MS not to reach 3 million in 90 days Target

[scooby_dooby]

They are trying their best, but again, sales in japan are irrelevent to this discussion.

Why? Because we're talking headstart, and installed base, did MS make there mark? Will MS have a big enough lead? Was the 2005 launch worth it?

Whether or not there are consoles collecting dust in japan is irrelevant to the discussion at hand, the vast majority of sales of 360 for 2006 were always going to be EU and NA, so the fact consoles are collecting dust in japan is not important in this context.

 

[wco81]

The 49ers are on a two-game winning streak!

But the 12 losses they had is irrelevant to this discussion.

 

[scooby_dooby]

No, you're right. The fact that 360 is not selling in japan surely means the early launch was a failiure and ultimately it can never hope to succeed...despite the fact that everyone and their dog knew that 360 wouldn't sell in japan....

 

[DemoCoder]

Amazing that when I pointed out in Nov/Dec that MS fubared their targets and was not shipping as many consoles as they had expected (and told retailers), and how this pisses off consumers and does not maximize their profit potential, I was slammed by all sorts of MS zealots trying to explain how everything was peachy keen. Now we see the reality, that Microsoft fscked up the launch.

I wonder when I'll be able to buy an XB360 now. I would have thought by Feb I could walk into a store and get one, or order one online. Looks like I'll be waiting a few more months.

 

[Hardknock]

Amazing that when I pointed out in Nov/Dec that MS fubared their targets and was not shipping as many consoles as they had expected (and told retailers), and how this pisses off consumers and does not maximize their profit potential, I was slammed by all sorts of MS zealots trying to explain how everything was peachy keen. Now we see the reality, that Microsoft fscked up the launch.

I wonder when I'll be able to buy an XB360 now. I would have thought by Feb I could walk into a store and get one, or order one online. Looks like I'll be waiting a few more months.

How is not being able to produce enough units "Microsoft fucking up the launch"? Unforeseen forces caused this, I'm sure MS is doing the best they can to cope.

 

[slider]

How is not being able to produce enough units "Microsoft fucking up the launch"? Unforeseen forces caused this, I'm sure MS is doing the best they can to cope.

Well, at its most basic level not ensuring supply (I'm including sourcing supplies from sub-contractors) seems a pretty big funk up - esp when you've got a clear field ahead of you (i.e. no comptetitors) . Personally I don't think they've slipped on targets that much and people I know who are after a 360 don't seem THAT bothered by the delay - they'll just pick one up when the supply issue is sorted.

Does anyone know what the major delay is - sorry this has probably already been covered earlier in the thread - I remember a comment that IBM were having issues with CPU supply? Now how does that work in this industry? Maybe this is a bit naive, but at the most basic level don't MS say to suppliers "we need this many xxxx's by this time", to which someone agress and MS hand over a cheque?

 

[fulcizombie]

Final Fantasy is a Japanese-created franchise, and is definitely "Japanese" in style, so eh :?
Success in the U.S is based purely on the name.
BD reminds me more of Kingdom Hearts, a Japanese-developed fuse of eastern and western (FF meets Disney). Not saying it will be childish or what have you, just that its suited for both markets.


Here are your choices, pick one:
1) NNN is a game developed by Phantagram, with Phantagram production values, gameplay mechanics and concepts (the above).
2) NNN is a game developed by Phantagram, with Mistwalker production values, gameplay mechanics and concepts (the common opinion).


God, Microsoft has said Japan are important, Microsoft has shown they want the market, and they've taken steps I outlined. Why are you so defensive? Microsoft is smarter than you. Maybe they didn't buy Capcom because:
a) They thought it was a bad business investment.
b) They've no intention of alienating other third-party publishers. They've learnt lessons since the attempted Nintendo/Square buyouts I would guess.

Once again, I'm siding with Microsoft, yet you insist on arguing, and are doing a piss-poor job of "defending" them against fictionary slurs.


Who said it wasn't?
Europe is a continent and has games released in different regions under different titles at different times and in different languages.
Japan is a single region.
Besides, really anyway, your agument that MS isn't concentrating on the region is laughable in the face of all the evidence to the contrary.
Again, I'm glad MS has more vision.


1) MS bought Rare for $377M USD, roughly ~300M euros at the time.
2) I don't. Hence "may". But I did say it "will" pass that figure this gen, because frankly I can see them sinking 100M on just those 3 games. If they're giving the same type of development budget as Sony is purportedly giving their studios, anyway, combined with the enormous marketing push.
And I assume those won't be the only games they release, and I expect "incentives" to other publishers to release games on the system won't be uncommon. Wonder what FFXI cost them?
And thats not including Xbox stuff, like the cancelled TFLO and deals etc. whatever that may () have been made.

PS: Why sign your posts with your handle?

Kid,you are clearly ignorant so just stop.99 nights is not a mistwalker game and mistwalker has nothing to do with it.It is a collaboration between phantagram and Q entertinment.You tried to be a smart-ass with the "options" you presented about 99 nights and failed due to your ignorance.

 

[DemoCoder]

The very fact that XB360s sit unsold on Japanese shelves but are sold out in the US means they misallocated resources, period.

 

[London Geezer]

The very fact that XB360s sit unsold on Japanese shelves but are sold out in the US means they misallocated resources, period.

