Xbox 360 is suddenly lighting up retail tills in Japan. Pre-orders began for the company’s Blue Dragon bundle yesterday with many retailers reporting a sell-out.
The special edition, of which there are about 10,000 units, sold out almost immediately, with the further 90,000 standard units selling fast. Next-Gen spoke to a number of retailers in Tokyo who reported brisk sales or sell-outs of allocations.
The bundle includes an Xbox 360 core system with Blue Dragon as well as other bundled games for a bargain-basement 29,800 yen. The special edition features various freebies including a faceplate.
This bundle is a last desperate gamble by Mirosoft to break the Japanese market, whch has hitherto shown little or no inclination to be swayed. But Blue Dragon has been winning plaudits across Japan. Expected severe shortages of PS3 will only adding to the allure of this bundle.
Clearly the 360 is going to dominate the Japanese market. They obviously appreciate the smaller form factor, the strong line-up of JapRPGs, and the fact that it’s made by a gaijin company. I wonder what Sony and Nintendo can do to wrest away Microsoft’s stranglehold of this market? They should probably just give up and concentrate on North America / Europe.
Did anyone grab that video of Blue Dragon from the recent Whatever Event? That’s about all I know of it - looks interesting, if a bit too cutesy and weird for my liking.
They need to pokemon up the 360. Gotta have em all!
The Japanese currently have no respect for Microsoft, as evidenced by Konami's shoddy work on the 360s release of Pro Evo Soccer. They'll never truly embrace a product developed by a company based o/s, when there is a direct competitor that has local origins - regardless of the quality of the products.
