Microsoft as all would expect are having a bit of trouble selling in Japan, new market and the games don't appeal to the Japanese market, well not all of them and they got the Wii and Playstation 3 against them. But yet, Microsft plan on not giving up on Japan, though they say they do not think they have won in this Generation of Consoles. Both Jeff Bell and Shane Kim say though they are disappointed about the sales they have had in Japan so far but hope that Lost Oddyssey will help boost up the sales.

With Microsoft’s Xbox 360 shifting on average around 1,000 units per week in Japan, the firm appears to struggling to make inroads to the Japanese market.

Speaking to Game | Life, Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Game Studios, acknowledged that the company was not going to win in Japan, in this generation at least.

“I still am a believer in our ability to do well in Japan. We're not going to win in Japan. We know that. That was never our goal, this generation, to win in Japan. We can win this generation without winning Japan. But we can do well in Japan. Now that's going to take a long time.”

Jeff Bell, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of global marketing, was also frank in his assessment of how the Xbox 360’s been performing in Japan.

Bell told Silicon Era that the company has made headway in Japan, largely off the back of the release of Japanese RPG Blue Dragon, but admitted that hardware sales were disappointing.

“We are not happy with our situation in Japan. We’ve got a great team though. Sensui-san is doing a great job at making things better. We launched Blue Dragon and our sales have doubled. Now granted that’s a thousand a week, so that’s not enough. We are at least making progress,” he said.

Bell went on to suggest that the release of Lost Odyssey could again boost Xbox 360 sales in Japan, and stressed that the backing of third party publishers was key to Xbox’s growth in the country.

“We hope that we double again when we do Lost Odyssey. What we got to do is win over the confidence of the third party publishers that they can bring the great titles that are Japanese inspired and continue to grow the install base.”

tidus04 via next-gen.biz »