Friday, December 16, 2005

Better Luck Next Xbox

Microsoft's Xbox 360, which was released last weekend in Japan, sold a disappointing 62,100 units in the first two days (only 39% of units available on launch day). Many blame the low numbers on the delay of Tecmo's Dead or Alive 4, a game crucial to the acquisition of the coveted "dorks without girlfriends" demographic.

Yeah, maybe it's Dead or Alive 4's fault. Or, maybe Microsoft should have put a little more thought into the ridiculous 40,000 yen pricetag. Consumerism may be rampant in this country, but let's be reasonable. 40,000 yen could buy you a hundred puri-kura sessions.

1 comment:

Jesse Jace said...

Sony did that with the PlayStation 2 back in the day, too. People who hadn't reserved a pricey "PS2 bundle" were out of luck. Sony scored so many eye-rolls with that stunt, I never expected Microsoft to do the same thing. Your guess as to why they would undermine their own position in the market is as good as mine, but maybe they're just complacent with the knowledge that NOBODY buys a Mac to play games.