Amazon.co.jp sells out of Xbox in hours.

[Old Skool]

Japanese Xbox Sells Out

posted by coremagazine.com
According to Amazon.com representatives, Japanese preorders for the Xbox have been officially sold out. As previously reported, Microsoft authorized retailers to begin accepting preorders for their console last weekend in Japan. Amazon.com reportedly sold out of their preorder allotment within hours. Similarly, preorders for software titles including Dead or Alive 3 and peripherals such as the DVD playback kit have been equally strong. Unfortunately, specific preorder totals remain undisclosed. Nevertheless, several retail chains across Japan including Laox and Sofmap reported strong preorders for the Xbox amidst its initial weekend of availability. For reference, the Xbox is scheduled for release on February 22nd in Japan.

[Professor S]

That really surprises me. Perhaps we have all underestimated out Japanese friends across the sea?

If the X-Box sells well in Japan, I think the odds of FFXI coming to the X-Box will increase greatly, along with other so called "exclusives" for other consoles.

[Xantar]

Well, at the risk of sounding like a fanboy, I think I should point out that we have no idea how many units were available (as the article points out).

And besides that, we know now that it's rather hard to determine a console's success based on its launch numbers.

[Perfect Stu]

Originally posted by The Strangler
If the X-Box sells well in Japan, I think the odds of FFXI coming to the X-Box will increase greatly

Yeah, maybe from 0% to 1%...

[Professor S]

Actually, if the X-Box sells well in Japan I would increase the odds of FFXI coming to X-Box to about 90% considering how much better the series sells in Japan compared to the US. Personally, I think Square would be stupid not to release FFXI on X-Box considering its broadband capabilities, and to play FFXI on the PS2 you'll have to unload another $150 on top of the game just for the HD and internet adapter.

And while you can't say that the X-Box will sell well just on Amazon figures, you have to admit its a good sign.

[Null]

Originally posted by The Strangler
Actually, if the X-Box sells well in Japan I would increase the odds of FFXI coming to X-Box to about 90% considering how much better the series sells in Japan compared to the US. Personally, I think Square would be stupid not to release FFXI on X-Box considering its broadband capabilities, and to play FFXI on the PS2 you'll have to unload another $150 on top of the game just for the HD and internet adapter.

And while you can't say that the X-Box will sell well just on Amazon figures, you have to admit its a good sign.


Because of is broadband capibilities? im sorry, that made me laugh right there. Thats prolly THE furthest thing from the minds of the people at squaresoft. Yanno why? Because like 90% of the world still uses Dialup modems. Xbox has no dialup. So i doubt they give a rats ass about xbox broadband capibilities.

Also PS2 which they're already on will have Dialup / Broadband......... all in the single modem/box whatever.

The part that would attract square to xbox would be the built in HD, cuz people on PS2 will have to buy the HD seperate. (and yes i read somewhere just like last week. (i think on gamespot.com) that FFXI will require a HD)


Also even if the Xbox does will in japan that wont attract Square to Xbox. it might raise thier interests a bit. But it wont really increase the chances a lot. Because Square wants to develop for the console that has the highest user base overall. not just in 1 country. or 2.

If and when you see xbox or GC take over for the most popular or best userbase of the consoles is when you'll see square looking to jump boat. (but i really dont see anything doing better then sony. at least not this console generation. it'll be close tho i think)

[Professor S]

Null, I wasn't talking about Square "jumping ship". I was talking about Square also developing FFXI for XBox on top of PS2 is the XBox is successful in the US and Europe. Capcom does, so do many other developers.

Whats holding up Square from this is not themselves though,it is most probably Sony. Sony owns a little under 1/5 of Square, so they have a big say in the matter. But I can easily imagine Square out voting Sony if the X-Box is successful in Japan and Europe.

It would just be too easy to develop for XBox considering it seems all set up for what FFXI needs. It makes sense economically to do so. You seem to think that Square is loyal to Sony because of some honor code or just because they have the most consoles out there. Thats rediculous. If that was the case Capcom would have never released Genma Omnimusha on the X-Box, much less make all those improvements.

If the money is there, Square WILL come... eventually.

[Null]

No,

Sony has little to no say at all in what Squaresoft does.


