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Xbox Washington Post: Xbox wants Japan, but so far it’s an unrequited love

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Hero of Hyrule

Frieren the Slayer
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U.S. video game console maker Xbox has never made its mark on Japan in terms of sales, but after two decades and several missteps, it has no plans to give up.
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“We’ve been on this journey for a long time, and we’re not letting up,” Sarah Bond, Xbox’s corporate vice president of game creator experience and ecosystem, said in an interview with The Washington Post after returning from Tokyo.

Bond said Xbox is betting the company’s investment in a slate of Asian titles will pay off and show Xbox is more than just Halo and Forza. Typically, Asian players have preferred to buy PlayStation and Nintendo devices, where they can find more Japanese role-playing games and narrative-based games.
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Bond said there are over 250 developers in Japan building over 150 games to date, including titles like “Tetris Effect: Connected” and “Craftopia.” Those titles will get to live on the Xbox platform, even if many are not exclusives. During the Tokyo Game Show, Xbox announced that preexisting PlayStation mainstay titles like “Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony Anniversary Edition” and “Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch” are now available on Game Pass. It has plans to bring “Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes” and several Persona titles to Game Pass over the next year.
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“While Xbox Series devices are not predicted to sell anywhere near the level of Sony’s PS5 over the coming years, Microsoft is now more competitive than it has been for at least a decade [in Japan],” said Piers Harding-Rolls, an analyst at the market research firm Ampere Analysis. “That shows that Microsoft’s approach to the market is paying dividends.”
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For the Xbox Series X and Series S console launch in 2020, the company released the new consoles in Japan simultaneously with other parts of the world. The Xbox Series X generation is the best-selling one to date, according to Microsoft. Harding-Rolls’s market research firm found Xbox sold fewer than 100,000 consoles in Japan last year, compared to Sony and Nintendo’s combined sales of over 6.7 million.

Harding-Rolls said Microsoft’s small improvements on a tiny market share trailed badly behind Japanese consoles and mobile devices.
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In June, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer acknowledged that Japanese developers don’t always come to Xbox and the company has been working on adding more games from the country, such as the upcoming Persona titles and an unannounced game that Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima is overseeing. Persona game developer Atlus did not respond to a request for comment.

Bond was tight-lipped about her meeting with Spencer and Kojima last week, simply saying, “We’re working with creators in Japan to create really special things for people who play on Xbox, and we’re going to keep doing that.”
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SOURCE

Microsoft's concerted efforts to win over Japan are definitely showing, and it remains to be seen whether or not this current round of attempts is going to be sustained, or if it will be another flash in the pan moment like back in the 360 era, where they started similarly strong, and then lost interest in a few years. Whatever ends up happening, it's good that Microsoft is not putting all eggs in one basket (as their three pronged strategy with the Xbox consoles, Game Pass, and cloud shows), and if nothing else, at least a bunch of formerly de facto PlayStation exclusive games and franchises had that stranglehold broken and those games available to broader markets.
 
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I mean, unlike the 360 era, Playstation is not as strong in Japan as it used to be, so if they want a chance to take over, this is it. Plus yeah, they're not putting all their eggs in their basket, so coming for a market where their competition (Sony more so than Nintendo, lbr) is at a low point should a no brainer.
 
I came into this because I was intrigued but now I’m stuck on Piers Harding-Rolls
 
The focus needs to be less about console sales in Japan and more fostering relationships with Japanese developers and securing exclusives that make sense. For example, I think Microsoft needs to co-fund and publish Ninja Gaiden 4 as an exclusive. I'd also do whatever is necessary to get Shinji Mikami in back in the director's seat at Tango.

I've always thought Xbox's JRPG prospects were kind of iffy. It's action and horror I'd focus on. Getting Slitterhead day one on Game Pass. Prying Itagaki away from that NFT crap, making sure you're not missing out on whatever Konami is cooking up behind the scenes. Be the middle-man between Grasshopper and Marvel and get a Suda51-directed Deadpool off the ground. The potential is unlimited.
 
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Nah, I don't think so. All the efforts they've been making is for Game Pass an even better deal, a more diverse and rich catalog of games. Whatever missing there, they'll try to bring them. It'll be a complete jigsaw puzzle. Not just Japanese games. Indies, Board games. Children's software (they recently inked a deal with OG games for that). Something for everyone.

I'm not sure if they're still interesting in participating in console race. They have the least amount of first party titles coming within a year, their timed exclusivity deals last less than everyone else and day and date PC ports while the PC gaming is the hottest thing ever. I'm sure they still want to sell consoles but they'll be like "we'll be content with any amount of consoles we sell".
 
