Microsoft debuts Xbox in Japan
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, February 21, 2002
Associated Press
TOKYO — Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox console will battle video-game giants Sony Corp. and Nintendo Co. on their home turf when it lands in Japanese stores today.
Microsoft is confident about the appeal of the machine, which targets hard-core game fans with its graphics and built-in hard drive and Internet capability. More than 1.5 million Xbox machines have been sold in the United States since November.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, in town to hand over an Xbox to the first customer in Japan, played down the domination of Sony and Nintendo and pushed the Xbox as the "new leader."
"The key is what people experience in playing the games," he said.
Microsoft is not saying how many Xbox machines it wants to sell in Japan. Gates said only that the company has prepared 250,000 in the first shipment and is ready to send more.
Analysts warned that the Xbox sales should be expected to start slowly, given the dominance of the Sony PlayStation2, which nearly 9 million Japanese already own.
To woo Japanese, who tend to be smaller than Westerners, the American software giant has designed smaller hand-held controllers.
Microsoft also is selling a special-edition translucent Xbox that comes with a silver-plated key chain with Gates’ engraved autograph.
It remains to be seen whether the Xbox will go the way of American brands that have met huge success in Japan — including Coca-Cola, Disneyland and Starbucks — or end up a big flop like Ford cars and U.S.-grown rice.
Worldwide, Sony Computer Entertainment has shipped more than 26 million PlayStation2 machines. Nintendo says 2.7 million GameCube consoles have been shipped worldwide, about half of those in Japan.
The decisive factor in the three-way war, analysts say, is the lineup of games. Attracting hit games is crucial in the business.
Yukie Saito, an analyst with Lehman Brothers in Tokyo, believes the Xbox doesn’t have enough strong games to convince Japanese — many of whom may already own a PlayStation2 — to buy an Xbox.
"If the games aren’t attractive, people are going to wonder why they should bother buying it," Saito said.
About 100,000 Xbox machines should sell in the first week, with sales reaching a disappointing 200,000 or 300,000 by May, she said.
Going on sale with today’s launch are 12 Xbox game titles, including "Dead or Alive 3" from Tecmo; Konami’s "Silent Hill 2"; and "Nezmix," "Project Gotham: World Street Racer" and "Tenku — Freestyle Snowboarding" from Microsoft.
PlayStation2, on sale for nearly two years, boasts a lineup of 400 games in Japan. The machine can also play the more than 3,900 games out for the original PlayStation.
GameCube, meanwhile, has 13 games out so far. It went on sale in September in Japan and two months later in the United States.
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