Microsoft Cuts Xbox 360 Price in Japan

Microsoft has announced it is lowering the price of its Xbox 360 gaming console in Japan by 13 percent.

In a move to help it better compete with the Nintendo Wii and (perhaps) the Sony PlayStation 3 in those consoles’ home turf, Microsoft is lowering the price of its Xbox 360 game consoles in Japan by 13 percent. The move follows similar price cuts on the Xbox 360 in the U.S. and in Europe earlier this year. The standard Xbox 360 console will now sell for ¥34,800 (or just over $300 USD) while the Xbox 360 Core system will sell for ¥29,800 (just under $260 USD).

Sales figures show the Nintendo Wii is by far the leading video game console in Japan, moving almost 1.8 million units during the first half of 2007, compared to Sony selling about 504,000 PlayStation 3 and Microsoft moving only about 123,000 Xbox 360 systems during the same period. Overall, Microsoft has sold about 11.5 million Xbox 360 systems worldwide, but the console has been on the market a year longer than either the Nintendo Wii or PlayStation 360; since their introductions, Nintendo has sold about 9.3 million Wii consoles, while Sony has sold about 5 million PlayStation 3 systems.