If i buy some stock in a company, i cant tell them what to do.

if sony owned over 50% it might be differnt. but they dont. so it doesnt matter what sony wants.


And what i was saying is that

1. Squaresoft doesnt care about the Xbox broadband. because it affects so little of the costomers.


2, Squaresoft has said themselves that they're only interested in mainly developing for the #1 console. and thats where they will focus all thier efforts.

otherwise squarsoft would want to develope for all consoles. GC Xbox and PS2. and last gen/early this gen. Squaresoft would of developed for N64 PSX and Dreamcast.

but its just not what they're lookign for. they want to focus thier efforts on the #1 console.

[GameMaster]

How can this be happening???

*Sees a vision of Japan's ambassador tied to a chair in Bill Gate's office being forced to play X-Box with Bill*

...oh

;)

[Professor S]

Null, most public companies have a thing called a "Board of Directors" made up of ALL major stockholders in a company. I believe Sony would have a member on that board considering they do own 1/5 of the company.

And if you really think Sony doesn't care about who Square develops for you are NAIVE. Square's RPG's have become one of the most recognizable titles worldwide for Sony's consoles. If you think they wouldn't step in and try to flex their "in the restraint of trade" muscle to stop them... well... thats worse than being naive. I'll leave it at that.

Sony has risked far more to try and squash the competition, like threatening retailers with not providing them with PS2's. Hell, look at what they did to the Sega Dreamcast. If you think the PS2 won just because it had a better brand name, you're kidding yourself once again. Using influence they have in a company to influence a major player worldwide in gaming, well that would be far too easy.

As for Square developing for only 1 console: Things change. If you haven't noticed "exclusives" are quickly becoming a thing of the past. We are coming into a gaming age that not only appears to have 3 consoles which are going to survive, but THRIVE. I think the way developers like Square treat consoles is going to change substantially very soon.

[Perfect Stu]

Sorry pal, but Square themselves said in many interviews AFTER Sony bought a chunk of their company that they are only interested in developing for the PS2, and the GBA. But since Nintendo said that they can't develop for GBA unless they develop for GCN, Square backed off. So that leaves only the PS2. And you think the chances of Square developing for XBox rose NINETY percent? I bet the chances were about 5% before hand, so now it's 95%, according to you...so that means they're pretty much FOR SURE developing for Xbox now?

Link, please...

:rolleyes:

[Professor S]

Stu, please read my posts thoroughly before you reply. What I said was IF the X-Box is a success in Japan, then I would put the odds at 90%. Well condidering this post was about PRE-ORDERS we can safely assume we won't know if the X-Box is a success in Japan until well after they start taking ORDERS.

Plus, my post was CONJECTURE. I can't tell the future, but I do know how important the Japanese market is to Square's RPG franchise, considering it sells muych better there than in the US.

I also said THINGS CHANGE. Square is buried far up Sony's butt right now, but who's to say what will happen in a year or 2 years.

Geez, calm down guys. Your knuckles are white you're clutching onto your precious FF franchise so hard. I don't care about whether or not EVERY XBox game is released on every console. I know the XBox version will be of the highest quality.

What exactly are you guys afraid of?

[Null]

Originally posted by The Strangler
Null, most public companies have a thing called a "Board of Directors" made up of ALL major stockholders in a company. I believe Sony would have a member on that board considering they do own 1/5 of the company.

And if you really think Sony doesn't care about who Square develops for you are NAIVE. Square's RPG's have become one of the most recognizable titles worldwide for Sony's consoles. If you think they wouldn't step in and try to flex their "in the restraint of trade" muscle to stop them... well... thats worse than being naive. I'll leave it at that.

Sony has risked far more to try and squash the competition, like threatening retailers with not providing them with PS2's. Hell, look at what they did to the Sega Dreamcast. If you think the PS2 won just because it had a better brand name, you're kidding yourself once again. Using influence they have in a company to influence a major player worldwide in gaming, well that would be far too easy.

As for Square developing for only 1 console: Things change. If you haven't noticed "exclusives" are quickly becoming a thing of the past. We are coming into a gaming age that not only appears to have 3 consoles which are going to survive, but THRIVE. I think the way developers like Square treat consoles is going to change substantially very soon.


Strangler. Please read my posts THOROUGHLY before you reply.

