Halo 3 sells 45,000 in Japan
by JW
Enterbrain, a research company from Japan, has reported on this beautiful Friday morning that Halo 3, which was released in Japan yesterday, sold 45,000 copies.
When you consider that Blue Dragon, the highest selling Xbox 360 title in the land of the rising sun, sold 83,000 it’s first week, I’d say Halo 3 may become a moderate success over there.
Microsoft, Xbox 360, Bungie, Halo 3, Japan
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September 28th, 2007 at 11:46 am
It is a “success” among XB360 owners in Japan, but the ownership is low. A lemon is a lemon is a lemon.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Well, you have to keep in mind that the 360 will NEVER be a success in Japan. I’ve given up on it. So, in relative terms, that’s not bad.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
online shooting is not a genre appreciated by the majority of japanese people. The day microsoft can settle contracts to sell some exclusive RPG’s, dating games, anime games, etc, then xbox360 MAYBE competitive over here. Yes, I’m japanese and neither me or anyone who I know will ever buy consoles with games you don’t like. Sounds obvious isn’t it?
September 28th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
The Xbox 360 has a major problem as it is only accepted with “open arms” in the US and Europe. The problem is that Asia is HUGE and is a major part of the gaming community. More than like if a console cannot “succeed” in Asia, it will fail in the long run.
Believe it or not, the 360 is failing. The PS3, being more than a year behind in release time, has sold about half as many consoles to date as the 360. Halo 3 will not be able to dig MS out of the hole…especially after their RRoD fiasco.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
I wouldn’t say that the 360 is “failing”, per say. We won’t know until October how Halo 3 has affected worldwide figures, which is what Microsoft is concerned with. They WANT to win Japan and the Asian market, but they’re actually holding their own very well without it.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
this picture is HILARIOUS
September 28th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
I think M$ after 2 generations, there will be a level playing field in Japan.
On a side note, the wii is kicking butt, but I haven’t had an urge to play it, and I don’t think I will after playing Halo 3.
September 28th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
@ dunnypop
You haven’t had an urge to play the Wii because it has no games. Mine is gathering dust until Wii Blaster/Link Crossbow Game comes out and the new Fire Emblem for Wii finally makes it stateside. The xbox on the other hand has lots of wonderful games out and even some that should appeal to the Japanese gamer such as Trusty Bell (Eternal Sonata in the US) and Blue Dragon from the creators of the FF series.
@Learned
The RRoD is nothing new, I remember getting my first DRE on my PS2 and being told by Sony that I was SOL. Microsoft on the other hand did the right thing and almost right away extended their warranty for 3 years.
Here is the breakdown of some of the challenges that 360 faces in the Japanese market.
1. Not enough games that the Japanese like (Microsoft is making a good stride toward solving this with games like Trusty Bell and Blue Dragon)
2. Japan is a tough market to crack as a foreign company, they have a fierce xenophobia and national pride in picking Japanese goods over foreign goods. This is probably the hardest thing to overcome but as more young people grow up with Western goods and media, this will be less of an issue.
3. The xbox was and the 360 still is physically imposing to the Japnese home and design sensibility. AKA, it’s physically huge and needs to be cut down in size. There is a vast disparity between the average home size in Japan and in the United States. Microsoft learned this lesson the first time when they released the original xbox with those ridiculously huge controllers.
4. Mobile is huge in Japan and Asia and while Sony and Nintendo have PSP and DS respectively the 360 has no handheld counterpart which would extend the mobility and popularity of their platform. In fact in the short term some sort of tight integration with cell phones wouls be a boon for the 360 in Japan.
5. Much like the US gamer the Japanese gamer is a fanboy. Just like most US xbox fanboys will buy every Halo release in droves the Japanese fanboys feel very much the same loyalty towards Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest and others. Getting their hands on exclusive rights for one of these fanboy series would be monumental for Microsoft’s success overseas.
While there are definitely some problems for Microsoft, especially in the Japanese market, they are doing well as a late comer to an entrenched and maturing industry.
September 28th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
1. Agreed.
2. The iPod has trounced everything before it. Other manufacturers do especially well. You’re trotting out a badly conceived fallacy. This idea that the Japanese won’t buy foreign products simply isn’t true. They just need to be offered something better or more desirable than what they can get here.
3. The Xbox 360 is physically smaller than the PS3, and not that much different to the original PS2, so your argument doesn’t hold water. The ’small is beautiful’ argument is not as important as it used to be.
4. I disagree. The PSP and DS don’t drive sales of consoles. They’re an entirely different entity.
5. Final Fantasy would make a difference but only if it was one of the major numbered releases (e.g. XIII) and not some spinoff. Crystal Chronicles hardly saved the Gamecube did it.
September 29th, 2007 at 2:53 am
[...] 360 title) sold 83,000 in it’s first week. Halo 3 cut into that by more than half in a day.read more | digg story Share: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:02 pm
[...] don’t know about you all, but I think this Halo 3 thing may be fairly popular. Mr. Sterling over at D’toid thinks this may even be the sleeper hit of the year. I’d [...]
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:04 pm
[...] don’t know about you all, but I think this Halo 3 thing may be fairly popular. Mr. Sterling over at D’toid thinks this may even be the sleeper hit of the year. I’d [...]
October 5th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
I read on http://www.globalgrind.com that the makers of Halo 3 used psychologists during the development of the game. They tested peoples understanding and reaction to tasks, the perceived difficulty levels and what made the game fun or frustrating. looks like all the hard work payed off.
December 8th, 2007 at 12:24 am
[...] According to figures from Media Create Company released Friday, only about 6,600 Xbox 360s were sold between November 26th and December 2nd. The week before, only about 7,200 units were sold. For those of you who aren’t math majors, that means roughly 13,800 Xbox 360s have found homes in Japan over the past two weeks. This goes to further my theory that everyone in Japan who owns a 360 also owns Halo 3. [...]