Deftones

how the hell has Sony shipped more PS2s to North America than Japan?

gcribbs

more people here buying them

Japan is a smaller country so I am not suprised to see that. I am a bit surprised to see them at 40 millon already. It seems that they might hit 50 million by end of Xmas sales period

Josh H

Exactly, gaming might be more popular over there, but the total population is a good deal smaller.

Trigger

There's like 280M people in the US and like 140M people in Japan.

Deftones

shut up you!

This stiill doesn't make sense. Japan has always bought more video games/products than the US. Always. I just find these numbers hard to swallow when video games to the Japanese are like our movies.

Trigger

The playstation 2 isn't quite as popular in Japan as it should be maybe because they like things to be small and cute. The PS2 isn't cute. They buy stuff like the GBA and the Wonderswan (whatever that is)... and they put little Hello Kitty chains on their cell phones. Also - I don't think they got GTA3 there.

DVDHO

X-box live in Japan is all ready dead,95% of online users there still use Narrowband which is not compatible with the Xbox so that wont build up sales but with Rare and maybe Capcom and a few turned based RPGs could turn it around there.

This is the best time to be a gamer unless your broke,all three consoles and the PC are all rocking right now,come Xmas GC is going through the roof with Metroid Prime and Vice City for PS2 and Halo 2 for Xbox,you cant go wrong with any of these consoles,enjoy.

Trigger

Actually in Japan, they seem to all like the potential of Xbox's online plan over Sony's - they seem to think Sony's online plan will end up being too expensive. FFX1 is finally starting to take off sales-wise, but it still is a long way away from what was originally expected. You might be right about the whole dial-up thing, but I guess time will tell. Also - at the Tokyo Game Show, they seemed to all flock to DOA Extreme Beach Volleyball and were highly impressed. That title might actually push systems over there.

darkside

If they include 14 year old school girls in the game over there they probably won't be able to keep the Xbox and DOA Volleyball on the shelves.

Trigger

I don't get it. Are you saying that the Japanese are all perverts who like looking at underage girls in bikinis?

darkside

You don't play many japanese imports then.

Trigger

I don't play any Japanese imports.

Josh H

A higher percentage of the Japanese population buys games than in the U.S. However, the U.S. has a much larger population.

For example, say 25% of the Japanese pop. buys games and 20% of the U.S. pop buys games.

The number of games sold in the U.S. will be higher because the total population is higher.

al_bundy

They also go to thailand. For ahh, "vacations" and "business trips".

jeffdsmith

Triiger, please don't generalize so much. (About the Japanese people) This comment is far from accurate.

'm not trying to attack you, just think such comments don't do any good here.

Trigger

What the hell? I said it cuz it's true. You don't have to believe me, but that's how it is there "in general"... Do you want me to get some people who live in Japan to come in and verify this for you? It wasn't meant as a slam towards Japanese people. I'm a big fan of Asian culture and I have friends who live there... they do like things small and cute, and it's a big fad for them to put little chains on their cell phones - It's a trend that's coming to America (slowly).

jeffdsmith

The whole reason I bothered to respond is that my friend was reading the posts along with me and he was like "WTF"? He is japanese himself. Normally I would just ignore such an over generalization.

Just forget I said anything, this going to go no where quick and is way OT.

Trigger

Okay - well tell your friend that I'm sorry if I offended him. I didn't mean that everyone in Japan was like that... it's just an "in general" sort of thing. Being Japanese is different from living in Japan. I'm not either and I was just relaying info from someone who lives there, so I should just keep my mouth shut.

gcribbs

I think the ps2 saw some cross buying from families who wanted a dvd player and the kids wanted a ps2- this probably has increased sales here to an even larger number. I also expect that the PS1 backwards compatibility has increased adoption. I have seen quite a few people bringing in PS1 units to trade for PS2 games after they get the PS2 when I have been shopping at places like software etc.

By the way is Trigger saying I should take my Hello Kitty chain off my cell phone

mytzplyx

Trigger is somewhat correct, but also wrong at the same time. (I'm an Asian-American currently living in Japan)


The thing is though, to say "in general" is a gross "generalization." You can't name percentages really, but I do believe Japanese men in general are attracted to younger women, just because women here in fact, do look younger than their age.

Freak, I started talking to this waitress at this Yakiniku place and when she told me how old she was I freaked. I thought she was at least 22, but she told me she was 18. I know that happens every once in a while, but I've seen friends overguess all too often.

Basically, its not necessarily the age of a girl that a guy is looking at, but a certain "look." I don't think men looking for FOURTEEN YEAR OLD GIRLS run rampant throughout this country. Sometimes it turns perverse, but I also understand that there seems to be a larger age gap between couples. Heck, somtimes the "14 year old girl" is actually 21.

Yes, being Japanese and living in Japan are different things, but so is hearing things from someone living in Japan (including me). Everyone has different perspectives and I'm not so ready to label the "general" populace of males here as perverts.

Thrillhouse

What you think PS2 produced it all in 1 year? Before they released the console, they must have had Network capabilities in mind.

Trigger

From Gaming Age.

mr.snowmizer

I was wondering when someone would post today's Nintendo news.

Of course, I was also wondering when someone was originally going to point out that 'units produced' has to be the most meaningless statistic ever. 'Units shipped' is misleading enough for those who like to argue about things based on sales reports, but 'units produced'? Geez.

If anybody is ever again impressed by production numbers, just remember that Sega has produced 1,000,000 copies of NFL 2k3. Or, for fellow old-timers, remember that Atari produced 6,000,000 copies of ET.

Production can easily become overproduction once market reality sets in. At least all these GCs should be sold in six months, and not buried in a New Mexico landfill.

joltaddict

No doubt. But the fact that were already using it has a whole lot to do with them looking over their shoulder.