I was perusing the Famitsu video game sales data the other day and saw something that genuinely shocked me. The Xbox Series release of a game had managed to chart in Japan’s top 10 video game sales of the week! To someone who might not be familiar with the state of Xbox in Japan, this might not seem surprising at all but, for those that are aware, it’s genuinely surprising! Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to discuss Xbox’s struggle in Japan and why I actually want to see them succeed there.
Let’s start with an overview of Xbox in Japan. The first Xbox console was released in Japan in February 2002 and it proved to be a perfect example of Microsoft’s ineptitude when it comes to the Japanese market. Besides poor marketing, the design of the console proved to be unpopular with Japanese consumers and, alongside a lack of games aimed at the Japanese market, the Xbox proved to be a poor seller, moving only about 450,000 units. It was clear that Microsoft recognised their failure as they made a concerted effort, by far and away the most they ever have, to break into the market with the Xbox 360. Along with a more aggressive marketing strategy, they also acquired exclusives that appealed to Japanese consumers such as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey from Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy, Tales of Vesperia and Star Ocean: The Last Hope amongst others. This translated into the best sales that a Xbox console has ever had in Japan with lifetime sales of about 1.6 million units.
To describe the Xbox One’s performance in the Japanese market as abysmal is probably too considerate to Microsoft. The Xbox One performed poorly worldwide compared to the 360 but it was exceptionally poor in Japan. Across its entire lifetime, the Xbox One only managed to scrounge up sales of about 115,000 units. Even today the Xbox Series, which is approaching the sales figures that the first Xbox console managed to achieve, is getting demolished by its competition with the PlayStation having a 24-1 lead against the Xbox in Japan and that’s not even mentioning the Switch which has come to have a near monopoly in the Japanese console market.
As someone who plays all of their games on PC, you might be wondering why I even care. Quite understandable but the easiest way for me to explain is that, as a consumer, I always want to see greater competition. My criticism of Sony is something that readers will be quite familiar with and I fully believe that Sony no longer views Microsoft as a threat, at least not until the purchase attempt of Activision-Blizzard, which is why they’ve been growing lax, complacent and making stupid decisions with the full expectation that people will just gobble up whatever they offer because they’ve got a near monopoly of the powerful console market which excludes the underpowered Switch. As seen with the figures provided above, Japan is the epitome of this where it’s gotten to the point where many Japanese developers don’t even release their games on Xbox, something which only contributes to the unpopularity of Xbox in Japan.
The solution to this issue isn’t an easy one. Microsoft have made great strides in improving the Xbox brand since the disaster that was the Xbox One but, as far as I can tell, there isn’t much that they can do that they haven’t tried already. Their current strategy of trying to maintain Japanese developer support is probably the best they can do for now and their working relationship with Atlus is certainly notable. It’s also interesting to point out that Microsoft have a Japanese developer called Tango Gameworks who have so far released The Evil Within, The Evil Within 2, Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush. The two Evil Within games were multiplatform releases from before Microsoft’s acquisition while Ghostwire: Tokyo had a timed exclusivity deal with PlayStation that persisted even after the Microsoft purchase. Thus, Hi-Fi Rush is the first game of theirs that has had a proper Xbox release under Microsoft and, while I’m not sure how it performed in Japan, Hi-Fi Rush has proven to be very successful worldwide. A company like Tango Gameworks could prove to be the key for Xbox finally cracking the Japanese market and providing some much needed competition.
Let me know your thoughts on Xbox’s struggle in Japan and why I want to see them succeed, whether you agree or disagree with me, how you think Xbox could improve themselves and become more popular in Japan, what you think of the sales figures of the consoles in Japan, if you also believe that Tango Gameworks could be the key for them to achieve success and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.