Gamerscore Blog's message to Japanese gamers

by Xav de Matos { Jul 23rd 2008 at 12:30PM }

Microsoft needs help in Japan. OK, let's not mince words here -- they need a bona fide miracle. While sales are sluggish (that's called an understatement), Microsoft continues to approach the Eastern market with an assortment of games that appeal to the majority of their tastes. In response, the region sometimes sees a spike in sales but overall the Xbox 360 rarely sells more than a few thousand units per week (and this is an overstatement).

Enter Team Gamerscore Blog. Attempting to communicate directly with the Japanese gamer, the team at GSB have created a a video that hopes to entice gamers into the Xbox 360 camp. How? With personality, that's how!

We know some of the of comments to this video will be negative for the attempt but trying this approach to the market couldn't hurt right? Microsoft is essentially a faceless corporation in the East and putting some nice people in front of a camera talking about games could help remove the negative stigma the system has in the region. Or you know, maybe it won't.

[via Gamertag Radio]

Tags: gamerscore-blog, japan

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Etchasketchist @ Jul 23rd 2008 12:42PM

Is this a joke? This seems like a really bad joke. Hopefully nobody in Japan will ever see this because none of them have an Xbox360.

"trying this approach to the market couldn't hurt right?"

Uh, sure. Unless you totally fuck it up and tell the Japanese people that their alphabet sucks and then demand they force 5 of their friends to buy your console.

Patton @ Jul 23rd 2008 12:52PM

To be fair, the Japanese are crazy.

NitroFrost @ Jul 23rd 2008 12:57PM

to be fair your crazy Japan is awesome and so is its people.

NitroFrost @ Jul 23rd 2008 12:56PM

I like it, it shows the MS is trying to get the foot in the door in JAP. I have 1 jap friend but he speaks no english so I really only get to play with him and nothing more. I would really like to see maybe a translator function on the 360 so that way if you do have a jap friend or a ger friend you can write the message in english hit the translation button and then you can send it to them in there language that way you can have friends from all over the world that only speak one language.

I would really like to see Ms pull something big off to get in on the Asian market but sadly nothing seems to be working. FF should help but still why buy FF on 360 if you own a PS3 (thats what I believe a japanese gamer would think).

Maybe exclusive (and when I mean exclusive I mean not timed) FF content that would acutely be a good add to the game not something thats a hit or miss like a whole new story arc that can change the ending of the game or what not.

O and I really believe that MS could get a good foot in if they somehow got FF 7 remake exclusive to the 360. But that will always be the dream

Xav de Matos @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:02PM

Well remember. Final Fantasy XIII is not coming out on the Xbox 360 in Japan.

NitroFrost @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:04PM

What! thanks for the correction but WTF MS. ok well I guess its still the dream for Japan to get FF on there 360.

Jay900 @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:02PM

so there promoting the 360 by showing a video that you can only see on a 360..............okay sure

Xav de Matos @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:03PM

If you watch it, it's more of a call to arms for current users to get their friends involved. Also, Inside Xbox is available on the Xbox.com website for most videos.

NitroFrost @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:05PM

u just saw the video off the 360 didn't you.

xFenixKnightx @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:35PM

If anything there has to be a redesign in Japan. Not necessarily make it smaller or thinner just redesign it and make some fricken bundles like PS3 does with games they would be interested in. Wrap the bundles in the games art style dont just put a pic of the gamebox on the outside of the bundle. So many things MS could do. This is not one of them... I'm telling you they need to fire the Marketing team in J@pan.

SAGExSDX @ Jul 23rd 2008 7:40PM

i'm pretty sure MS has done a few bundles. Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata (Trusty Bell) bundles come to mind. a quick google search also shows a Tales of Vesperia bundle, Devil May Cry 4 bundle, Lost Planet bundle, Lost Odyssey bundle, and FIFA World Cup bundle

Chris Paladino @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:46PM

This is pretty funny.

Just for the record, the GSB team didn't create this to try and "win Japan".

Japan has a community team, and the hardcore in Japan (they exist I swear) get much of their news from US sites such as GSB. The Japanese community team asked us as well as some US gamers, to send a message to the Japanese gamers.