In terms of the Japanese market they won't make a dent, at best they can chip away at Sony's shrinking base a bit. The Switch is just way too dominant at this point with Nintendo's influence over the market being impenetrable and the strongest its ever been historically.

Where Microsoft really needs to improve is attracting western players to buy and play Japanese games on Xbox, and not just the AAA efforts. A lot of low and mid budget Japanese games will skip the platform and do a Switch/Playstation/PC release instead because sales of those games on Xbox before have been pathetic. (Like Ace Attorney's leaked numbers)
 
Tbh I imagine console form factor is probably pretty important here. I imagine the Xbox Series S being as small as it is at least gave it a push.

I also think that a good portion of Japanese consumers just aren't gonna want to buy an American designed console called "Xbox" that has to deal with an uphill battle of not having brand recognition for decades.
 
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good luck. even with playstation collapsing in such a disastrous manner i don't see an scenario where they can actually compete with nintendo unless they can pull a splatoon or a pokemon out of their sleeve.
 
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Dedicated home console market is pretty much dead in Japan. PC gaming is growing somewhat more popular, but there's no opening for Xbox.

They should definitely bring in more Japanese games, but I dunno if that will bring over any westerners who have already settled on PlayStation.
 
I dont think they will get to the 360 era in terms of exclusive output. In todays market, heck even Phil said it, exclusives aren't as common as the 7th gen. Most games from japanese devs are becoming multiplat, some devs that were seen as "Sony first" are seeing the market change, look at Falcom finally doing in-house switch games/ports.

When people say that they are more competitive this gen while true, that really does not matter. The console market, with the exception of switch, has been on a decline since the PS3 days. So in the end, the best option for xbox is to build that trust they lost in the previous gen and get the same games Sony/Nintendo get day in day. Another reality is that a lot of these games simply don't sell well on the platform, was I surprise Octopath2 was not coming to xbox, no since the first was not really played/sold (it was on gamepass too). So they have to encourage devs that even if the first game of X or Y entry did not do well, consider the next one because you can slowly create a fanbase. Whether that strategy is gamepass or port help is tbd.
 
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Mekanos said:
Dedicated home console market is pretty much dead in Japan. PC gaming is growing somewhat more popular, but there's no opening for Xbox.

They should definitely bring in more Japanese games, but I dunno if that will bring over any westerners who have already settled on PlayStation.
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i would say that theres actually a bit of an opportunity rn with sony acting like jackasses and raising the price of the ps5. if they can pitch themselves as a way to play the big triple AAA japanese games without buying an overpriced console there could be some positive results there. the problem here is that many of those triple AAA japanese games are also declining and theres stuff that sony is paying to keep off the other consoles (final fantasy etc.).
 
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Harding-Rolls’s market research firm found Xbox sold fewer than 100,000 consoles in Japan last year, compared to Sony and Nintendo’s combined sales of over 6.7 million.
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this is all kinds of funny. it's combining sales of two platforms and implying both are successful but forgetting to mention that one of them sells like 1/20th the other on a regular basis. it's like saying avatar and matrix resurrection sold a combined 3 billion at the box office, which to the uninformed reader would imply both were successful.
 
After finally getting an Xbox after avoiding it for 20 years, I have no idea why it exists honestly. Now that I have it...I just don't get it. Why not get a PS5? Same games then great exclusives. I'm super disappointed with it but can't afford a PS5 also (got Xbox cause all my friends have it, easier to play with them). Kinda bummed. I wish them luck in Japan cause Xbox does seem like the most consumer friendly brand.
 
Xbox peaked in Japan with the 360.

Trying to brute-force themselves into that market won't work and yeah, they could buy up one of the local publishers but it would, essentially, mean nothing if no-one knows that Xbox even exists. And despite their efforts to sabotage their reputation, PlayStation still has some decent loyalties even among smaller devs and publishers (especially Idea Factory seems to be very much in the Sony camp for some bizarre reason).
 
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MeatheadSamus said:
After finally getting an Xbox after avoiding it for 20 years, I have no idea why it exists honestly. Now that I have it...I just don't get it. Why not get a PS5? Same games then great exclusives. I'm super disappointed with it but can't afford a PS5 also (got Xbox cause all my friends have it, easier to play with them). Kinda bummed. I wish them luck in Japan cause Xbox does seem like the most consumer friendly brand.
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The Xbox brand got big because it was the first to really have significant online play on a console, and Halo was a genuine killer app at the time. I think it's mostly propagated on that good will alone, but its success has really been mostly contained to the anglosphere. PlayStation is dominant in almost every other region. There's a reason MS has shifted to GamePass as its focus, they want players in their ecosystem, even if they don't have their console.
 
