Microsoft's plans for the Xbox 360 in the Japanese market have been outlined by the chief of Xbox Japan Yoshihiro Maruyama. He has told the press that the console is due for Japanese release in December and the company hopes the early start will give an advantage over Sony and Nintendo.It looks like Microsoft will have their work cut out for them - a recent poll by Japanese gaming mag Famitsu had post-E3 interest in the Xbox 360 at a low 18% compared to 42.2% for the Revolution, and 39.8% for Sony's PS3.
Sales of the original Xbox also trail far behind those for the PS2 and GameCube in Japan.
Despite this, Maruyama is confident:
This time, as well as launching first, we have focused on designing the machine and the games for the Japanese market. We expect to win.
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