I think it came out pretty good.

dirtydiva @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:48PM

What Chris forgot to mention is that we're geeks and we know it. :)

Smiling Kitsune @ Jul 23rd 2008 2:15PM

This is just wierd, "you need to do a better job of convincing your friends to buy a 360" A little bit pushy perhaps? All this does is make Microsoft look like assholes.

PerfectStrategy @ Jul 23rd 2008 2:16PM

Maybe you guys should have lied and said you like Shoot 'em ups (Ikaruga, Triggerheart Exelica, Omega Five, Raiden), fighting games (Soul Calibur, Dead or Alive, Virtua Fighter, Guilty Gear, Street Fighter), and most importantly JRPGs (Lost Odyssey, Star Ocean, Infinite Undiscovery, Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata, Last Remnant).

Maybe they can't relate as much when yall say you like shooters and sports games. =D

Oh yea, and mention that you are REALLY excited to play Call of Duty: World at War.

WhoDey320 @ Jul 23rd 2008 2:38PM

lol why would you want to play with a japanese person? i have nothing against the japanese, but i'd rather play with somebody that speaks my language. even if they do speak english, the fact that they're far away can often cause massive amounts of lag (whenever anybody joins one of my matches from, say, australia, it lags like crazy).
on a slightly unrelated subject, i bet the avatars help the 360 sell in japan. they look similar to miis

Eddie @ Jul 23rd 2008 3:00PM

Guys, the big J isn't feeling MS or most of its products for the same reaosn I don't dig Sony or anime- it's not for me, it wasn't created with my tastes in mind and it could care less whether I enjoy it or not, it's going to continue to create crazy, brightly colored slightly homoerotic acid trip media and I can buy in if I care to (which I don't). The fact is, Japan ripped gaming from us years ago and made it stronger, better and faster (albeit much more crazy), and now that there's a serious contender on this side of the world, they're not taking real kindly to it. I mean, Gears of War, Halo 3, and Mass Effect will just never be Beautiful Katamari, Final Fantasy Series, or even Metal Gear. Different cultures, different tastes.

Give it up, Microsoft.

Muffin_man @ Jul 23rd 2008 3:27PM

I would be insulted if I were Japanese. Telling them not to use Kanji or Katakana? Seriously? How rude, then demanding them to get their friends to buy 360 and saying things like "it would make us really happy".

All I got from this video was "Be more like Americans, play shooters, don't use your language when talking to me, force your friends to get the system.". The whole video came across as arrogant and forceful.

Qube @ Jul 23rd 2008 9:03PM

As much as it amazes me to say it, the 360 is quickly becoming the RPG lovers choice in this generation. And not just RPGs in general, but JRPGs. I'm surprised the GSB team didn't bring that up. In general, their taste pretty much reinforced the stereotype that Yanks just like shooters and sports games.

Narcogen @ Jul 23rd 2008 10:07PM

Yeah, that's pretty embarrassing, I admit.

If MS wants to make any headway in Japan, here's how:

1. Get permission to publish the new Final Fantasy game for the 360 in Japan.
2. Bundle it with the console for half the price of Sony's FF/PS3
3. Profit.

Actually leave off the profit, since they'd certainly be taking a bath on a deal like that, but at least they'd have an installed base afterwards. Since the Xbox 1 they've learned that you can't sell a console without good games targeted at the market.

They still haven't learned that there's no point in having good games available unless there's a must-have game that entices people to buy your console in the first place.

Japanese consumers are more than willing to buy foreign products. Like any consumer from anywhere else, though, they need a reason, and so far the Xbox 360 hasn't given them one.

This video doesn't give them one. You can't sell people on a "lifestyle" for a product that isn't more than a speedbump on the landscape.

crazyfruitbat @ Jul 24th 2008 6:30AM

Guys, if you are going to say 'add me to your friends list so that we can play Rock Band and Guitar Hero together', it would be a good idea to check to see if those games are available in Japan. They are not, and probably rock band won't be here in Japan at least until RockBand 2 comes out with you lucky Americans and Europeans.

usotsuki @ Jul 24th 2008 8:05AM

Sorry, but that was awful. All the games they said they liked playing and that the japanese should come and play too were all shooting games. Isn't this exactly why the Japanese don't play the 360? Too many shooting games. If you boasted about the RPGs the 360 has, you'd achieve alot more.
"Tomorrow on inside xbox: army of 2"