ranmafan
Member
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.