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[ranmafan]

It wasn't a couple it was a lot more than that. Microsoft had multiple games released exclusively for the platform from Capcom, Mistwalker, Square Enix and Namco Bandai. Though a handful of the games did eventually come to PlayStation within a year or two, people didn't know that was going to happen . That fact that the console has 4 Gears of War games means nothing to how many JRPGs it had and shouldn't be any reason for a Japanese gamer to want an Xbox less. Despite Microsoft having a bunch of JRPG exclusives, having a better user-experience,OS/features, having mostly the same games for everything else, games performing better, etc. Japan still didn't really care for them. The only game that the 360 didn't have that sold well in Japan was MGS4. Unlike the Xbox One, the 360 got great support from developers.

Yes it was more than a handful of games, and when you look at the sales of the 360 system at first people were noticing here that Xbox was something to look into. I knew plenty of people who were ready to go buy a system just for Tales of Vesperia alone. But most of them were concerned would Microsoft support them in the future. Well look at what happened, pretty much every single third party exclusive, minus the top down shooting games, were released on PS3 with enhnaced versions, large amounts of free dlc that was paid on Xbox, and promises of more that Xbox couldn’t deliver. This caused gamers here to feel betrayed by the Microsoft and they lost a lot of good will and potential customers. Similarly the same thing happened when True Fantasy Online got canceled. And as for the truely exclusive games like Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, no one here cared. You can still find the same copies people sold to used stores that have been sitting on the shelf sun damaged for over ten years sitting there for less than 100 yen. No one wanted them then and they certainly don’t now.

I think people also should remember, Japanese gamers for the most part don’t care if the system is the most powerful, or if the user interface is good, or how popular the brand is around the world. They want systems with games they care about, gameplay they care about, series they care about, and most importantly the convenience a system brings to them is absolutely the most important. This is why the switch, the least powerful system this gen is destroying the competition here in Japan. Nintendo has covered all the bases that Japanese gamers truly want that both Microsoft and even Sony still can’t do.

Add in the issues that are said in the tweets above and you can understand that Microsoft has no chance of ever gaining any traction in the market here after twenty years of missteps. Every time I hear Phil Spencer say how important Japan is to Microsoft I just role my eyes, remember all the missteps they have done since the beginning of the original Xbox, and say “Yeah, put up or shut up.“ He and Microsoft still haven’t this entire Xbox one generation and I doubt the series generation will be any different.

 

[FloatingIslands]

Yep it's something I didn't even realise until I moved to the middle east and started talking to people here. They throw out the same adverts here that they did in the UK but just translate them and throw in a new voice over whereas Sony and Nintendo have advertisements unique to this region that you won't see anywhere else.

They need to get local teams in every region and entrust them with marketing the console in a way that will resonate with the local practices and cultures.



Translation is one thing but interpretation is another thing entirely. It's the interpretation side that they are really lacking.

Yeah, that's what a great translator is. They don't only put the literal word, they see all the context to choose the right words

 

[SleepDoctor]

It wasn't a couple it was a lot more than that. Microsoft had multiple games released exclusively for the platform from Capcom, Mistwalker, Square Enix and Namco Bandai. Though a handful of the games did eventually come to PlayStation within a year or two, people didn't know that was going to happen . That fact that the console has 4 Gears of War games means nothing to how many JRPGs it had and shouldn't be any reason for a Japanese gamer to want an Xbox less. Despite Microsoft having a bunch of JRPG exclusives, having a better user-experience,OS/features, having mostly the same games for everything else, games performing better, etc. Japan still didn't really care for them. The only game that the 360 didn't have that sold well in Japan was MGS4. Unlike the Xbox One, the 360 got great support from developers.

Japan will never support an American console over a Japanese one no matter how many games they pump out.

Its pretty pointless chasing that market. Only American products they support are Apple, thats it.

There's like what? Only 10 million Ps4s sold in Japan this gen. Its a shitty market to chase.

 

[Labolas]

Yeah that's good to hear. I guess any company that would try to buy PG, they forget that Kamiya works there.

 

[Kenpachii]

Japan will never support an American console over a Japanese one no matter how many games they pump out.

Its pretty pointless chasing that market. Only American products they support are Apple, thats it.

There's like what? Only 10 million Ps4s sold in Japan this gen. Its a shitty market to chase.

Exactly no clue why they even bother releasing it in japan, waste of time. Consoles are death over there.

 

[Investor9872]

MS is in a hard place in Japan. On the one hand, they need Japanese developers to make games for their platforms, and it's hard to ask them to if you don't even offer your platforms in Japan, so MS does, and the XB 1 sells like a thousand unit each month (and I'm pretty sure 99% of that are purchased by MS).

 

[splattered]

Japan will never support an American console over a Japanese one no matter how many games they pump out.

Its pretty pointless chasing that market. Only American products they support are Apple, thats it.

There's like what? Only 10 million Ps4s sold in Japan this gen. Its a shitty market to chase.

Microsoft doesn't need Japanese fans they need Japanese developers.

Maybe the best thing they could do is actually start up some 1st party studios there and find a way to attract talent like they have with the initiative.

Perhaps if they found a way to make this scenario work they could start seeing a small uptick in japanese sales but it wouldn't be much.

 

[SleepDoctor]

Microsoft doesn't need Japanese fans they need Japanese developers.

Maybe the best thing they could do is actually start up some 1st party studios there and find a way to attract talent like they have with the initiative.

