While the Xbox 360 has seen healthy sales in the Western world, it has scarcely 1 percent of the Japanese game market. The man in charge of changing that is Takashi Sensui, general manager of the Xbox division in Japan. Today, ITmedia published an interview with Sensui, who is working to get more Xboxes into Japanese living rooms with a better lineup, better marketing, and better Xbox Live support.

　　Sensui says Microsoft Japan has fundamentally revamped the Xbox 360's advertising campaign--dubbed "do! do! do!" Shiyo zeparticularly with regard to price point. "I think the Xbox 360 is the best value for the money," he said. "Even so, we need to make it even more attractive. However, we are not considering a price drop at this point."

　　Regarding the question of how to turn the 360 into a hit in Japan, Sensui sees two roads to success. "One is to have hit titles, like Blue Dragon. If the software takes off, there's no doubt the hardware will become popular. The Nintendo DS, which got traction from its software, is the simplest example of this pattern. However, I think the Xbox Live community has the potential to create an even bigger hit."

　　Critics have called Microsoft's global launch of the Xbox 360 last year jumping the gun, but being early to the party has its advantages, Sensui said. "The third-party developers had many experiences along the way, and resolved the problems inherent to next-generation games one at a time; because of this, we now have a quality line-up. ... I don't think we were too early at all."