MS hopes for Kinect boost in Japan

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 6 July, 2011

Admits it failed to meet expectations.

Microsoft hopes to boost Kinect sales in Japan with games that are familiar to Japanese players.

Microsoft's Japanese Xbox 360 General Manager Takashi Sensui admitted today in a press conference (reported by Andriasang) that the motion-sensing Xbox 360 add-on, which has sold 10 million units globally since its November 2010 launch, did not sell to expectations in the Japanese market.

He hopes to give the device a new push this year with IPs that are familiar to Japanese players, along with titles that appeal to core gamers.

At the Tokyo Game Show last year Microsoft announced a number of Japanese-made Xbox 360 exclusives, some of which support Kinect.

These include Codename D, Haunt, Project Draco, Rise of Nightmares and Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor.

The Xbox 360 has suffered a difficult time in Japan. Last month Microsoft announced it had finally managed to shift 1.5 million Xbox 360 units in the country. It launched there in December 2005.

Xbox 360 hit the million mark in Japan in March 2009, after three years and three months on shop shelves. The extra 500,000 sales took another two years and three months to notch up.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 8 months ago

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  • Stuz359 #1 8 months ago

    Could it have something to do with the average Japanese household being about the size of a wheelie bin?

  • makeamazing #2 8 months ago

    Yeah i get the impression it wont matter what MS do game wise, if the rooms arn't big enough, people arn't going to risk spending the money.

  • NorUraeus #3 8 months ago

    It should be obvious to Microsoft that Kinect needs big living rooms to be an interesting product, which is quite clearly reflected in North America being their strongest market, Europe being in the middle and Japan being weak.

  • HyperTails #4 8 months ago

    That's really no suprise. Microsoft have tried their best over there, but the Japanese seem to turn away in disgust and not want anything to do with it, so with Japanese houses being tiny, and Kinect clearly designed by Americans who think every country has houses as big as them, it was always going to flop.

  • Rack #5 8 months ago

    I imagine it's mostly the Kinect needing 4 football pitches between you and the TV.

  • FogHeart #6 8 months ago

    Hah! The region least interested in the hardware is making the most interesting games for it!

  • MattEdWithCheese #7 8 months ago

    not sure how small japanese rooms are exactly, but there's just enough space in my room between the screen and my cupboard for singleplayer kinect gameplay, also a year on we still don't know how any of these games are played bar RoN, they could be hybrid control schemes or only involve hand movements i.e. Child of Eden and may allow the user to sit down and thus decrease the distance required... So yeah, it's possible if not probable...

    @beemoh 10 million sales say hi

  • drumbaby #8 8 months ago

    How can MS still have expectations of doing well in Japan?

  • Dave52 #9 8 months ago

    @MattEdWithCheese - That's the stock that went to stores figure. It's very unlikely that all 10 million units sold through to end users. MS won't say how many they've acutally physically sold. Too big to fail you see...

  • orangpelupa #10 8 months ago

    errr.. umm... sorry bad english

    cant MS just allow Japan Dev to make kinect content aimed at "otaku" ?
    currently xbox in japan is kind of only otaku buy it

    maybe allow japan dev to make galge or something, or go to extreme and allow making eroge.
    or maybe just allow dating sim like Love Plus Kinect.... (like the game on NDS but with kinect features)

    That kind of game will only need very NEAR range from kinect, also that will bring :
    - Small room can use kinect
    - Also it will increase kinect accuracy (enable kinect to do finger tracking, all of them, and facial tracking)

    Edited by 1 at 06/07/11 @ 14:47

  • SEVQA #11 8 months ago

    ‘Japanese hope for living room boost in Japan’

  • coolbritannia #12 8 months ago

    a pointless exercise.

  • maximusfarticus #13 8 months ago

    I'm not surprised that people in Japan aren't buying it, I'm more surprised that people in the rest of the world ARE buying it. Maybe the average Japanese consumer isn't so fucking gullible as the rest of you.

  • orangpelupa #14 8 months ago

    @maximus
    have you tried playing kinect sports (the table tennis especially) and child of eden?

    EDIT:
    and i got negative for asking honest question.. yay...
    Edited by 1 at 06/07/11 @ 15:53

  • telboy007 #15 8 months ago

    Quite intrigued to how Steel Battalion will use Kinect.

  • BigBearScot #16 8 months ago

    @telboy007

    Probably via voice commands

    Big Robot of death, on
    Missiles, Fire

    In fact is there enough easy phrases to define all the commands you could do on the orginal Steel Battalion?
    Edited by 2 at 06/07/11 @ 17:20

  • RawNinjaKid #17 8 months ago

    Most Asian houses are small, so if Asia is the future like the West was for the last 200 years, than kinect like tech has a hard time selling in future important markets.

  • Jay1983 #18 8 months ago

    What makes me laugh, is that they have been saying they have sold 10 million Kinects for months now... think it was back in March they announced 10 million had been sold. Have they sold no more since then?

  • A-Trak #19 8 months ago

    That makes you laugh Jay1983?
    The weekly sales chart must have you in stitches.

  • gjgjg #20 8 months ago

    They need to release a lens adjuster to it, like a small plastic attachment that captures light from a closer distance. That way it becomes perfectly useable in smaller places. ...could be my first milliion!

  • lord_raiden_128 #21 8 months ago

    All MS needs to do is release an interactive dating sim over there that allows you to fondle female avatars. Then I'm sure 360 and Kinect sales would soar through the roof.


    /heads to nearest bunker to withstand incoming barrage...