Things to consider:

Why Xbox Failed in Japan
Japan is just a symptom of Xbox' problems

The original Xbox was very good I think. It had some great exclusives from Japan, like Ninja Gaiden and Group S Challenge. Not even mentioning it being some sort of a spiritual successor to SEGA's Dreamcast at the time (Panzer Dragoon Orta, SEGA GT 2002, Jet Set Radio Future, OutRun 2, The House of the Dead III, etc.). They were very welcome then.

But those days have long been past, and feel like distant memories.

These days I don't have a lot of respect for Microsoft, and they completely lost me as a costumer with and after the Xbox 360. First it was the disastrous DVD drive that (unbeknownst) left marks on all of my very-carefully-treated games.

Then, uncertain about giving 'em another chance, there was the infamous Don Mattrick announcement of the Xbox One. "There's no way in hell I'm ever going to support this company again" was my reaction.

And now it's seemingly all about renting games and a game of acquisition after acquisition.
 
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I don't really think they care about Japan as much as they care about getting Japanese content for their Gamepass variety, they have at least understood the value of portfolio diversity at least, only took them getting their asses beat down for a decade straight.
 
MeatheadSamus said:
After finally getting an Xbox after avoiding it for 20 years, I have no idea why it exists honestly. Now that I have it...I just don't get it. Why not get a PS5? Same games then great exclusives. I'm super disappointed with it but can't afford a PS5 also (got Xbox cause all my friends have it, easier to play with them). Kinda bummed. I wish them luck in Japan cause Xbox does seem like the most consumer friendly brand.
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It has its own first-party games, Game Pass, multi-gen BC, and arguably the most powerful console system. I don’t find the exclusives interesting personally either, but it does have plenty reasons to exist! Series S is a great budget option for multiplat games too.
 
MeatheadSamus said:
After finally getting an Xbox after avoiding it for 20 years, I have no idea why it exists honestly. Now that I have it...I just don't get it. Why not get a PS5? Same games then great exclusives. I'm super disappointed with it but can't afford a PS5 also (got Xbox cause all my friends have it, easier to play with them). Kinda bummed. I wish them luck in Japan cause Xbox does seem like the most consumer friendly brand.
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I feel the same way after owning the Xbox One last generation and seeing where they’ve gone with Xbox Series and Game Pass. I realize it just isn’t for me though, I don’t care about Game Pass, at all, but clearly a lot of people do. Microsoft still has a sizeable presence in certain regions, like the US, but globally they have a tough battle.

In terms of Japan I don’t think Microsoft cares about doing well in Japan, but like others have said here they’re after Japanese titles to add more variety to Game Pass.
 
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doing this via gamepass adoption on PC (and maybe other non-MS consoles in the future) rather than console sales if definitely the way to do this. would be cool if they funded some more weird jrpg exclusives like they did the in the 360 era, tho
 
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Kind of ironic that this article came out the day before this week's Famitsu sales report where Xbox Series outsold PS5 in Japan.

Xbox has certainly come a long way this generation, but they still need a bigger push with real, serious exclusive titles before they can really compete on even footing with Playstation.

Series S is a console that is just much more compatible with the Japanese market than the PS5 (or the Series X for that matter). The hardware is right (especially the compact size) and the pricing is right. Now they just need the games.
 
My main issue with MS approach with the "we want to bring japanese games to the west" and "working with developers". They want to bring SOME of the games, you know, the ones with not that type of content, (which were widely avaliable in the 360 era) but the thing is that those games are part of the japanese market and jp publisher and developers notice that and those add variety to the service. And I'm not even talking with niche genres like visual novels (not developed in the west) or especific heavy fanservice games (which again, were available in the 360 era), Gust has expressed they want to bring Atelier games to MS but they obviouly don't see the support unlike other KT AAA games

And then is the "we want to support japanese developers". Imagine being a japanese developer and watching the news that MS cancels Inticreates Galgun port (which the original still is a 360 exclusive and was heavily promoted at the time) one month before release, when they already had the master ready, and were going to publish physical editions in Asia and the west. That doesn't gives a lot of confidence to work with them as a platform (and I totally understand if they don't want that type of games in their service, but MS already knew what type of game it was when Inti approached for the rating, publishing and promotion)
 
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