It's no secret that the Xbox hasn't exactly been flying off shelves in Japan. As Gamers.com has reported in the past, interest in the Microsoft console has sunken with each passing week since its release. Now it seems things have fallen to a new low for Xbox in Japan.
Sales tracking firm Media Create reports that in the first week of April (4/1 - 4/7), Microsoft sold an abysmal 2,179 units, a number that in and of itself is astonishingly low for a newly-released console system. But when you examine sales of some of the other hardware on the market, the news gets even worse. In the same week in April, Sony's seven-year old PS one platform sold 3,959 units. And get this--Sega's discontinued Dreamcast console even managed to outsell the Xbox with 3,427 units purchased by Japanese gamers. As for the other next-generation platforms, the PS2 and the GameCube sold 80,734 units and 15,068 units respectively.
Clearly, Japanese gamers are not taking well to the American-made gaming console. Many analysts are calling for Microsoft to drop the Xbox price in Japan, but others say it's not the price, but the Xbox games that are simply not appealing to the market.
Then there's the issue of faulty Xbox hardware in Japan. Though Microsoft isn't commenting publicly, some storeowners in Japan have revealed that Microsoft is carefully replacing potential faulty Xbox units before they are sold to consumers. Though this move, if announced publicly, could possibly help instill more faith in the Xbox name in Japan, Microsoft is reluctant to address the subject for fear of having the replacement labeled a recall.
I still have mine, you know? I get games from a shop at the Bat Yam mall