Xbox One Limited To 21 Countries At Launch

[Longstreet]

Although this does make sense from an economical point of view.

There is something called the 3E trap. Everything to Everyone Everywhere. basically it means that you shouldn't always try to do that since it will most likely end in a loss in profit. Therefore i can get excluding countries like Japan, that are mostly PS players, since that is from that country.

On the other hand, this is complete BS. If they wouldn't have the online authentication, it would be no problem. People from japan could pre order it on a Dutch site (although shipping would come into play, that is not as much as you would expect) and be able to play.

Also, the Xbox franchise is simply too big to be excluding countries, especially this many, since it is one of the 2 big consoles. (Yes i am excluding the Wii here)

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Although this does make sense from an economical point of view.

There is something called the 3E trap. Everything to Everyone Everywhere.

It's better than nothing to no one nowhere.
It doesn't make sense. All they had to do is make the product available to a lot more places. And to do that all they had to do is eliminate the anti-consumer restrictions that nobody even wants. They fucked up on both ends. They are selling a console that has all these rules that people hate for a higher price than their competition, and because they opted for that approach they can't launch their product in most of the world. That's a losing combination if I ever saw one. It's even likely that they will lose to Sony in every single country. Germany for example, is a place where they'll be lucky if they manage to sell 3 units.

 

[Longstreet]

Although this does make sense from an economical point of view.

There is something called the 3E trap. Everything to Everyone Everywhere.

It's better than nothing to no one nowhere.
It doesn't make sense. All they had to do is make the product available to a lot more places. And to do that all they had to do is eliminate the anti-consumer restrictions that nobody even wants. They fucked up on both ends. They are selling a console that has all these rules that people hate for a higher price than their competition, and because they opted for that approach they can't launch their product in most of the world. That's a losing combination if I ever saw one. It's even likely that they will lose to Sony in every single country. Germany for example, is a place where they'll be lucky if they manage to sell 3 units.

Really can't tell if you are agreeing, disagreeing or just making that first sentence to me before making your own comment, its late here.

That is exactly what i said, but i also stated theoretically it makes (a bit of) sense. Just practically and logically it is fucking stupid.

-
Just though of an alternate option thougt; what if Microsoft does this on purpose because the suspect their servers will crash and burn due to all the logins, and are trying to minimize that. Kinda like they did with Sim City by disabling some features. They just disable countries.

 

[LordMonty]

We are running out of things to say on the subject of microsoft atm but... lol? a confused stutter of laughter in a quiet room. Thats it all I got. God help whoever thought allt his was a good idea.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Although this does make sense from an economical point of view.

There is something called the 3E trap. Everything to Everyone Everywhere.

It's better than nothing to no one nowhere.
It doesn't make sense. All they had to do is make the product available to a lot more places. And to do that all they had to do is eliminate the anti-consumer restrictions that nobody even wants. They fucked up on both ends. They are selling a console that has all these rules that people hate for a higher price than their competition, and because they opted for that approach they can't launch their product in most of the world. That's a losing combination if I ever saw one. It's even likely that they will lose to Sony in every single country. Germany for example, is a place where they'll be lucky if they manage to sell 3 units.

That's assuming the XBone actually makes it to German stores because one or more of its features go against German law. They can be pretty harsh about such stuff. I'd laugh so hard if that happens.

Although I can sort of understand why Microsoft initially isn't selling in Japan. Xbox consoles have sold quite poorly over there, both having been outsold several times by their competitors.

No idea how they're going hit 100 million consoles sold with the way they're limiting their potential customers. Maybe they're counting on, what is apparently, their audience of elites to buy 10 consoles each (one for each family member and their dog).

 

[BrotherRool]

So no Xbox One for soldiers on duty?

Also, Microsoft decided they wanted to 'future-proof' their console, so they refuse to sell it in Asia. Lets see how that works out

 

[Thandran]

Hmmm... no Balcan countries added. Think I'll probably see soon modified/chipped versions of the Xbone selling here.

 

[Arawn]

Okay color me surprised. Limited availability and accessibility. MS is putting quite a few shackles on their product and the consumers. I'm really questioning how this is going to turn out. Could the limited countries be a way to cover up low production? Maybe fewer units will ship and they don't want to send them out to countries with low sales? Didn't PS3 have a higher cost and low units produced when it first debuted. Sold out in some places and others just had few of them like iPod/Pad awhile back. Doesn't make any sense. I think that sums up all we have heard so far. A lot of rumors proven true and several we wish weren't.

