1 xbone sold on Japan opening night

https://au.news.yahoo.com/technology/a/24898972/japan-launch-of-microsoft-xbox-one-a-damp-squib/

Tokyo (AFP) - The Japanese launch of Microsoft's Xbox One fell flat on Thursday, with journalists covering the debut far outnumbering buyers.

Isn't it possible anyone who wanted one in japan just imported it?

Not surprising considering MS pretty much gave up on Japan few years ago. It had tried very hard with the original Xbox and the first few years with Xbox 360, but the payoff wasn't great because majority of Japanese gamers were still only buying their domestic consoles. Now MS just releases the box there and call it a day, hence the way late release (low priority market). In my opinion, in order for Japanese to have an interest in foreign tech, it must meet two very strict rules. 1: looks - it must look "cool" and not just a box, especially a XL sized box (although the original Xbox 360 design was pretty cool at the time). Can't say the same about Xbox 1 and Xbox One.  2: the name - Xbox is honestly too Americanized. Apple is doing it right with both so it's successful there with iPhones and iPads.

Would love to see Capcom announce all future Monster Hunter games being XB1 exclusive.  Then we'll see how quickly the people will turn.

I'm kinda curious as to why MS bothered with Japan at all... console sales in Japan are already in a slump and they've never really had much of a following there anyway. 

I mean, can the costs of producing, promoting, shipping, etc. be worth it for them in the long run? 

Vinny said:

I'm kinda curious as to why MS bothered with Japan at all... console sales in Japan are already in a slump and they've never really had much of a following there anyway.

I mean, can the costs of producing, promoting, shipping, etc. be worth it for them in the long run?

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I think they just release the box there so that they can have some Japanese developer support, at least to keep the big boys like Capcom, Koei Tecmo, Konami, Namco. You don't want to lose all of them because it will hurt business a lot globally. They've already lost me with Xbox One because of far fewer Japanese developers are on board vs the last 2 Xbox consoles which I bought both at launch without hesitation.

Yeah I thought they'd just skip the Japan market. But I guess they had to try. I wonder what their final sales amount will be at the end of the console lifespan in Japan. 

I'm sure the numbers are pathetic but OP's title is misleading. It's not one Xbox One sold in all of Japan which is how the thread title reads, but at one major store.

But the usual enthusiastic crowds that greet big launches in Japan were absent on Thursday morning, with just one buyer at a major electronic retailer in Tokyo.

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ludus said:

Yeah I thought they'd just skip the Japan market. But I guess they had to try. I wonder what their final sales amount will be at the end of the console lifespan in Japan.

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Well there are a lot of sources that say the Xbox 360 sold 1.6 million in Japan since Dec 2005 to Feb 2014. While the original Xbox sold 2 million in Japan. So I'd estimate less that 1.5 million for the new XB1 lifetime.

Kazaganthi said:

Well there are a lot of sources that say the Xbox 360 sold 1.6 million in Japan since Dec 2005 to Feb 2014. While the original Xbox sold 2 million in Japan. So I'd estimate less that 1.5 million for the new XB1 lifetime.

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I wouldn't be surprised if it never hit 1 million. The original Xbox had quite a few exclusive Japanese made games and 360 had less but still some. Times have changed now where games aren't made out Japan as much as they were and Xbox One seems to have little to no interest in exclusive Japanese content. The Japanese typically like Japanese games, so really there was no point in bringing the Xbox One to Japan at all.