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XBox (Games) The Almighty Buck

JP 360 Stock Moves Slowly 53

Posted by Zonk from the dirty-deals dept.
Omkar writes "According to Kotaku, the Xbox 360's price has been cut to a mere $150 by several Japanese retailers. Apparently they can't send unsold inventory back to Microsoft, so they're desperate to free up space." Indeed, Next Generation reports that something like 60% of all Japanese stock goes unsold. However, 1up has found that the price cuts aren't the whole story. The price cuts aren't because of consumer interest, but a result of specially priced bundles. From that article: "... this is simple another example of Japan's hardware bundling practices. So, although the 360 isn't selling as quickly as it did in North America (about 28% of the units shipped have been sold so far, according to a Bloomberg report), the photo doesn't indicate that prices were slashed after launch day as some sort of desperate measure - it means that Japan has bundled offers that are just as annoying as the ones we have in North America."
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JP 360 Stock Moves Slowly More

JP 360 Stock Moves Slowly

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  • Since I the Japanese don't want them, I'd be happy to pick up a couple for $150. There's a lot of morons here in the States that will still pay $700-900 for a 360.

  • Umm..? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Otter ( 3800 ) on Tuesday December 13, 2005 @03:18PM (#14249015) Journal
    So, it turns out that the systems haven't been "cut to a mere $150" but instead are being advertised at that price for a promotional bundle with Internet service. Given that you have a link with the correct story, what is the point of including the nonsensical one?

    • Re:Umm..? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by UnidentifiedCoward ( 606296 ) on Tuesday December 13, 2005 @03:26PM (#14249094)
      Because this is slashdot and posting inane, misleading or false stories makes for better journalistic integrity.

      And before I get accused of Microsoft bashing, M$ hating, free linux loving hippiness, I confess to wanting an XBOX360, but I am not going to buy until there is a title out for it worth buying. 12 of 19 ports? Some of them terrible? Let the hungry few get there christmas day release, I am waiting for a couple of titles worth playing and hopefully the market to cool off before I purchase one.

      Of the employees I am friends with at MS, all of them are waiting to grab their console after the new year for aforementioned reasons. Now, if that is anything, that is news worthy.

  • No Blockbuster are hurting sales (Score:4, Insightful)

    by corcoranp ( 892008 ) on Tuesday December 13, 2005 @03:22PM (#14249060) Homepage Journal
    The problem with Japanese sales is the lack of a great blockbuster. There has only been 6 titles released for them: Perfect Dark Zero, Ridge Racer 6, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Every Party, FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup and Tetris: The Grandmaster Ace.

    It's a shame that Microsoft is waiting until the release of PS3 before releasing Halo3. If they had released H3 with the 360 they might have done better in Japan, but hey who is really broken up about it?
  • Hmm. Lots of data. No reference point.

    So 360's are sold bundled in Japan. Fair enough. Are PS2's sold bundled in Japan? If they are, how much slower are 360 bundles being sold than PS2 bundles? Don't give me "percentage unsold" — that's horrendously misleading.

    And all that still doesn't answer the question of why prices were cut to ~$150 anyway. Does MS want to make their retailers bleed with them?

    • 360 is sold out in the US and EU with even pre-orders not being fullfilled. Where as it seems you can just go to a shop in japan and pick it up.

      At current supply levels it will be a while before you can just go to a western shop and pickup a 360.

      That I think is very telling that right now the 360 is not a hot item in japan.

      Of course there is one tiny little difference. It is the holiday season in the west, the time to give expensive gifts to your loved ones or even your kids.

      Do the japanese have a simil

      • THe Japanese have (more or less) adopted Christmas and New Year's for this kind of thing (I had an ex-girlfriend whose mom would give me money for new years and a lot of that money, especially for kids, goes to gaming stuff), but the thing is that no one wants this damn thing.

