In the first week of introducing the Xbox 360 slim to Japan, a sales figures have skyrocketed in many folds indicating good signs for the new Xbox 360 slim in the Asia. However further analysis of the sales figures show that Xbox sales are still lagging behind the Japanese rivals Sony and Nintendo.
The sales figures
Sales figures from Media Create indicates a considerable amount of increased sales within the first week of launch of the new Xbox console in Japan. The data recorded a massive 800 percent more sales compared to the previous week. Ironically the 800 percent jump of sales could not take the Microsoft products ahead of its main competitors. Media Create produced data of some 17,370 Xbox console units shifted over the week of 21st to 27th June. Notably the official launch of the new Xbox slim happened in Japan on 24th, where in effect, more than 15,000 of the Xbox 360 has been sold within just 4 days.
Japanese rivals
Sony and Nintendo are still the favorites in the Japanese gaming market. With the amount of popularity the consoles from Sony and Nintendo have in Japan, shifting of Xbox consoles in high volumes is next to impossible. Whatever the exact reason is, the Japanese seem to be breaking away from Xbox leaving Microsoft to play a bit of cat and mouse. Although there was a massive jump of sales for Xbox, the figures still are positioned behind both the Japanese gaming console giants’ sales figures. Both Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii recorded approximately 2000 more sales each, than that of Xbox consoles for the same week. Fact still remains, it was Xbox who had sales boosting news come out for the week.
Japanese gaming market
Portable consoles such as the Nintendo DS Lite and the PSP are still leading the sales in Japan. Weekly sales figures emphasize the prominence to portable game consoles within the Japanese market; nearly doubled the amount of home based consoles being shifted every week.
Why the sudden spike?
While an Xbox 360 exclusive has topped the charts in Japan in the same week when the revised Xbox was launched in Japan and the spike in sales were seen. ‘Capcom’s Monster Hunter Frontier Online’ the Xbox exclusive that has been the top seller for the week ending 27th June, with 93,000 sales, might have had some influence in the sudden sales spike of the Xbox 360 for the same week.
Future of Xbox sales in Japan
The history of Xbox consoles in Japan suggests that Microsoft cannot expect more than average even with latest revised version of the Xbox 360. While additional innovative hardware components such as Xbox Kinects controllers might boost sales to a certain extend, what future holds for Xbox in Japan is highly unpredictable.
It seems that several external reasons have affected the initial sales boost of Xbox 360 slim units, other than the features included in the revised version. However its still early stages for predicting the sales behavior of Xbox units in Japan.
