Back in the early Xbox 360 days, hell froze over. Suddenly, Microsoft was dominating the sales charts in Japan and Playstation 3 was left behind. A situation once deemed more unlikely than proof that Elvis was still alive.
It was mainly thanks to games like Eternal Sonata, Star Ocean: The Last Hope and The Last Remnant as well as Microsoft's own titles Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, all games that really catered to the Japanese audience. But then Microsoft lost track again and things went back to normal, with Xbox selling so poorly that it was barely even trackable in Japan.
This isn't how it's supposed to be, according to the Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer, who had a lot to share about Japan in the podcast Gamertag Radio. He says:
"When I got into this job, the thing I was seeing were third parties skipping Xbox One and not even shipping on that platform. There'll still be examples of that and every one of them causes me pain, but the number one thing I wanted to do when I started in this role was to get back on the ground a couple times a year playing with the studio heads, playing their games, and... making them know I had a commitment to their global success. I've been really proud of the way that we built a partnership with almost all the publishers there."
And Japan is a huge market, that Spencer doesn't like to leave behind, even though things are looking tough and it will be a struggle to get back on track:
"Our market in Japan for Xbox is important to us. I don't know that we're winning in Japan any time soon, but the position that we have in Japan today from a platform isn't acceptable to me."
Spencer continues by stating that Microsoft is "going to do a much better job with this next upcoming launch" when speaking about Xbox Series X. So no more unnecessary waiting for Japanese gamers. He finishes his thoughts by saying:
"I think the Japanese market is specifically important because of the creative community there, because of the gamer community there, and I want us, I want Xbox, to mean more there than it does today".
"It takes time. I'm still gonna see some things get announced that aren't on our platform and I cringe every time that happens, but relative to four or five years ago, I feel good about our progress."
Do you think Xbox Series X will have a better chance of getting a Japanese market share than it's predecessors?
Thanks VGC