When did i ever state sony doesnt care???? Never.

I said that Squaresoft doesnt care what sony wants. Squaresoft will do what Squaresoft wants.

If sony gets a vote in a board, guess what? They are a far cry from majority. Squaresoft can develope for whomever they wish. Even Squaresoft has stated that sony buying stock in thier company will not change thier plans.

Squarsoft has also stated the reason the develope for the console they do is becuase thats the #1 console. thats the console where the money is. Thats where they'll focus thier efforts.

And didnt i say things would change if another console took over the #1 spot?

And also i hardly call all 3 consoles "thriving" PS2 is doing good and Xbox and GC have a nice start. Thats not thiving.

And yes 3rd parties are going from console to console right now. But this has happend before. they're mearly feeling out which is going to do the best and dont want to miss out incase they only picked one and it did bad.

Because of this thirdparty developing for all. Is why for this console Generation Exclusive software is going to become more important to the consoles then in previous years.

[Professor S]

Null, Sony BAILED OUT Square when their movie flopped. I don't care what Square says about Sony not having a say. If you think they don't, you are naive. That bail out probably had many strings attached. Sony has broken anti-trust law before and gotten away with it, why wouldn't you think they would do it again with Square? Don't believe everything you read.

As for your reasoning behind exclusives being more important? Yes, but they'll probably only be coming from First Parties. 3rd Party developers will do what they have to do TO MAKE MONEY. If there is more money by releasing a game on 3 consoles that each have millions if units sold, which there definitely is, they will do that. 3rd party exclusives are going to become rare IMO. I actually think there will be more exclusives on the X-Box, just because of the advanced hardware. There are games coming out for the Box that simply can't be played on the other systems.

And lets face it, XBox and Gamecube are probably going to succeed and thrive by all accounts of North American sales and foreign pre-orders (XBox) and sales(Gamecube). Will they beat out PS2? Who knows, probably not. Sony has too far of a lead at this point. But THINGS CHANGE. Remember when Sega ruled the gaming world? I do. They don't anymore. Time will tell.

[Null]

Theres a difference here in what your saying.

your saying sony helped out Square, and sony is on good terms with them and can perswade them to do things, or have square do favors for them. bascially manipulate square.

yes, thats all fine.

What im saying is LEGALLY. a measily 19% stock or whatever it is sony holds of square DOES NOT let them control square or tell them what to do.

your talking about other things now besides just the stock ownership.


about the 3rd party stuff. Theres more to it then make for more consoles = more money. A lot more. They have to factor in the cost of recoding it for the other consoles, and the cost of making a ton of copies for that console when they all might not sell.

Right now i agree with you that exclusive 3rd party games are rare. But where i disagree with you now is that the Market will not support 3 consoles well for long. prolly all this console gen maybe some of next. but one company will have a fall out eventually down the road.

As for such advance hardware. i havnt seen any game on any 1 system that cant be done on another. ITs all amatter of coding it right. Some might need slight graphical drops in some area's but they might boost up a bit in others.

And i already said things change. i dont know why you keep on about that theres nothing to argue about.

Except i cant seem to remember a time when sega ruled the gameing world. when ever was this? i remember when they did well during the Genesis time. but never ruled....

Sega master system........ out done by NES.
Sega Genisis........ Some say it did better then SNES some say worse then SNES. But by no means did either of the 2 "rule" the other.
Sega CD flop
Sega 32X flop
Sega Saturn Flop
Sega Dreamcast. great system, shame it was just struck by bad luck. wrong timeing, they should of waited and had it compete directly with PS2.


But i see no time at all when they "ruled the gaming world"

[Professor S]

SNES played second fiddle to the Genesis. I really don't think there is much of an argument about that. SNES might have been successful, but it definitely played the N64 to Sony's Playstation.

Coding... considering how easy it is to code for the X-Box and Gamecube, I don't think that enters into the equation. As for cost of production, come on, if Square doesn't know that FFX or FFXI would sell like hotcakes on either the Box or the Cube, you're nuts.

While there are no games that couldn't be ported from the X-Box now, just wait. They are coming this year. I think Marrowind comes out this month and I don't think you can play that without a HD, but I'm not sure. Oh and Project Ego of course.

