Xbox seeks foothold in Japan
Seattle Times | at | by Mike
Two years after Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates handed out the first Xbox game console at a Tokyo video store, the machine's Japanese sales trail those of Sony's rival PlayStation 2 console by 48 to one.
That's partly because Japanese Xbox owners have about 160 games to choose from, compared with more than 6,000 for the PlayStation 2. Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, plans to gain on Sony by releasing new games tailored for Japanese users with the next version of the Xbox, said Norman Cheuk, head of Microsoft's game-development division in Tokyo.