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Xbox 360 Japanese Launch: 1 day after
>> It's a bit early to say how good or bad the Japanese launch exactly went. The hype and shortage is certainly not as big as here in North-America and Europe, but we'll have to wait for reports next week to know if the 360 managed to sell-out over the weekend. Even then it all depends how much stock Microsoft reserved for Japan ... and how much stock actually stayed in Japan as import stores like Lik-Sang and Play-Asia seems to have plenty in stock and they are shipping many to people in the western world desperate to get one in time for xmas.
News agency AFP (via Yahoo News) tells us the 360 got a 'lukewarm reaction' in Japan and a 'whopping' 200 (250 according to MS representatives via 1up) game fans queued up for the main launch event that began at 7:00 am at the Shibuya Tsutaya Shopping Center in Tokyo Japan, where according to gamespot.com the 360s sold out within half an hour.
Launch event, great ... but what about the rest of Japan?
* From AFP/Yahoo: "Only some 10 people were in line when a central Tokyo outlet of the Bic Camera consumer electronics chain opened its Xbox sales counter at 7:00 am. Customer reactions "are a bit subdued," a senior store official said, adding that fewer than 50 consoles were sold in the first two hours."
* From 1up.com: "Famitsu.com reports that around 100 people showed up at the famous Yodobashi Camera store in Shinjuku, while 50 or so had already bought systems at Ikebukuro's Bic Camera within 30 minutes of its opening."
* From 1up.com: "Across town in Akihabara-Tokyo's largest electronics and gaming district-the scene wasn't quite so pretty. Several stores opened up early with promotional events planned, but the initial turnout was grim. Only 21 people were lined up outside the enormous Yodobashi Akiba superstore before the doors opened at 7:00AM, while Asobit City, up the street, played host to an astoundingly small group of five. The press and event staff on the scene at Yodobashi well outnumbered the waiting customers."
* Kotaku has a great follow-up story about someone who woke-up before 6AM to get in line at the Den-Den Town's Sofmap, one of the neighborhood's most popular game stores. He comes as first in line at 6:43am, store opens at 10am. Other stores nearby started to get lines, for special sales, and one for figurines, but no lines for the Xbox 360. He saw one other customer coming for the 360 but as noone was really waiting that guy gave up standing 'in line' too (later he found out the guy didn't even come for the 360 but for some PSP game). At ~9:30am the store starts to open and they put out a blockade to mark the beginning of the line (the Kotaku reported is still alone at the time) and the 360 displays and kiosks. 15 minutes before the Xbox 360 goes on sale, 2 other guys come stand in line. When the store opens 19 people are there. (they didn't all come for the Xbox360 though). He also checked a huge store in Umeda where around noon they still got plenty of stock the Xbox 360 and they certainly didn't plan to sell-out on launch day.
Read the whole story at Kotaku: part1, part2, part3, part4, part5, part6, part7, part8, part9, part10.
* Kotaku also has a funny picture of the night before the launch. While the people seem to be very interested by the NDS Kiosk it looks like they couldn't care more about the Xbox 360 kiosk just next to it. Check it out here.
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
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