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Xbox Japan gets new manager

S

Striek

Member
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) (MSFT) tapped Takashi Sensui, formerly its director of marketing and game content for Xbox Japan, to become the new general manager of the XBox division for Microsoft Japan.

In a press release Wednesday, the software company said Sensui replaces Yoshihiro Maruyama, who moves to a new role within the Entertainment and Devices organization.

Sensui joined Microsoft (MSFT) in 2002 and has more than two decades of information- technology and entertainment industry experience.

In after-hours trading, shares of Microsoft (MSFT) changed hands recently at $26.90, up from Wednesday's close of $26.88.
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Maruyama was doing so well too....

Can the new guy give the Xbox360 the edge it needs to beat the GC? Will he fulfill Maruyama's prophecy of an 360 on top in Japan? Its all so exciting.
 
"formerly its director of marketing and game content for Xbox Japan"

So he was one of the guys responsible for marketing the HD era in Japan under a different name than the Japanese use for HD?
 
MS people probably just saw "Final Fantasy VII" on his resume and thought "Ooh! This guy is our savior!"

When in actuality, he didn't have a clue.

So who's this new guy and what's his background?
 
if shareholder and the board at microsoft are serious with that company, they should get rid of ballmer and gates. Of course NOBODY is allowed to say that, even if everybody think it.

Those 2 are crashing microsoft slowly into dirt (not that i care). .NET is not catching, Vista is an easter egg in duke nukem forever, they lost japan totally, they act arrogant and full of themself with the 360 in the US not understanding they only sold it because Sony made the error of underpowering the PS2 video ram.

Buying Rare should say to everybody that the top management know nothing to videogames.
 
john tv said:
MS people probably just saw "Final Fantasy VII" on his resume and thought "Ooh! This guy is our savior!"

When in actuality, he didn't have a clue.

So who's this new guy and what's his background?
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It says he's their former marketing director, which is why I asked if he had anything to do with that HD debacle there.
 
Maruyama was a doof. The only thing he managed to do was throw a party at 6am at Tsutaya with the only attendees being a bunch of Microsoft employees and the press.
 
Quartet said:
if shareholder and the board at microsoft are serious with that company, they should get rid of ballmer and gates. Of course NOBODY is allowed to say that, even if everybody think it.

Those 2 are crashing microsoft slowly into dirt (not that i care). .NET is not catching, Vista is an easter egg in duke nukem forever, they lost japan totally, they act arrogant and full of themself with the 360 in the US not understanding they only sold it because Sony made the error of underpowering the PS2 video ram.

Buying Rare should say to everybody that the top management know nothing to videogames.
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I wouldn't get rid of gates.
 
Quartet said:
Buying Rare should say to everybody that the top management know nothing to videogames.
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I imagine the purchase of Rare came about when they examined both Nintendo and Sony's strategies, thinking that they could have both the mature gamer and the quality of Nintendo Rare exclusives from the N64-era. It hasn't worked out quite as well as they thought I imagine, though they do have a share of the industry now.
 
I can't speak for the Xbox Japan folks obviously, but I do know that Sensui is said to be one of the guys who helped secure Japanese dev support to date. Who and what I have no clue.
 
Quartet said:
Buying Rare should say to everybody that the top management know nothing to videogames.
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And what about Bungie? The same management only obtained one of the biggest IPs last gen.

Besides, PDZ is selling well. Top selling MGS X360 game infact. US Management know what they're doing
 
Calidor said:
wow, you need to have some balls to accept that job
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That's what I thought, basically you can't get out of there without a scar or two on your career... I guess no sane Microsoft employee wants to move to that division.
 
Unless they hire an industry legend whose name makes the industry's eyeballs fixate on his every move............nothing good will ever happen to Microsoft in Japan.
 
Microsoft has gotta do a massive 180 on the 360 in Japan. otherwise they might as well not even bother having a next-next gen Xbox3 over there.
 
thumbdown.gif


boooooooo @ news of new guy




I had no problem with the old manager. This chnage has me worried.
 
xexex said:
Microsoft has gotta do a massive 180 on the 360 in Japan. otherwise they might as well not even bother having a next-next gen Xbox3 over there.
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Do another 180?