        I think most hardcore gamers care. Most gamers I know play Japanese games. Even if Japan is the smallest of the three markets (which I seriously doubt, I remember reading that Europe is slightly smaller than Japan, and having been to
      • Do the japanese have a similar season or have they adopted christmas for that purpose?

        Despite what somebody else said... no.

        Retailers have tried to promote Christmas for this purpose, but it is not a family holiday. It's considered more of a romantic holiday, and boyfriends/girlfriends may exchange small gifts. It is more similar to Valentine's Day here than Christmas.

        The Japanese do have customs called "temiyage" and "omiyage" that involve social customs of giving gifts on various days and for various re
      • 360 is sold out in the US and EU with even pre-orders not being fullfilled. Where as it seems you can just go to a shop in japan and pick it up.

        I live in the EU and I could pick up XBox360s in several stores right away. Especially the core system doesn't seem to sell at all, but I could also easily get a premium version.

        And that even though Microsoft said they had only 300.000 XBox360 for whole Europe for christmas 2005.

        Actually Sony sold 100 Million PS2s in 5 years, 37.14 millions of those in Europe

    • Re:Reference point? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by badasscat ( 563442 )
      So 360's are sold bundled in Japan. Fair enough. Are PS2's sold bundled in Japan? If they are, how much slower are 360 bundles being sold than PS2 bundles? Don't give me "percentage unsold" -- that's horrendously misleading.

      Well, the thing about this whole bundling issue is that it's not a forced thing. You can either walk out of a store with an Xbox 360 for $330 or you can buy one for $150 with a year of net service. This is pretty common in Japan, but the point is the choice is still there. It is not l
  • Even though it's shown that they didn't really drop the price that low (at least, without any strings attached), they still had a bit of a discount at the very start. Wasn't it closer to $330 USD at launch? I believe another article (don't remember where) recently said that that's comparable to the PS2's launch price. I guess 40,000 yen is seen as some sort of magical barrier for what people are willing to buy. Same as I won't buy a Coke/Pepsi for $1.25 :)

  • I know what's wrong (Score:3, Funny)

    by voice_of_all_reason ( 926702 ) on Tuesday December 13, 2005 @03:31PM (#14249148)
    It's not the bundles that are the problem. They just aren't including the right things respective to the native audience.

    Throw in a couple pairs of used schoolgirl panties and some tentacle mangas and you'll have a hit.

  • Sigh... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Schezar ( 249629 ) on Tuesday December 13, 2005 @03:44PM (#14249307) Homepage Journal
    I guess the Japanese are smarter when it comes to gaming.

    Buying a system on release is practically useless beyond the "hey, guess what I have!" factor: hardly any games, high prices, and first-generation bugs/issues.

    Even if you really want an Xbox360, there's no reason not to wait. The games that are actually worth playing won't be out for a while yet, and the release catalogue is laughable. Having the system early only gets you some negative cashflow.

    Now, don't think I'm some Nintendo fanboy or Microsoft detractor. There's no reason to buy ANY system on launch unless it has a decent game catalogue.

    IMHO, the people spending thousands on Xboxe360s on Ebay are fools. Maybe if Halo were already released...

    • Re:Sigh... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Coltman ( 623132 )
      Buying a system on release is practically useless beyond the "hey, guess what I have!" factor: hardly any games, high prices, and first-generation bugs/issues.

      I don't know if that is generally true. I remember 'huge' lineups and short supplies of PS2s in Japan when it was first released. They even got the first-first-generation of the PS2. It wasn't until the second or third line did North America get thier first look at a PS2, and then it was a while after that before Europe got it. There were hardly a
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re:Sigh... (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Evangelion ( 2145 )

          Americans have been buying Japanese made consoles since 1985. The PS2 was not "breaking into" the market.

          The X-box was really the first major American made console in over 15 years to be sold in Japan (and that's only if we're counting the Atari 2600)
        • American's are as patriotic as Japanese people.

          Japanese nationalism (or outright racism, as some would call it) is much more pervasive than anything in the U.S.--to the point that they hold worshipful reverence for their leaders and even incorporate Japanese superiority into their religion. Just ask the Chinese of Koreans.

