The guys at ContentSutra have got the wind that Microsoft might be ending their Xbox 360 operations in India.
While the usual entities to blame include piracy or high hardware prices, the problem might just be Microsoft’s business strategy oh yeah, and the government.
As far as India is concerned, the xBox is the x’ed Box, if this report from CNBC-TV18 is to be believed. The console has apparently been such a dismal failure in India that Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is reportedly winding up operations in several Tier-I cities. MS’ Entertainment & Devices Division (EDD) has also withdrawn the marketing budget for India, and Ashim Mathur, Marketing Head for the division has planned to leave the company. Mathur has denied any such development, and the company has, expectedly, given CNBC-TV18 a standard response, that everything is going according to plan. More here.
This comes a few months after Mohit Anand, Country Head for EDD left to join Channel V. Anand had mentioned that the lack of lack of government support for gaming (i.e. - reduction of duty, and a gaming policy) was the most disheartening aspect of his tenure. At a conference last year, he had mentioned that the xBox business is not expected to break even until 2011. Now it appears that MS is reducing market exposure.
Well this move will have severe repercussions, namely a certain underpeforming, over-hyped cricketer losing his sponsorship (see picture above). Gamers will live on though. We’ll just get our games elsewhere. Which is a bit of a pity considering MS ensured we got a few titles on par if not earlier than our European or US counterparts.
Update: Ashimm Das Mathur, current Country Manager, Microsoft has laid rumors to rest saying:
All I can say is that this is all rubbish.
Microsoft is completely committed to the market and Xbox 360 is doing exceptionally well in the country.
Guess we call breathe a sigh of release and enjoy some of the better 360 titles coming out this year,namely Gears of War 2 and Too Human.
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