The numbers don't mean much (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lightspawn ( 155347 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @12:08PM (#6880269) Homepage
    If we were talking about overall sales, that would have been remarkable. But let's face it: Most of the people who want a PS2 already have one. I bet a large number of PS2s sold now actually replace worn-out (played-out?) units.

    In contrast, since the Gamecube is much less popular overall, there are many more potential new owners. RPG fans, for example, who must have every major new title, or fans of the "Tales of" series. They might have never seen the "need" to own a cube before.

    It's completely possible that the nokia n-gage will outsell the GBA - for the first week or two. It still won't mean the GBA is dethroned.

    I'll probably pick up the new 'tales of' title once it arrives here. I loved the way the last title I played in the series (Tales of Eternia) let you save almost AT ANY POINT (unless you're in the middle of a fight or a puzzle). It worked great because when you restored the game, you'd continue at the last save point, but you never had to keep playing until the next save point even when you needed to stop playing, under penalty of losing all of your progress (levels+items+puzzles etc).

    Slightly off-topic stupidity:
    Tales of Destiny was published in the U.S.
    Then Tales of Eternia was published in the U.S. as "Tales of Destiny 2" to capitalize on name recognition.
    Now a sequel to Tales of Destiny, called "Tales of Destiny 2" is available in Japan. Is this title going to make it stateside? What will it be called?

    • Dethroned? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Auburn_Jack ( 699599 )
      I don't think the numbers suggest that Sony is being dethroned, in Japan or anywhere else.

      What I think it does suggest is that the American gamers who seem bent on proclaiming the death of the GameCube seem to think that America is the only place where games are played.

      Sure, the N-Gage might outsell the GBA in their first week of release, but this isn't the GameCube's first week of release. It's rising sales are being pushed by a game with high fan interest, just like they thought was going to happen
    • Because we all know how consumer electronics like gaming consoles "wear out"

      Except for the old nintendo entertainment system with it's funky tilting connector, consoles don't "wear out"

      uh oh, my toaster is about to "wear out" and so is my microwave

      • Actually, consoles do wear out. When you consider that there are quite a few moving parts (DVD drive spindle & eject motors are the big ones, but fans can fail as well), and the system may well be placed where it can't get enough cooling, there's plenty to wear out (not to mention the fact that the electronics can degrade on their own).

        If you factor in Sony's infamous customer support, it becomes cheaper and easier to just buy a new Playstation 2 rather than send it in, wait 3 months, and find out it's

      • Are you on crack?

        For the most part, electronics with no moving parts don't wear out, but a PS2, a microwave, and your toaster have non-solid-state parts that wear out.

        CD drive motors eventually burn out, magnetrons burn out, heating elements burn out...

        I've been lucky in that the PlayStation drive failure I had was on a 4-year-old deck with tons of play. My PS2 (notorious for drive and laser failures) has worked great for almost 3 years now, but I'm sure I'm eventually going to have to replace it. When

  • Unfortunately this means little to nothing outside japan, this is good news for GC owners though because it means they will probably be more japanese support for the console. but chances for this to revive the gamecube worldwide are minimal.

    Is impressive though..
    • Unfortunately this means little to nothing outside japan, this is good news for GC owners though because it means they will probably be more japanese support for the console. but chances for this to revive the gamecube worldwide are minimal.

      It's a bit early to say it will mean nothing for the GameCube worldwide since Japan is the only place where Tales of Symphonia and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles has been released so far. I don't expect the GameCube to see the same meteoric rise in the US when the

  • So why is it in every single one of these articles, they have to attribute high sales to some new-fangled game that was released, or poor sales due to no new (or interesting) games being released....

    I mean, from a strictly mathematical / statistical point of view - and taken to the extreme - this would indicate that most consoles are purchased with only one game ever being bought (which we know not to be the case).

    Now granted, this is just a rant but I get tired of reading that one console sold better *si

    • Fence Sitting (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Auburn_Jack ( 699599 )
      Nobody would ever purchase a console with the intent of playing only one game, with the possible exception of old bargain bin consoles like the N64 or the Dreamcast. Following the logic to that end is pretty ridiculous. But for those who were kind of interested in a console's lineup of games, but not yet willing to buy it, the killer app is the catalyst. I'd think that if a game came out that a gamer had to have and was willing to buy the hardware for it, s/he would rationalize it by saying to themself, "w
      • "Nobody would ever purchase a console with the intent of playing only one game"

        No, but there are plenty of people who buy a console because of one game. In fact, almost every person who owns a console buys it because of one, solitary game.

        Different consoles have different games. For me for the Xbox, it was Jet Set Radio Future. Unless you're a collector or a casual user, you will buy a console because one game will make your decision.
    • It's tied because when there is a large jump between this week's numbers and the numbers for the last several months, we are forced to ask "what changed?" One option is that pure randomness took hold. While possible, that is less than likely due to the very large number of people buying consoles tens or hundreds of thousands weekly. Next on the causality list might be that something made gamecube more desirable this week than it was last week. It is in the same colors and at the same price as last week so w

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