Why do software/hardware sales in Japan matter to the rest of the world?

I would like to understand why it's important to know what software (games) and hardware (consoles) they buy, does that make a difference in knowing what's better and what's worst?

They do got a point in their market, PSP go has ALWAYS the lowest sales ever and never makes a 1000 sold units, only about 700 or less.

I suppose it's due to the way that Japan seems to set the trend for the rest of the world, and that their buying habits are very similar to the rest of the Western world (USA, UK) but they do it much quicker, in much greater numbers as Japan is a very technologically conscious country, and there are more buyers in a short space of time in Japan,

It basically allows companies to analyse how well the product is going to do in the rest of the world.

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Originally Posted by Vicious Horizon

I suppose it's due to the way that Japan seems to set the trend for the rest of the world, and that their buying habits are very similar to the rest of the Western world (USA, UK) but they do it much quicker, in much greater numbers as Japan is a very technologically conscious country, and there are more buyers in a short space of time in Japan,

It basically allows companies to analyse how well the product is going to do in the rest of the world.

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Well put sir.

I must say I wholeheartedly agree with everything you've said, however we havent really discussed the problem of pricing strategy in an already overloaded market.

Personally I couldn't give a shit what Japanese people think of something.

VH, I study BSc Management at the best undergrad business school in the country - and your pretty much bang on.

Obviously, Japan is slightly different in that Sony and Nintendo have the main foothold, being Japenese, which means Microsoft often show lower figures than they would for the rest of the western markets and Sony/Nintendo would be higher, but when Microsoft beat sales projections at the release of the 360 in Japan, it obviously showed they were doing something right.

It's more crucial for Sony and Nintendo though, it's sort of a dry run into the market before heading to the critical North American and European regions - because if they struggle to sell in Japan, then there really is a problem. It's the same for games as well as consoles, which is why some games are often Japan-only, because despite perhaps being good games, they just didn't sell well in a market where they have an advantage in terms of preferences of the consumer and thus the publisher won't bother shipping the title over, which includes the cost of changing it to be compatible to the english-speaking market, although most companies now include several speech packages as standard now.

This is also partly the reason that the PS3 went region-free, because it means that they can just ship games straight from Japan to the US w/ the english-language programmed in from the start, rather than create a new batch for the US market with possibly unsold units useless outside the encoding zone of Japan.

Not bad for a U in Business Studies AS level XD

Are we still joking and being sarcastic here??

I've not been joking / sarcastic so far.

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Originally Posted by Vicious Horizon

I've not been joking / sarcastic so far.

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Likewise.

then i put forward WHY ARE WE COMMENTING ON THIS POST WHEN ITS BLATANTLY A TROLL / BOT

Because I felt like revising some basic business knowledge to an unknown case and to do some market research, and because VH (I'm assuming) wanted to feel intelligent for a change.

How do you know it's a bot anyway - for all we know, it could be a real person :P

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Originally Posted by Oricalcos

Because I felt like revising some basic business knowledge to an unknown case and to do some market research, and because VH (I'm assuming) wanted to feel intelligent for a change.

How do you know it's a bot anyway - for all we know, it could be a real person :P

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because every few months something with equally as bad English posts a random question very loosely related to gaming

I knew it was a bot, however I did feel like posting as I thought it was an interesting topic :)

It's not a bot. He/she signed up on the 8th, and posted this on the 13th. They set their signature as a period. Probably some internet illiterate chinese person who found us on google and made a random post...

Also, there is generally a reason a bot would post. This thread has no advertising, no links, nothing that somebody could make profit on.

Forum registration also has a strong anti-bot system.

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Originally Posted by Calneon

Forum registration also has a strong anti-bot system.

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AKA The Banhammer.

Back on topic for a sec though, if only my assignments were on something like this, because I'd write 2,000 words on this area easily ;D