Japanese Schoolgirls Love Xbox 360

***wraggster*** · December 4th, 2006, 18:43

via kotaku

Back at the Tokyo Game Show, I attended a Microsoft Community Event. There was a faceplate contest, no booze and Japanese schoolgirls. Not only were they the only schoolgirls there, they were the only girls.

I asked them why they were they, and they replied, "The faceplate contest." They had all made their own faceplates and entered them. I asked one of them, the one in the middle, how she got into the Xbox 360. Here's what she said:

I lived in New Zealand for a study abroad. And one of the going away presents I got was an Xbox 360 game... I didn't have an Xbox. So, I bought one when I got back to Japan.
She didn't remember the game, but it didn't work on her 360, she told me. The girl seemed sincere, and I could buy how she got into the system. And her friends, likewise, probably got into it due to overflowing enthusiasm. And that was the end of that story. Or so I thought.

Earlier today, tipster Daniel sent along this NSFW link which had four school girls taking sticker pictures with their 360 controllers, singing karaoke songs about the Xbox 360 with their controllers and talking about how great the "Ekubo" (Xbox 360) is on the streets of Shibuya. They've even got a blog in which they do things all normal Japanese schoolgirls — like talking about Tokyo Disney Sea, hairspray and how great UNO is using the Vision Camera. There are a handful of young women blogging at that site. I did a quick search, looking for the bought-to-you-by-your-friends-at-Microsoft, but turned up nothing. The NSFW site Daniel sent seems to think this is marketing, though.

Know: There are Japanese gamers who are fanatically insane about the 360. There are Japanese women who play the Xbox 360 (my wife, for example). But, this is the first time I've ever heard of h4rdc0r3 gamerz school girls who tote around their controllers and write songs about game consoles the love while blogging their exploits online. And I've been covering schoolgirl stuff for Wired Magazine for three years! It's possible, sure. As I mentioned above, the one I spoke did seem sincere.

Then again, maybe she was supposed to.

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