          Not even the biggest flag-waving, foreigner-hating, beer-swilling U.S. or Australian redneck can compare to that.

          -Eric

          • Japanese nationalism (or outright racism, as some would call it) is much more pervasive than anything in the U.S...Just ask the Chinese of Koreans.

            Ah, yes, nothing like checking with an unbiased reference.

            Americans, while less racist than Japanese, are far more evil and more likely to kill babies and drink their blood just for fun. Just ask the North Koreans.
            • > Ah, yes, nothing like checking with an unbiased reference.

              Well then, ask the Japanese government. They are the ones having to pay the Koreans and Chinese reparations for their wide variety of attrocities.

              This is a culture that venerates cannabalistic serial killers (swear to God, their most notorious cannibal serial killer not only never served a day in prison but actually does talk show appearances) and whose most popular pornography series is entitled "Rapeman."

              -Eric

              • Eric,

                First, while I don't have access to government officials, I'm pretty certain that, were I to ask one "Is Japanese nationalism (or outright racism, as some would call it) much more pervasive than anything in the U.S?", they would almost certainly answer "No". As such, when you tell me to "ask the Japanese government", you're pointing me at a "No" answer, so I take it you agree with me?

                Also, an aside: Japan doesn't "venerate" cannibalistic serial killers. There was one cannibalistic killer, Issei Sagaw
        • Wether or not Japanese are more patriotic than Americans isn't really the issue. At the time the PS2 came out, there were no "American" products dealing with the game console system.

          At the time there were:
          PS1 and PS2 from Sony
          N64 from Nintendo
          Dreamcast fron Sega - which was pretty much dead by the time PS2 arrived
          and the PC. To be fair the PC wasn't really competing on the home gaming at that time. PII and lower end PIII chips played games, but no where near the level that the PS2 or N64 played the
      • For the record, the PS2 did so well everywhere because it beat out MANY commercial DVD players on price.
    • "The games that are actually worth playing won't be out for a while yet"

      Kameo is one of the best console games released in the last year for *any* platform.
    • "I guess the Japanese are smarter when it comes to gaming."

      On a previous thread on this subject, I suggested that if Nintendo released XBOX 360 (with a different name of course), but same specs, same launch titles, etc, that it would do well.

      The person from Japan who I was replying to agreed.

      Thus I don't think the Japanese are smarter when it comes to gaming. They are just total Nintendo and Sony (Japanese companies I might add) fanboys and M$ (american company) haters.

    • The games that are actually worth playing won't be out for a while yet, and the release catalogue is laughable. Having the system early only gets you some negative cashflow.

      I keep hearing this a lot, but I don't think it's quite true. The release catalogue doesn't consist of many titles, but there are a few gems. Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, King Kong and Condemned are very good titles, with Kameo and King Kong being quite spectacular for their shine and graphics (and Condemned for its gore). While I'm not a f

  • For a moment I read that as "Jurrasic Park 360 stock moves slowly". Holy shit, Spielberg and Chrichton can really crank them out, eh?

    Maybe they should replace the '6' with a 'D', it might sell more units.

    This might be the first console to be beaten at launch by something two generations behind [slashdot.org].

    Of course they don't like it - it's big, fat, white and noisy, just like most Americans.

    Hey, at least it doesn't run Windows.
    • Didn't get the 64DD selling in Japan. Man those are huge knockers.
    • Nah, the Dreamcast is only 1 generation behind. The DC is the same generation as the PS2 and Gamecube. It's actually a lot better than the PS2 in a lot of ways...the PS2 has a stronger CPU, but the Dreamcast can out-texture the PS2 easily. Most Dreamcast games look better than most PS2 games. Though if you really want to get technical, the GC and Xbox are a generational leap over the PS2 and DC. The PS2 and DC only had rendering accelerators, while the GC and Xbox have full GPU's (hardware T&L acce

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