Yoshihiro Maruyama's business card reads "Executive Officer, General Manager, Xbox Division." Rather, it read. The Xbox Japan's boss has been moved into another position within the company due to the company's poor domestic sales.

A few months back, I met Maruyama at TGS and interviewed him for Kotaku. Immediately, I was impressed by the exec and admired his frankness and tenacity. Here was a businessman with loads of industry experience, sensitivity towards developers and able to take on a room full of game journos. In English. He seemed perfect for the task of bridging the big-in-America Xbox to the largely indifferent Japanese market.

"Simply coming early doesn t guarantee success," Maruyama told me. "Many people think coming early is an advantage, and my answer is yes. But, it won t be enough. Sega came to the market like 15 months earlier than PlayStation 2 came to the Japanese market. By the time PlayStation 2 came out, the install base for the Sega Dreamcast was 1.5 million. Sony reached the same install base by the end of the first month. The Sega lesson is that coming early won t guarantee success unless you keep supplying compelling content."

MSoft wooed Japanese game giants to design and publicity machine went full force. At launch, the console was everywhere in Japan. Yet, consumers didn't bite. The company regrouped and went on the attack again with PR events at the Xbox Lounge and started even looking for Japanese game testers. The content just wasn't there to support the system. And when it was, the games were delayed or buggy.

By firing Maruyama, the company has lost ground. The new Xbox Japan boss will come in, rearrange the furniture and make some announcements, but the situation won't dramatically change. The feeling that if-I-don't-succeed will loom, causing any sort of business risks or innovative to be expunged. There is the compelling 360 content Maruyama wanted, waiting in the wings. Perhaps feeling pressure from investors, MSoft wouldn't let him directly handle those big releases. This lack of faith in management could be translated as lack of faith in product. Meanwhile, the competitors inch closer and closer.

Taking Lessons From Sony [Kotaku]