I keep on saying things change, because you are adamant about stating that Square will never come to X-box becasue the X-Box won't outsell the PS2. If you really thought that things change, then you would recognize the fact that they COULD change their stance.

As for the LEGAL ramifications of Sony's ownership in Square, I don't really give a rat's crap about legalities. I work in the marketing/business community. The REAL world. I know what goes on behind the scenes, and legalities play a very small part of it. Businesses basically treat laws like American football players treat their rules: "Its only illegal if you get caught."

[Null]

well. as my final statment. i'll thro one back at you.


If Squaresoft truly wants to develope for another console. They WILL do it. if you dont think they will, you're the one thats being Nieve.


as for the Gensis. isnt that exactly what i just said. some say it did better some say it didnt Personally i say the SNES was better. so say what you want about that. But by no means did ANY of them "Rule the console world"

[Professor S]

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree ojn the whole on Sony's influence with Square. Personally, I find it hard to believe that Sony didn't tie their hands with the bailout. I have no proof of this other than my business instict and Sony's prior business practices, though. So I could very well be talking out of my a$$ :D

And if you can say that Sony ruled the console world with the success of the original PSX, then it can be safely said that the Genesis ruled the console world at one point. But if you don't think the PSX ruled the console world, then we'll just have to disagree on that also.

Thank you for the lively argument though, Null. You gave me a good mental workout. :D

[GameKinG]

On the subject of FFXI going to xbox, it is definetly the least likely console it will go to even if it sells well. Why? Square made it pretty clear that sony's hold over them (and fairly large share) will defend against most cases of it going to other consoles. Also, it seems more likely it would go to nintendo (even though I personaly will say it wont) since they want it put on GBA anyway.

Last there is xbox which seems to have been given the least attention from square.

[Professor S]

If Square really doesn't want to develop for X-Box, even if it is very popular, well... thats just really stupid IMO. No wonder they almost went under.

[Bond]

Originally posted by GameKinG
On the subject of FFXI going to xbox, it is definetly the least likely console it will go to even if it sells well. Why? Square made it pretty clear that sony's hold over them (and fairly large share) will defend against most cases of it going to other consoles. Also, it seems more likely it would go to nintendo (even though I personaly will say it wont) since they want it put on GBA anyway.

Last there is xbox which seems to have been given the least attention from square.
Square is developing a game for the Xbox, it's just not Final Fantasy.

[Professor S]

Really? Already? What game and where can I find info on it?

[Shadow Fox]

Anyway- back to the subject....

Ok, Xbox sold great in Japan on Amazon in a few hours- great. But must I remind everyone that GameCube sold out on Amazon.com in a few minutes?? Nonetheless, this IS good Xbox news, but like most specualted news, it must be taken with a grain of salt.

[Professor S]

Hell, I take my coffee with a grain of salt :D

I think the main reason why this is big news though, is that before hearing this I thought that the XBox simply had no hope due to Japanese nationalism. I think the fact that it sold out may show that Japanese citizens are willing to tryst foreign products.

[Xantar]

Didn't anybody read my post?!?

I'm so ignored...:( :baby:

[Old Skool]

Originally posted by Xantar
Didn't anybody read my post?!?

I'm so ignored...:( :baby:


No we don't like you!!! ..................J/K :p

[Professor S]

LOL Xantar

I wasn't saying that Amazon Sell Out of X-Box = Tons o' Yen at all. I'm just saying its a very good sign, that's all. I honestly didn't think it was going to do THAT well.

[Xantar]

Eh...so let's take an extreme case. Amazon Japan has only 5 XBoxes available. They sell out in a few hours. Is this such a good sign?

I'm not saying that's what happened. For all we know, Amazon Japan had three hundred units that sold out within hours. But my point is that for all we know, they could have had only 5 (although I doubt it).

I don't see this selling out as a good sign. It's also not a bad sign. The only thing we can take from this is that if you're Japanese, you won't be able to get an XBox off Amazon. If you read anything else into it, you're just buying into propaganda (hey, what did you expect from company representatives?).

[Professor S]

I honestly don't see how you don't think that Amazon Japan selling out of XBox preorders in hours isn't a good sign for MS, especially since the entire nation is supposedly laughing at the console.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one too.