wraggster
November 14th, 2005, 19:06
Early last month, we floated the theory that the Xbox 360’s single price point in Japan points to both a desire to give Japanese consumers a price break ($337 at today’s exchange rates for the nicer bundle!) and to ease supply issues.
The image to the right comes from a large Toys-R-Us with no Xbox section in Tokyo, Japan. To purchase your Xbox 360 there, grab a ticket, make a deposit of just $8.47 US, and you can come back on launch day and pick up your 360.
Simple enough. But judging from the number of tickets still in that pouch, Japanese consumers who visit that Toys-R-Us store aren’t biting. The complete lack of shelf space certainly doesn’t help sell the console. What’s it look like? Why should I plunk down 1000 yen for a product I can’t even see? Would you buy a console based on a display that consists of a little pouch filled with tickets? The American launch includes kiosks at retailers in every city. Maybe Japanese consumers don’t put much stock in kiosk displays and they were therefore determined to be a poor investment?
The image to the right comes from a large Toys-R-Us with no Xbox section in Tokyo, Japan. To purchase your Xbox 360 there, grab a ticket, make a deposit of just $8.47 US, and you can come back on launch day and pick up your 360.
Simple enough. But judging from the number of tickets still in that pouch, Japanese consumers who visit that Toys-R-Us store aren’t biting. The complete lack of shelf space certainly doesn’t help sell the console. What’s it look like? Why should I plunk down 1000 yen for a product I can’t even see? Would you buy a console based on a display that consists of a little pouch filled with tickets? The American launch includes kiosks at retailers in every city. Maybe Japanese consumers don’t put much stock in kiosk displays and they were therefore determined to be a poor investment?