XBox 360 demand in Sony's back yard? Not so much.

The New York Times noted that XBox 360 sales have been weak in Tokyo. Given Sony's dominance of the mature gaming market in Japan and Nintendo's continuing focus on the younger gamers, it's not a big surprise that Microsoft is struggling in this geography. Comments bore out the reason behind shopper's reticence:

Lined up on a rack near the display are the only nine games sold for Xbox 360. But behind it are some 3,000 games, spread across six store aisles, for Microsoft's biggest rival here, the Sony PlayStation 2.

"Xbox doesn't even have Gran Turismo," said Shun'ichi Moriizumi, naming a popular auto racing game. One of the few shoppers to stop in front of the Xbox display, Mr. Moriizumi, a 22-year-old university student, said he came to see the Xbox 360, which went on sale here Dec. 10, 18 days after its debut in the United States.

Back here at home, NPD has stated that its initial sales figures for XBox 360 sales and games were overinflated. NPD was going to re-release its revised data last week, but I haven't seen those results published yet. Meanwhile, the last likely resupply of XBox 360s at various retailers happened over the weekend. No word yet of what the actual volumes were, but it appears all were sold out very quickly. So despite the poor launch in Japan, Microsoft should have no trouble selling all they have made -- Blackfriars' projection was just shy of one million units as early as this summer -- before Christmas. The open question is how well demand will hold up in the retail doldrums of January and February.

Technorati Tags: Business, Consumer Electronics, Games, Gaming, Microsoft, Sony, XBox 360