Microsoft is hoping that the launch of its Games for Windows Live service in Japan will give PC gaming a boost in that country, which will in turn give a boost to sales of the Xbox console. Although since the point of the new service is to connect PC gamers to the Xbox network the argument seems a bit circular...If there’s not many PC gamers, then connecting them to the console with the lowest market share isn’t going to spur a spectacular change. Microsoft’s Xbox hasn’t sold as well in Japan as in other countries..."Xbox 360 are climbing—albeit slowly. In the week ending April 15, the console sold 2,900 units across Japan, according to estimates from Media Create. In the same week, sales of the competing PlayStation 3 console were 11,948 units, while the significantly cheaper PlayStation 2 hit 12,872 units. The lead remained with Nintendo’s Wii console at 75,759 units,” reports InfoWorld.

Microsoft has a Q&A up with Peter Moore, the head of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, which gives an idea of what the company is trying to achieve—“offering something for everyone at anytime”. That’s not really possible, but the console does offer a lot of rich content. The 6 million members of the Xbox Live community send more than 2 million text and voice messages a day, and Moore made a lot of bringing an IP connection to the TV. “Partners like CBS, Warner Brothers, MTV and Paramount Pictures tell us that Xbox 360 became the #2 distributor of TV and movie content on the Internet overnight, only behind iTunes,” said Moore.

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