Xbox 360: Big in Japan

This week, the Xbox 360 edged out the PS3 and the Wii to top the home console sales charts in Japan. This is particularly significant because the Japanese have been very reluctant to adopt Western-developed consoles in the past. The original Xbox was all but ignored in the land of the rising sun, and it's taken years for Microsoft to carve a niche for itself in Japan's HD market.

Maybe the hesitation about the 360 stems from Sony and Nintendo's powerhouse name recognition. Or maybe the Japanese just aren't too keen on any machine that doesn't make bubble tea and/or hunt monsters. Whatever the case, this is a milestone achievement and possibly a sign of a larger geographical shift in the video gaming universe.

Of course, this news should be tempered by the knowledge that sales of the 360-exclusive Star Ocean 4 are what really pushed the 360 over the top. It took the (supposedly) final sequel to a long-running spiky-haired-hero Japanese RPG series to make the country sit up and take notice with their wallets. It'll be more interesting to see whether Microsoft can maintain their momentum across a wider variety of games.

Also worth noting is the fact that the Nintendo DS is still the top selling game system in Japan overall. At the rate that thing is selling, every person in Japan must either own a closet full of backup DSes, or they're performing complicated fireworks experiments on them just for kicks.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz