Microsoft Xbox One X Falls Short of Expectations in Japan - Again

[Raevenlord]

Cracking Japan's console market has always been a tough - read: almost impossible - feat for Microsoft. For generations now, Microsoft has failed to achieve any kind of market penetration in that country. To put things in perspective, Xbox One's sales in japan have been so low that retailers in Japan started marketing and selling the consoles as Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray readers, not as gaming consoles. For Microsoft, that would have been fine - a sale is a sale is a sale, and the Xbox One never was sold at a loss like previous hardware generations - but it just goes to show that the Japanese market doesn't really care much for the typical games Microsoft offers with its console. The relative abundance of JRPGs and other typical games for which the Japanese crowds usually lean towards the most are relatively absent from Microsoft's staples of exclusives, which probably justifies this cold stance towards Microsoft's console. But to be fair, japan is one of the foremost mobile gaming countries in the world, so that definitely has something to do with it as well.

According to Japanese Famitsu, the Xbox One X managed to move... 1,639 units at launch. This means that the Xbox One X was outsold by virtually all consoles - The PS4 (23,613 units), PS4 Pro (6,028 units), Nintendo Switch (84,593 units), and was even outsold by the PS Vita, 3DS, and 2DS XL. It only snagged wins against previous-generation hardware (like the PS3 and Wii U) or Microsoft's own other console - The Xbox One S. A bittersweet victory, to say the least. The fact that the Xbox One X did get sold-out in Japan is telling - but that did happen because of the low orders Japanese retailers put in for the new console. Some 4 consoles later, they know that barring a black swan, Microsoft isn't setting a foothold in Japanese gamers' living rooms.



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[Vayra86]

You'd almost think people buy consoles for the actual content. Strange

 

[Ebo]

Japanese have their way of doing things, Ive been there. Its not up to us to say if they imbrace a new product, unless it says Sony.

 

[natr0n]

If you know the culture. Xbox is a foreigner basically.

 

[RejZoR]

How is this a surprise? This is JDM. They are patriots, they'll prefer PlayStation over Xbox.

 

[Vya Domus]

You'd almost think people buy consoles for the actual content. Strange

It's not just that , foreign consoles/ electronics (or anything else for that matter) always have a hard time selling in Japan. It's a miracle Apple is as successful as it is there.

 

[Parn]

Unless Microsoft can sign up a few contracts with Japanese game makers and get some of those PS4 exclusive titles onto X Box, they are unlikely to succeed there.

 

[R0H1T]

How is this a surprise? This is JDM. They are patriots, they'll prefer PlayStation over Xbox.

Nintendo over Sony, Goku over Mario san?

 

[medi01]

It's not just that , foreign consoles/ electronics (or anything else for that matter) always have a hard time selling in Japan. It's a miracle Apple is as successful as it is there.

Apple is a fashion gadget company, not a tech company.
Japan ain't ignoring Hugo Boss and co either.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Japan ain't ignoring Hugo Boss and co either.

Old Axis habits lol

 

[Prima.Vera]

Why is this a surprise?? The are virtually no local games produced for Xbone and the device in 50% more expensive than a PS4 due to import taxes. No shit is not sellin' !

 

[ZoneDymo]

these comments are quite baffling.

Japan is not interested in the Xbox because the Xbox does not provide games that they care about, Nintendo and Sony do so obviously they go for those.

Obviously Japan does not purchase a lot of outside Japan electronics because Japan makes the best electronics... that is just a fact.
Its not for nothing people speak of for example "japanese capacitors" in power supplies as a means to mention that its a quality product.

Japanese have their way of doing things, Ive been there. Its not up to us to say if they imbrace a new product, unless it says Sony.

what? not up to us to say if they embrace a product?
you act like its some opinion when we are talking cold hard low volume sales here... we are just looking at the numbers and by that we can tell they are not embracing the new Xbox.

 

[plåtburken]

The japanese market has always been either Sony or Nintendo. Plus the Japanese seem to love handheld devices more than big consoles that are stationary at home.
A friend studying in japan said he was surprised to see many people having a nintendo ds or psp with them.

 

[phill]

I'm sure I'll consider one eventually but that's only because I collect consoles so I'll have to treat myself to a Nintendo Switch, PS4 and the Xbox X... That said, I'll only play Forza Horizon on it, so I'll save up some more Nectar points again and get it for as little as possible

 

[Tartaros]

They have different game tastes, if you don't offer something appealing to them of course they will pass. The 360 started to be noticed when an exclusive about idols was launched, it became a pretty popular series even spawning an anime. The psp and vita survive there thanks to a massive catalogue of jrpg and date sims. That's how they roll.

Most foreign game developers either pass or don't expect getting into the japanese market much. Blizzard does whatever it takes to appeal chinese and korean customers but only support hots and ow in japanese.

 

[dozenfury]

If you know the culture. Xbox is a foreigner basically.

Yep, in fact China is very similar to Japan in consumer behavior for all products. That's the challenge also in balancing trade because the consumers are extremely homer-centric. It's one of the reasons McDonald's in China recently changed it's name to "Golden Arches". Microsoft is never going to be anywhere close to equal footing vs. Nintendo or Sony in Japan.