What, repackage it as the "Xbox 540" by making it smaller, quieter, require less power, come with a Sony logo on it, and play all of the wacky Jappy games that gamers there crave?
 
Prine said:
And what about Bungie? The same management only obtained one of the biggest IPs last gen.

Besides, PDZ is selling well. Top selling MGS X360 game infact. US Management know what they're doing
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I think it was Ed Fries that did the Bungie purchase. Was he around for RARE as well?
 
GhaleonEB said:
I think it was Ed Fries that did the Bungie purchase. Was he around for RARE as well?
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It's generally well known that Fries was heavily involved in the Rare acquisition. What isn't well known is that he resigned his position based on MS's disatisfaction with Rare's performance.
 
Quartet said:
Buying Rare should say to everybody that the top management know nothing to videogames.
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Dude, Rare had a striek of making several continuous multi million sellers, including GE007, the best selling console shooter in history (even Halo 1 and 2 haven't outsold it. They probably might, eventually though). At the time, it seemed like a great idea to acquire them.
 
Juice said:
Do another 180?

What, repackage it as the "Xbox 540" by making it smaller, quieter, require less power, come with a Sony logo on it, and play all of the wacky Jappy games that gamers there crave?
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well you have a point there isn't much ms can do at this point but i do think that there are still some moves thatms can do if they are still willing to make it in japan :

they might go to a shopping spree. buy several big and/or small japanese publishers / developers(most probably with paying twice/three times as much as what those companies might be actually worth) pay tons omoney (read as throw/burn money)"exclusives" from big names..etc

doing a price cut , possibly matching rev in price and/or being much more cheaper (but equally impressive in terms of wow factor) alternative to ps3.

starting a massive (and sensible one, hopefully not including the term "hd") including popular japanese personalities in this campaign (making gak the face of 360 in japan), sponsoring manga/anime tie ins,... hyping up blue dragon/lost odessey to be next dragon quest/final fantasy(not that they are not already trying: )
 
MassiveAttack said:
It's generally well known that Fries was heavily involved in the Rare acquisition. What isn't well known is that he resigned his position based on MS's disatisfaction with Rare's performance.
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nope, around e3 Kikizo published a 30 minute interview with him. He left for the exact reason chappelle left dave chappelle show. Too many people wanted to get involved
 
<nu>faust said:
well you have a point there isn't much ms can do at this point but i do think that there are still some moves thatms can do if they are still willing to make it in japan :

they might go to a shopping spree. buy several big and/or small japanese publishers / developers(most probably with paying twice/three times as much as what those companies might be actually worth) pay tons omoney (read as throw/burn money)"exclusives" from big names..etc

doing a price cut , possibly matching rev in price and/or being much more cheaper (but equally impressive in terms of wow factor) alternative to ps3.

starting a massive (and sensible one, hopefully not including the term "hd") including popular japanese personalities in this campaign (making gak the face of 360 in japan), sponsoring manga/anime tie ins,... hyping up blue dragon/lost odessey to be next dragon quest/final fantasy(not that they are not already trying: )
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All well and good, except it's pretty clear at this point that MS is half-assing its financial commitment to Japan. They could do what you're indicating, but that'd guarantee they'd wind up in the red again this generation, something that the board and shareholders just aren't going to put up with forever (especially after MS runs out of bank to keep hiking dividends from, stockholders are actually going to start noticing this stuff).

For that reason, they have to be really sensible in their purchases, but yeah, if they bought the country of Japan they would handily take over the gaming industry. Obviously it's just outside the scope of what they're willing to break bank over this time around. Your suggestions are things that they should have listened to five years ago when "loss leader" still sounded like a good idea in Redmond.
 
Prine said:
nope, around e3 Kikizo published a 30 minute interview with him. He left for the exact reason chappelle left dave chappelle show. Too many people wanted to get involved
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I know, I saw the interview. It was conducted at least a year after he left. There was a very different version of events around the time of his departure that isn't publicly known but certainly made the rounds.

After more than a decade with the company, I'm sure he had many reasons for leaving. There usually are.
 
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