Today we met with the vice president of D3 Publishing, a company involved in publishing manga, anime, and video games targeted towards the otaku (geek) crowd. One of their most recent games Dream C Club was published exclusively for the X-Box 360. The fact that D3 chose to support the X-Box 360 with its abysmal track record in Japan peaked my curiosity and I asked him why the 360 was a commercial failure in Japan. His first answer was because it’s not Sony or Nintendo something every outsider was thinking. All joking aside he informed me that one of the biggest weaknesses X-box 360 has going for it is the lack of brand saturation in the Japanese market. This is due to the laziness of Microsoft Japan and a lack luster or even non-existent marketing campaign. His answer was fascinating and a great lesson in the importance of a powerful advertising campaign and what it could do to help the X-Box 360’s success in Japan.
Dream C Club D-3 photo courtesy of Radin
Jared in Japan 