Microsoft Corp is preparing to unleash waves of aliens and gun-toting commandos in what analysts and investors say is a last-ditch bid to establish its Xbox as a rival to Sony Corp's PlayStation consoles in Japan.
The Redmond, Washington-based company, whose operating system is used in 95 percent of the world's personal computers, is banking on what it does best: software.
On Thursday, Microsoft will begin selling Halo in Japan. A million-seller in the US, Microsoft is counting on Halo to overcome a rocky start in Japan where Sony's seven-year-old PlayStation is outselling the Xbox by almost a two-to-one margin just two months after the console's release.
"If Halo fails, I can't imagine what else is left," said Takashi Oya, an analyst at Deutsche Securities Ltd. "Microsoft doesn't have much time [to resuscitate Xbox], and it has few options left."
Halo is a Microsoft-made shooting game that can only be played on the company's Xbox game machine. As many as four users can play simultaneously on a split-screen as they try to fight aliens after crash-landing on an unknown planet in 2552.
The game had sales of 1 million in the US since the console's debut in the world's biggest video-game market in November.
In Japan, retailers have ordered less than 100,000 copies of the fourth Xbox title developed by Microsoft for Japan, according to Enterbrain Inc, an industry researcher. The first three failed to make the list of the country's 100 best-selling titles in the week ended April 14, researcher Media Create said.
Microsoft has missed sales targets since the console's debut in Japan on Feb. 22, forcing it to cut profit forecasts. Without popular software, the game machine won't survive competition from Sony's best-selling PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's GameCube consoles, analysts said.
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