Xbox Japan leaders discuss how they plan on leveraging the hardcore gamer and cultural nuances to increase awareness, loyalty, and sales.
With the bulk of Xbox hardware sales occurring in North America, the Xbox division in Japan has its work cut out for it. But it also has a few factors that run in its favor: A devoted following of current Xbox owners, high broadband penetration, and a culture of gaming that sees a number of grassroots channels that facilitate gamer-to-gamer communication.
As our talk continued with Japan's Xbox division general manager Yoshihiro Maruyama and director of marketing Mike Fischer (see Part 1 of our interview), the two men spoke in greater detail about Xbox's strengths in Japan and how they are approaching the market today.
Maruyama mentioned another key trend in addition to the increase in first-person games, which was that he saw a greater number of online games at this year's show. He noted that this trend favors the Xbox. "I think that the Xbox is the best online gaming environment for game developers as well as game users." Echoing figures previously promoted by Microsoft, he added, "We are hoping for a total installed base of 16 million worldwide at the end of June, and close to one million Live users."
News source: GameSpot
