Xbox Struggles With Lackluster Sales In Korea 45
Thanks to the Korea Herald for its article outlining the disappointing performance of Microsoft's Xbox compared to the PlayStation 2 in South Korea. The article notes: "Just a year ago, Microsoft Korea, a unit of U.S.-based software giant Microsoft Corp., envisioned a bright future for its spiffy Xbox video game console... [they] initially aimed to sell 150,000 units during the first year. However, sales have fallen far short of this target at just 60,000 units." In comparison, "The Korean market has so far snapped up 600,000 PlayStation 2 game consoles since its debut 22 months ago." The piece attributes Microsoft's problems to the Xbox lacking "killer titles that instantly grab the attention - and the pockets - of game lovers", but also notes that "some critics attribute the glaring failure of Xbox on the Korean market to Microsoft Korea's poorly managed marketing."
Not just the xbox... (Score:3, Informative)
Right now pretty much all the consoles take a backseat to PC games. Korea is very much a hotbed for RTS and MMORPG games. On the video game channels, they've been trying to bring in some more head-to-head deathmatch leagues using Halo and Smackdown (and some other Xbox and Playstation titles, I think, as well as some Counterstrike and Navy Seals), but those tend to fall under the category of more-fun-to-play-than-watch. Surprisingly enough, watching the Starcraft fights are entertaining, just because they've gotten SO good at producing and rushing and protecting the rush on the various RTS titles, and the commentators are pretty good at moving around in god-mode to wherever the best skirmishes are. Anyhow, that coverage has led to constant promotion of the PC platform and the games that are good for it.