 

[FalloutJack]

Seriously? This is not a joke? Am I living in a Monty Python sketch? This can't be real.....

This is real... I actually laughed out loud reading this.

I'm kinda expecting John Cleese suddenly apearing in my living room and saying "And now for something completely different"

The funny part is that you can still use the fish-slapping dance as an analogy for Sony VS Microsoft.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Half the countries on that list have pretty crappy internet services. It would seem they are trying to limit the amount of bad day one negativity.

 

[bug_of_war]

What's that Microsoft? You'll have to speak up, I can't here you over my money being given to Sony for their PS4.

 

[lacktheknack]

CD Projekt: "That's OK, guys! We'll have things available on it anyways if you want them!"
>Microsoft then announces that Polish people cannot have the system

This is a special kind of face-slap. It's the kind that makes it into Cracked articles.

 

[WashAran]

And in 12 of those countries their DRM bullshit will not work!

 

[TotalerKrieger]

CD Project Red should cut ties with MS ASAP for excluding their home-country, quite an insult. Witcher 3 with the PC as main platform and PS4 and WiiU ports. I wonder if there are any legal ramifications which would prevent them from doing so?

It really does seem like someone high-up in MS is trying to sabotage the Xbox One's launch. Perhaps the "faction" of MS shareholders who want to see the Xbox division sold off are influencing the people in charge of this project.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Well, I was saying that they shot themselves in the foot with a rocket launcher, but think the metaphor needs to be changed to tactical nuke by this point... can they make it any worse?

*grabs popcorn and waits for the news tomorrow*

 

[Caiphus]

Well, Japan made up roughly ~2% of the sales of the 360.[footnote] http://www.vgchartz.com/analysis/platform_totals/[/footnote] Guess Microsoft won't fix that this generation.

It's not like the Japanese were going to switch their preferences anyway, for obvious reasons.

Some of the omissions sort of, kinda make sense; the Mediterranean is struggling financially. Sucks for Eastern Europe though, I'm more surprised about that.

 

[shintakie10]

The 360 never sold well in Japan

Compared to the other two. It still sold 1.6 million units. That's what they are now throwing away in this one country alone, because they can't be bothered to set up store there.

Microsoft market share in Japan is somewhere around 1%. Considerin the costs of localisin a game and the dismal sales of both consoles and games in Japan for Microsoft pullin out of Japan has been one of the few sensible things to do.

"Omits nations like Portugal, Japan, Ukraine, Greece and Poland." I dont know if you guys follow the news, but the populations of Greece and Portugal do not have much disposable income at the moment, businesses are fleeing both countries and youth (the people most likely to buy these consoles) unemployment is at record levels of 65% and 40+% respectively. The 360 never sold well in Japan and Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe. You can criticise Microsoft for a lot of things relating to the xbone, but this just seems like a smart business decision to me in that they are focusing their resources on the areas where they are actually going to make reasonable returns.

See this guy gets it. The Xbone could launch in every country in the world, but if it doesn't actually sell anythin anywhere it wont do Microsoft any good.

It'd be a massive waste of time and resources for Microsoft to try and get any money out of most of the countries they omitted. Others were probably kept out because of laws about privacy and used games.

 

[Irridium]

And how many countries will the PS4 work in?

Spoiler: Well...

Also, while it sucks the PS4 now requires PS+ for you to play multiplayer online, it seems that if just one account has PS+, all other accounts on the system can play online.

https://twitter.com/yosp/status/344369977438126080

Which is awesome for households with more than one person who plays games. Compared to XBL where each individual must pay.

So... yeah.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Hey, Microsoft! Looks like you're gonna need this:

Ya know, for all them holes your digging.

Spoiler: No, no, no, they will be needing this

I am just baffled how many more customers is Microsoft going to alienate. They have now eliminated the vast majority of the entire PLANET. Good job guys.

 

[NiPah]

"Omits nations like Portugal, Japan, Ukraine, Greece and Poland." I dont know if you guys follow the news, but the populations of Greece and Portugal do not have much disposable income at the moment, businesses are fleeing both countries and youth (the people most likely to buy these consoles) unemployment is at record levels of 65% and 40+% respectively. The 360 never sold well in Japan and Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe. You can criticise Microsoft for a lot of things relating to the xbone, but this just seems like a smart business decision to me in that they are focusing their resources on the areas where they are actually going to make reasonable returns.

So Poland and Japan can make Metal Gear Solid 5 and The Witcher 3, however if they want to play them they're shit out of luck because their country isn't a financially viable market for Microsoft.
I can't want to see how much support those game developers are going to give to a console that can't even play in their country.