Apart from that it's not even just the lack of JRPGs, it's a lack of exclusives overall on XB1/S/X. Honestly the US sales for XB1X seem more out of Xbox nostalgia and hope that Microsoft will get their act together finally on decent XB1 exclusives. But when all they have coming is Crackdown 3 (delayed and does not look great), and Sea of Thieves (looks good but too early to say if it will have depth or be challenging enough to be a hit), it's hard to be very optimistic. Microsoft has just completely dropped the ball on games this gen.

It's bad enough that I have both XB1 and a PS4, and I use my XB1 for Netflix just to put some hours on it to get some use out of it and save hours on my PS4. Not exactly a resounding endorsement.

 

[SPLWF]

Whats the point of xbox when you have PC? Japan knows this.

 

[rtwjunkie]

This really should not be a surprise. No matter what the category of product being sold, if it is also manufactured there in Japan then import tariffs are very protectionist in nature. It's always been this way there.

 

[Manu_PT]

Whats the point of xbox when you have PC? Japan knows this.

*when you have switch and ps4

Fixed. Pc is for a different target. Look at its most sucessful games and figure it out.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I think its more about m$ name than it is the Xbox name.

 

[StrayKAT]

Japan isn't even the same gaming market it once was EVEN for Japanese friendly games. Why do you think Konami bailed MGS and went to making Pachinko machines? Why do you think Sega died long ago and mostly publishes western games? Nintendo is still a favorite, but even then, it's more handhelds.

 

[SaltyFish]

In other news, water is wet.

They have different game tastes, if you don't offer something appealing to them of course they will pass. The 360 started to be noticed when an exclusive about idols was launched, it became a pretty popular series even spawning an anime. The psp and vita survive there thanks to a massive catalogue of jrpg and date sims. That's how they roll.

Most foreign game developers either pass or don't expect getting into the japanese market much. Blizzard does whatever it takes to appeal chinese and korean customers but only support hots and ow in japanese.

That's what we non-devs often forget. Tastes aren't universal. Is that really a surprise? At least Square Enix knows! Each of the console manufacturers know their own home market and so do well there (it'd be embarrassing and difficult to stay in business if they didn't). So yes, Sony and Nintendo do well in Japan whereas Microsoft does well in the US. Who knew that heavily anime-esque JRPGs and dating sims that get dumped en masse for Sony consoles only have niche appeal in the West? Atlus went bankrupt trying to port that stuff overseas. And did you know that FPS games seem to be less popular outside the US? Nintendo's offerings at least tend have general broad appeal.

I'd be more interested to see how sales end up in Europe since there isn't a major console hardware company there and its tastes differ from both Japan and the US. Asia excluding Japan is the other interesting place for the same reasons though their tastes tend to have more in common with Japan than the US.

As a side note, Microsoft actually tried to get some support to appeal to the Japanese market way back when the original Xbox (HUEG) launched. They paid a bunch of Japanese devs to develop games for their console. They didn't get a lot of devs and it didn't take off. Microsoft hasn't tried since and can't seem to attract Japanese devs for their consoles. Cave (shump maker) and Experience (DRPG maker) are the only two Japanese devs I can think of that really made games for a Microsoft console, and those were ports (Arcade and PC, respectively). As of now, Microsoft's Japanese market is basically the Japanese-equivalent of weeaboos.

Japan isn't even the same gaming market it once was EVEN for Japanese friendly games. Why do you think Konami bailed MGS and went to making Pachinko machines? Why do you think Sega died long ago and mostly publishes western games? Nintendo is still a favorite, but even then, it's more handhelds.

That's due to a glut of similar types of games that haven't changed much. They end up re-using the same tropes in the same way for so long that audiences find them less endearing than they used to. Nintendo has always managed to do their own thing and they don't spam releases now: more or less it's been that each platform only gets one franchise entry; one Super Mario, one Mario Kart, one Zelda, one Smash Bros., etc.

But at least the Japanese companies are aware themselves. Some have done better than others. Square Enix's new IP I Am Setsuna did well. Meanwhile, Sega still can't make a good Sonic game. That mobile platform is also very tempting and not helping things. Amusingly, SNK got out of the pachislot business and back into video games only under the direction of their new Chinese overlords (and being profitable again!).

 

[lexluthermiester]

Japanese have their way of doing things, Ive been there. Its not up to us to say if they imbrace a new product, unless it says Sony.

Or Nintendo.

 

[Vayra86]

It's not just that , foreign consoles/ electronics (or anything else for that matter) always have a hard time selling in Japan. It's a miracle Apple is as successful as it is there.

Is it really a miracle, or is it just a statement that the PS4 is having a much better life than the Xbox has since launch, just like Apple carries a certain status. Content wise especially. I do see a pattern: if its crap, even if Japanese, they won't use it. All you see is premium brands. Now I agree consoles are very much a cultural thing too, but still.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

It's not just that , foreign consoles/ electronics (or anything else for that matter) always have a hard time selling in Japan. It's a miracle Apple is as successful as it is there.

First practical smartphone. Xbox wasn't first. It's a stranger in a strange land. I doubt they'll ever actually become competitive there.