Perhaps if they found a way to make this scenario work they could start seeing a small uptick in japanese sales but it wouldn't be much.

I agree about the Japanese developers but the sales don't matter. I mean 10 million ps4s in 7 years is basically scraping up pennies. Fuck that market.

 

[Kerotan]

I agree about the Japanese developers but the sales don't matter. I mean 10 million ps4s in 7 years is basically scraping up pennies. Fuck that market.

Surely this is a joke post? Japan would have made Sony a pretty penny this gen. Don't downplay it.

 

[GHG]

I agree about the Japanese developers but the sales don't matter. I mean 10 million ps4s in 7 years is basically scraping up pennies. Fuck that market.

That's about a quarter of the Xbox Ones total worldwide install base...

It's not nothing.

 

[ranmafan]

MS is in a hard place in Japan. On the one hand, they need Japanese developers to make games for their platforms, and it's hard to ask them to if you don't even offer your platforms in Japan, so MS does, and the XB 1 sells like a thousand unit each month (and I'm pretty sure 99% of that are purchased by MS).

You know this is always brought up when people ask why Microsoft keeps making the systems available in Japan to sales so low and always the same number each week that I also wonder if the only people buying them are Microsoft themselves. And honestly that need for the device to be available in Japan for Japanese companies to sell games for it, I don’t buy it one bit at all. Japanese companies in every area of commerce you can imagine want to expand their markets abroad. Clothing lines, food companies, construction, cars, electronics, you name it they will expand abroad. And yes that includes video game companies. These companies aren’t stupid, they know the Xbox brand means something in the west and it would be foolish of them not to try and get a piece of that market. I seriously doubt that any company today would drop Xbox support if Microsoft stopped selling systems and games here. They know the brand is dead here and will never recover. All these companies will still support Xbox in the west no matter if they so called sale 50 xboxes a week here or just drop Japan all together.

also as to the argument only Apple and it’s iPhone are the only popular American or western brands here, WRONG. McDonald’s, KFC, the gap, Pringle’s, Zara, h&m, Microsoft Windows, and on and on and on are popular brands here. Of course the limits placed on companies bringing over brands here limit the potential popularity, and electronics and cars particularly hard to get people to buy (although European cars are popular here). But the reality is simply put Microsoft has fumbled at every moment from day 1 to even get people to know what Xbox is let alone people to buy it. Let’s not forget the makes no sense Bill Gates hamburger Xbox ad.

Honestly Microsoft just doesn’t have a plan that can see them somehow pull off a miracle in this market. And the longer they talk about all these promises about caring about Japan and the market it not do anything about it, really goes to show there is No hope for it here.

 

[SleepDoctor]

Surely this is a joke post? Japan would have made Sony a pretty penny this gen. Don't downplay it.

10 million of 114k million? Its nothing in 7 years lol.

 

[Kerotan]

10 million of 114k million? Its nothing in 7 years lol.

Surely you are trolling. Or maybe you refer mistakenly to Xbox numbers?

 

[SleepDoctor]

Surely you are trolling. Or maybe you refer mistakenly to Xbox numbers?

I wish i could say that about you. But obviously your intelligence is lacking if you think 10m of 114m in 7 years is something to write home about.

But your post history doesn't afford you the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Investor9872]

I wish i could say that about you. But obviously your intelligence is lacking if you think 10m of 114m in 7 years is something to write home about.

But your post history doesn't afford you the benefit of the doubt.

I don't think you're trolling, but you are way off the mark. 10 million in the home market in seven years, as you put it, is not nothing. The Japanese market has moved on to mobile gaming for the past decade, and still Sony manage to sell 10m + PS4s there is quite impressive. You know that the global PS4 numbers is 115+ million, right? We're talking about across a 150+ countries/markets, in which Japan is one of them. You're talking like you expected Japan to sell half those numbers, which is ludicrous, and that the PS4 is only sold in a handful of markets.

 

[SleepDoctor]

I don't think you're trolling, but you are way off the mark. 10 million in the home market in seven years, as you put it, is not nothing. The Japanese market has moved on to mobile gaming for the past decade, and still Sony manage to sell 10m + PS4s there is quite impressive. You know that the global PS4 numbers is 115+ million, right? We're talking about across a 150+ countries/markets, in which Japan is one of them. You're talking like you expected Japan to sell half those numbers, which is ludicrous, and that the PS4 is only sold in a handful of markets.

Its not worth the hassle for 10 million units. Mind you as time goes, they move further away from the console market. Next gen probably won't even hit 10m.

Regardless of what they do anyway, Japan will never support an American product over Sony or Nintendo.

 

[Kerotan]

Its not worth the hassle for 10 million units. Mind you as time goes, they move further away from the console market. Next gen probably won't even hit 10m.

Regardless of what they do anyway, Japan will never support an American product over Sony or Nintendo.

Worth the hassle of what? Like those 10 million sold in japan will have made Sony a lot of profit and the support gained from Japanese developers has a big impact WW.

It is absolutely worth the effort and Sr Phil would cream his pants if he could do 10M there. PS4 is a truly global console and Sony have made an effort WW and that includes Japan.

 

[Bernkastel]

What a jerk

He blocked me for this reply

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

What a jerk

He blocked me for this reply

We all get blocked.

 

[PresetError]

Xbox is extremely american in its branding and marketing. I'm sure they think that's a good thing but it's not. It hinders their penetration in a lot of markets, not only Japan.