Only a few years have passed since the Xbox Series X first appeared in Japan. In June of this year, it was reported by Famitsu that the Xbox series had sold just 7,000 units in the period June 13-19, surpassing the PlayStation 5. Microsoft also took a big win a month earlier, as it sold more than 6,200 series. console. While many more consoles from Sony have been sold in Japan overall, Xbox has beaten it twice in weekly sales, which is a small but symbolic win. The reason for this is due to supply chain issues that continue to hinder Sony.
In a May article published by SupplyChainDive.com, Sony’s Executive Deputy President and Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki told people during an earnings call that the company would lower its projected number of consoles sold to 18 million due to supply chain issues. “Eighteen million units is what we feel very comfortable that we can get the parts and components, and we feel like there was a little more demand than that. If it’s whether we can meet the demand, I think we still a little short,” said Totoki. Sony’s current pain is Xbox and Microsoft’s gains.
In February of this year, Famitsu – translated by VGC – reported that only 2.3 million Xbox line consoles have been sold in Japan in the past 20 years. Xbox 360 sales attribute for 1.6 million of total consoles sold in line, making it the best-selling Xbox console in the country. One reason for the 360’s early success in Japan was that, unlike the original Xbox, the Xbox 360 was sold before the holidays and a year before Sony could get a single PlayStation 3 on store shelves. The Xbox One saw the exact opposite of success in the region, as Japan accounted for just 0.3% of its global sales, according to market research firm IDC. The data from the research firm also shows that 8.6% of PlayStation 4 sales came from Japan.
Microsoft Gaming’s Chief Executive Officer and Head of Xbox Phil Spencer – then Executive Vice President of Gaming at Microsoft – said in a 2019 statement to CNBC: “Japan remains an important part of our global gaming community and makes a significant contribution to Microsoft’s future plans. We are committed to bringing innovative homegrown content from Japan’s leading game makers to a global audience.” A few years later, Spencer stays true to his word, as it was recently announced at the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase that Xbox Game Pass would be home to Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal – the latter of which released on October 21.
RELATED: No More Heroes 3 Coming This October On PlayStation, Xbox, And PC
Spencer then passed it on to legendary video game developer Hideo Kojima, who announced a partnership with Microsoft to create an original Xbox Series X and S exclusive game. “There’s a game I’ve always wanted to make… With Microsoft’s advanced cloud technology and the change in the industry trend, it’s now possible to challenge myself to create this never-before-seen concept,” Kojima said In the early 2000s, during the release of the first Xbox, Japanese developers were skeptical about Microsoft’s ability to create impactful gaming hardware simply because it was known only for its software.
But by partnering with Kojima and other Japanese developers, Microsoft is learning from its past. Over the past three years, Spencer and his team at Xbox have seen significant growth in the number of Japanese players following the launch of Xbox Game Pass. At the 2020 Tokyo Game Show Showcase, Spencer said: “Japan is our fastest growing region in the world…Since we launched Xbox Game Pass for both console and PC in Japan…we have more players on Xbox devices, games and services seen than at any point in our history in the market.”
Spencer also said that 90% of Japan-based Game Pass was their first time playing indie games on Xbox. Microsoft’s overall sales may be dwarfed by Sony and Nintendo, but there’s no doubt they’re making steps in the right direction when it comes to tapping into the Japanese market. By partnering with Japanese studios and developers and offering more RPG and JRPG games on its platform, Microsoft is making its games more attractive to Japanese players. That’s a big improvement, considering that one of the big blows to the Xbox years ago was that the library was mostly made up of shooters.
Game Pass is a great way for Microsoft to gain traction in Japan. They’ve already made Japanese titles like Danganropa: Havoc Anniversary Edition, the definitive Dragon Quest 11 S: Echoes of An Elusive Age – which comes with a 2D mode – and the Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection available on the service. If you go to their website and click on ‘Anime month’ you will get the full list. They also have games like 2010 Soul Calibur 5 and NieR developed by Japanese studios – Bandai Namco and Cavia.
It’s hard to predict whether Xbox will become a major player in Japan, but their quiet recent successes are testament to a drastically improved strategy that now puts Xbox One’s dark early days in the rearview mirror.
THE NEXT: The Last of Us is going to be the next Skyrim, and that’s not good
0 Comments