... which lots of people would very justifiably call "fucking up the launch"... But hey, one can't say a negative thing about microsoft sometimes without thunders coming down from the sky.

 

[inefficient]

"Historically" doesn't matter anymore,what matters is what is hepenning now and right now Europe is the undisputed n.2 market and some would say rivals the U.S market when it comes to number of consoles sold.

You can't compare Europe to the US or Japan because of one very significant problem. You have to do localization for everything.

It doesn't matter if you can add up customers in all 25 countries and come up with a large number. Each country is going to require its own version of the game with art assets and audio assets. Imagine having to do all the localization for a game like Oblivion. It's not going to be cheap.

Not to mention that when you do advertising in any media your going to have to localize that too. And your online services have to cater for all these diferent languages.

As far as video games are concerned , the locality of the EU countries means nothing. In fact most publishers only care about the english speaking parts of Europe.

 

[one]

Kid,you are clearly ignorant so just stop.99 nights is not a mistwalker game and mistwalker has nothing to do with it.It is a collaboration between phantagram and Q entertinment.You tried to be a smart-ass with the "options" you presented about 99 nights and failed due to your ignorance.

Um, if Nicked has no clue to who's involved with that game, you can guess average Japanese customers would be more apathetic about these trivia.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Now we see the reality, that Microsoft fscked up the launch.

I still can't see how whether or not launching a small number of units in Japan or shifting them to US / Europe would have made any difference.

I also don't see how you can conclude that your own personal inability to get one equals broad discontent that is greater than any discontent of the millions of people who own one today who would otherwise not.

I wonder when I'll be able to buy an XB360 now.

I could have gotten you one a couple days before X-Mas. I wasn't even looking for one when I picked up "Cindarella's Castle" for my duaghter in Toys R Us, and there was a stack of premium systems just sitting there behind the counter...

 

[Sis]

1) MS bought Rare for $377M USD, roughly ~300M euros at the time.
2) I don't. Hence "may". But I did say it "will" pass that figure this gen, because frankly I can see them sinking 100M on just those 3 games. If they're giving the same type of development budget as Sony is purportedly giving their studios, anyway, combined with the enormous marketing push.
And I assume those won't be the only games they release, and I expect "incentives" to other publishers to release games on the system won't be uncommon. Wonder what FFXI cost them?
And thats not including Xbox stuff, like the cancelled TFLO and deals etc. whatever that may () have been made.

I thought this is what you meant, but wanted to make sure. Though of course one would need to add the same day-to-day production costs to the US$377 that you seem to be adding to the Japanese developed games...

But I agree with your point. If Japan was/is insignificant to Microsoft's strategy, they sure have a wasteful way of showing it.

PS: Why sign your posts with your handle?

You know, I really don't know. I think habit. On longer posts, it reminds the reader who wrote the post. But habit more than anything.

.Sis

 

[Sis]

So why did MS bother with the whole launch festivities and pre-launch PR, etc?

This is the part that bothers me as well: Peter Moore and his circus hype for every console launch, regardless of context.

 

[drpepper]

I could have gotten you one a couple days before X-Mas. I wasn't even looking for one when I picked up "Cindarella's Castle" for my duaghter in Toys R Us, and there was a stack of premium systems just sitting there behind the counter...

Is it possible they are reserved for preorder or does TRU not have that policy?

 

[Carl B]

I could have gotten you one a couple days before X-Mas. I wasn't even looking for one when I picked up "Cindarella's Castle" for my duaghter in Toys R Us, and there was a stack of premium systems just sitting there behind the counter...

Ok Joe but you know that's the clear exception to the rule.

That said, by late Feb I expect 360's to be fairly attainable.

But is that good or is that bad? When do the 'launch-levels' of hype begin to dissipate? I'm not getting down on MS here, but they need some strong titles to launch in the coming months to keep the momentum. It's not any sort of secret that time is going to slow down in MS-world if and when Sony delivers on their Feb event.

Their launch supplies aside though, I don't expect Sony to be able to escape supply-constraints either. Perhaps there's an argument to be made about MS maybe being better off were they to have pursued a regional launch schedule; but it's not that I think the global launch didn't yield any benefits. The trade-off is that they risk not having as secure a grip on their 'core' area by the time PS3 launches in order to have had more of a mindshare headstart in Europe and Japan. Only time will tell whether that risk was worth it.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Amazing that when I pointed out in Nov/Dec that MS fubared their targets and was not shipping as many consoles as they had expected (and told retailers), and how this pisses off consumers and does not maximize their profit potential, I was slammed by all sorts of MS zealots trying to explain how everything was peachy keen. Now we see the reality, that Microsoft fscked up the launch.

Amazing how MS still has the same sales target they had back in OCTOBER.

Maybe you missed the page in this thread where this article was debunked...

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Is it possible they are reserved for preorder or does TRU not have that policy?

Considering that they asked if I wanted to buy one of those (and I thought about it for a minute), i'd say they weren't reserved.

 

[drpepper]

Wow, what's with the hostilities lately? I mean. We're talking video games here. They don't decide government or put food on the table.

I just wish the tone would settle down a bit and people wouldn't have to be so defensive...

 

[Joe DeFuria]

BTW, I just went to best buy on-line, and there are several models / bundles that you can buy on-line right now that should ship "next day". (There are other models / bundles that are listed on back-order.)