Xbox One: Finding life tough out east
Microsoft’s Xbox One console sold a mere 24,000 units over its opening weekend in Japan, confirming once again that the Redmond–based company remains well behind key rival Sony in terms of sales.
The figure covers the four days from the console’s launch on Thursday 4 September until Sunday 7 September. It is well below half of the number of Xbox 360 units shifted on launch back in 2005. The last–gen hub totalled more than 62,000 in the four days after it hit shelves.
To make matters worse, Sony sold 322,000 PS4 units in two days when it first launched in Japan, with Nintendo managing 308,000 in 48 hours.
The numbers simply confirm that the Xbox One still has a huge amount of work to do to impress Japanese gamers, who have always preferred home grown products to those made by the Big M.
It also plays into a wider global narrative of struggling Xbox One sales. Despite a pick up following the launch of a cheaper, Kinect–free model earlier this summer, the Xbox One is still lagging well behind the PS4. Reports at the start of August suggested Sony had soled nine million PS4 consoles compared to Microsoft’s five million Xbox Ones.
Microsoft has been trying new tactics to entice new punters, including releasing entire games for free over select weekends. Launch title Forza 5 was recently handed out gratis for 72 hours.
Read more: Xbox One vs PS4
Via Eurogamer