Grimfarrow

http://www.xengamers.com/sections/news/6717/

Xbox Pulled Off Shelves
8:00pm 03/08/02

[Xbox Pulled Off Shelves]


Japanese retail chains Laox and Sakuraya have decided to suspend all sales of Microsoft's Xbox console due to complaints regarding defective products. Specifically, the initial shipment of Japanese Xbox consoles are being blamed for scratching game discs. Despite the moratorium on console sales, Laox and Sakuraya are both still selling Xbox software. Together, both retailers have approximately 150 locations across Japan. While Microsoft has acknowledged the scratching problem, an official hardware recall hasn't been issued. Rather, Microsoft has chosen to handle replacements on an individual case basis. According to company representatives, Microsoft has received 588 complaints from Japanese consumers to date. When asked about the decision to stop Xbox hardware sales by the aforementioned two retail chains, Microsoft executives in Asia refused comment. Below is a picture taken inside a Laox location with a sign informing customers of the decision to cease Xbox sales.

djones6746

Man.....not good!!!

This could really hurt Microsoft.

Feneant

It's probably a hard decision for MS...is it every console that has the scratching problem or just a specific batch or whatever... doing a recall would have hurt them more than the 2 chains pulling the console. I think this will hurt them more on the basis of a loss of confidence from Japanese consumers than from the loss of sale or the recall if it ensues(sic?).

jeffdsmith

Wow... This is getting muc worse for MS. This is def. going to hurt there small chance at actually selling that thing there. hmm...

young

how much of these problems are real? and how much of it is US bashing by the japanese? i don't have an x-box but i remember ps2 having similar complaints. my ps2 never seemed to scractch anything vertical or not.

pure speculation but the move of Square putting games on the gc seems to be somewhat calculated also...

and no, i'm not paranoid, nor am i an xbox fanboy b/c i don't want one. just thinking a little outloud... keywords: little

bluepenny

better fix it now then later when its too late

Kellehair

Holy *****! The X-BOX already had an uphill battle on its hands before this!

DJ_Spyder

I seem to remember that the PS1 had problems like this as well when I first bought mine it had skipping problems and the machine could not read the disc I sent the machine to Sony and they fixed the problem. Now from what I have seen with the X-box MS has admitted it's mistake and is taking corrective action to fix the problem hopefully this situation has not damaged the reputation of X-box in Japan since the market is pretty fickle.

darkside

The problem is real, I really don't think the Japanese are all working together to try and ruin Microsoft. The question is how often is it occuring? If its just one bad batch of Xbox consoles, then Microsoft needs to research the cause and recall the bad consoles. They need to do something to get the Japanese consumers confidence back.

Keyser Soze

Big ouch... poor old Bill, how's he going to make his morgage payment now ?!?!?!

-k
###

Gallant Pig

Aren't these being made in the same places as the US versions (Hungary or Mexico)? I don't get how these problems are happening just for Japan when they didn't show up here in the US.

It's a learning experience for them anyway.

Josh H

This is definitely bad news for MS. They already had a hell of an uphill battle to even hold onto a solid third place in Japan, and this will kill consumer confidence over there and make if very tough for them to see any success. That would be bad news for them in general as if the X-box isn't viable in Japan, many Japanese developers won't bother developing for it. This will make it difficult for MS to expand their library to cover all the genre's and consequently make it tough to expand from their current audience of mainly PC gamers. If they don't get this fixed quick, they're dead in Japan and doomed to do no better than third in the U.S. A ton of Americans love american developed games, and PC type games like Halo, but those alone (as exclusives) aren't enough to get a head of Nintendo when their big games start coming out this summer and fall, much less to catch up to Sony.

damn_skippy

Microsoft = American company

Sony = Japanese company


Microsoft makes the xbox and it gets pulled from shelves for 588 complaints.

Sony makes the PS2 when the same scratching problem happened last year it was not pulled from shelves.


Hmmmmmmmmm.....

Flay

It won't last.

Breakfast with Girls

User error. I'm sure the bias against an American company is real, though.

IC_Freeze

it's nice to see ms getting shafted for once

mr.snowmizer

Is this thread still going? Sales had resumed (at one of the two, at least) before this thread even started here.

Anybody who doesn't think there's a fishy here is in denial. Five hundred scratches out of roughly 150,000 consoles sold is the latest report. And that triggers a halting of sales? Either the fishiness is underreported problems by MS or it's some type of newfound concern by some Japanese retailers about their customers.

All this while the market leader gladly rakes in the profit of sales of vertical stands worldwide, despite the fact that everybody that knows the slightest about the industry is aware that PS2 in a vertical position is a recipe for scratched discs.

Grimfarrow

The problem isn't with the fact that this is happening - like some of you have noted, similar problems appeared on the PS2. The problem is with the way in which Microsoft has handled it.
MS' first press release in regards to the matter (on 3/4/02) was somewhat arrogant, saying that "this is a natural phenomenon", and that they would not replaces defective discs affected by the console.

Three days later (3/7/02), MS rescinded the original press release, apologized, and then offered to replace the defective discs.

If they hadn't issued the first press release, MS wouldn't have been in the mess that they are now in Japan.

Full story is here:

http://www.mmcafe.com/

Chaos

The X-box is dying!!!!! Let's all gather around our new god----------the GameCube and bow down and worship its' power

JaxComet

Who cares. I already have my XBOX and I don't live in Japan...

darkside

If they have such a bias against an American company, why buy the Xbox in the first place? I could understand bias if people refuse to buy the system, but I seriously doubt they are buying the Xbox just to make up a disc scratching problem.

Breakfast with Girls

The companies, not the consumers. Although I'm sure the consumers are less tolerant of any problems they encounter than they would otherwise be...

RMMETHOS34

PLAYSTATION 2 rules,maybe the xbox has better hardware but its about the games and yes,I do own all 3 systems.

Josh H

Those comments have nothing to do with the discussion at hand. Quit trolling.

RMMETHOS34

I wasn`t trolling,I like all 3 systems ,just I enjoy the Playstation 2 games more,this is the 6 month aniversary of 911,there are a lot more important things in life than my consoles better than yours,kinda reminds me when as a kid,the old my marvel comics better than your dc comics or my WWF wrestling better than your WCW wrestling.