If you thought the Xbox One had a terrible Japanese launch, then, well, you’re right. But as bad as those launch numbers are, they’re freaking amazing when compared to how the Xbox One is doing now.
Picture: acous0527_JP
In its first four days on sale, Microsoft sold 25,674 Xbox Ones in Japan. In comparison, Microsoft sold over 60,000 Xbox 360s in its first two days on sale when it launched in 2005.
But, Microsoft then sold a mere 3015 Xbox One consoles in its second week on sale in Japan. To put things in context, there were twice the number of PS3s sold and nearly eight times the number of PS4 consoles sold.
And last week? 4Gamer reports that Microsoft sold only 1314 Xbox One consoles. One thousand consoles! That’s terrible. (However, it also sold 103 Xbox 360s, which is kind of amazing in an odd way.)
Picture: Xbox_JP
The sad thing for Microsoft is that there were people checking out the console during the TOKyo Game Show. It’s not like the Microsoft booth was a ghost town. It wasn’t! There was keen interest in the upcoming Psycho-Pass game, but who knows when that will be out.
Still, I haven’t seen any Xbox One ads on television. There are in-store displays, but nobody knows what the Xbox One is — and if they do, all they know is that the console is bombing in Japan. I really wish Microsoft would put more of an effort into selling it. Competition is a good thing! C’mon Microsoft, don’t go down without a fight.
ゲームソフト週間販売ランキング [4Gamer]
Comments
17 responses to “The Xbox One Is Really Not Doing Well In Japan”
Yeah it sold poor in Japan, the market of handhelds, but how will it do in China?
I don’t think we can use the handheld market as an excuse. It’s just clear that Sony has home field advantage – and has clearly marketed itself as a game console first and foremost. I’m on the XBone bandwagon this gen – but even in OZ it’s clear Sony did a much better job of marketing itself this time round.
I think you’re reading into it too much. Sony has always had the majority of home grown anime style games, and Sony is still considered a strong/cool brand in Japan, where as it isnt anymore anywhere else (for their other non-gaming electronics). Also Japanese consumers have a very patriotic – support a Japanese company first style view.
Don’t think its got anything to do with marketing, think it has to do with Sony having the slightly more powerful machine currently and likely the residual anger about the whole no-trading in digital content thing (which I still think is likely sony had planned also – before seeing the MS backlash – but that is why competition is good).
Sales figures from last week:
Hardware Sales
3DS LL – 35,622
PlayStation Vita – 11,148
PlayStation 4 – 8,939
Wii U – 8,396
3DS – 7,970
PlayStation 3 – 6,078
Xbox One – 1,314
PlayStation Vita TV – 704
Xbox 360 – 103
PSP – 99
It’s definitely a handheld market
I am actually surprised that it is actually doing worse than the PSV, The child that sony forgot. On the otherhand, its getting a ton of japanese oriented games. So much so that it has become the defacto machine for JRPGs, and even monster hunter type games. God Eater 2 anyone ?
This will have a lot to do with the fact that the games are overly western and there isn’t a huge amount that appeals to the Japanese market. when they get some more regional titles i can see this console getting more popular.
This is a Catch 22 situation. They figured it wouldn’t sell well. They didn’t back it much in Japan. It didn’t sell well. It’s one of those ‘self-fulfilling prohecies’ that my economics teacher used to drill into our heads (hey, I’ve put something I’ve learned over 4 years at uni into practice…on a gaming forum…yay).
Are they just doing this though to say that they haven’t given up on Japan? We all know it’s the case, but it’d be something else for Microsoft to come out and say they’re pulling the Xbox out of Japan completely
Also, the Wii U outsold the Xbone sixfold and the PS3 outsold the Xbone fourfold
Okay, we get it. The Xbone is doing poorly in Japan. So did the 360. So did the original Xbox. We don’t need 50 stories a week telling us this.
I kind of want to hear more stories abuot Xbone doing poorly around the world.
First story about this ever that is about the Xbox One and its Japanese sales figures. Can you link the other 49?
The 50 was an exaggeration, but it’s not exactly news at this point that Xbox products do not sell well in Japan.
But here’s a few stories have have been posted over the past couple of months that basically say the same thing over and over:
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/09/japans-xbox-one-launch-as-sad-as-youd-expect/
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/09/the-xbox-ones-first-week-sales-in-japan-are-pretty-bad/
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/09/in-japan-xbox-one-loses-another-game-to-the-ps4/
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/06/xbox-japans-tweet-from-last-week-seems-pretty-embarrassing/
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/05/heres-what-people-in-japan-think-of-xbox-one/
The 360 launched okay there with a bunch of decent exclusives because Microsoft courted local devs. It just tanked later when they couldn’t keep up the momentum. This time, they just didn’t bother and it’s been ratty right out of the game.
Yeah I rarely care about the Japanese market, or Japan for that matter… Aside from mk8 nothing good gaming wise has come out of there for a long time… shoot me for saying that but Jrpgs really ain’t what they used to be either
how are they buying psvitas or ps4s?
do Sony have a secret massive stash of game titles only available in Japan or something ?
” do Sony have a secret massive stash of game titles only available in Japan or something ?”
Yep! During the Sony conference stream a couple of weeks ago they showed something like 50 new Vita games, and 99% of them won’t come out in English.
4 more units than PSP?!? Really?
Psp has a massive visual novel library in Japan, so they still sell. Not sure if still produced though.