Xbox Made Progress In Japan Last Year, Despite Being Heavily Outsold By PS5

As PlayStation turns it back on the Japanese market more and more, I shan't be surprised to see the pendulum swing (albeit very very slowly) in Xbox's direction with each passing year. Whilst the numbers in comparison sound poor, if you look at the statistics in terms of % increases and decreases then it's doing a phenomenal job.

gamepass numbers for japan would be interesting

@pip_muzz even with Sony turning its back to Japan, it offers much more Japanese games than Xbox. Xbox will not be a competitor to Playstation there without games tuned to their tastes.

@pip_muzz What gives you that idea that Sony has turned its back on Japan? It's Xbox that's absolutely terrible when it comes to Japanese games and RPG games, as well as console sales in Japan.

Look at the Japanese games and RPG games on PlayStation compared to Xbox.

@Snake_V5 Because they moved their PlayStation HQ from Japan to California, downsized their Japan Studio and let go of a lot key Japanese employees, they're focusing on producing more Hollywood blockbusters instead of a mix between Western and Japanese titles, they've done stuff like force PS5 users in Japan to use X button as accept and O button as decline in order to adhere to the Western standard when it's always been the opposite in Japan (and this ticked off a lot of Japanese users) and so on.

It's not about the games, it's about each company's actions. Sony has clearly been distancing itself from Japan while Microsoft wants an even bigger presence there due to the potential of Game Pass and Cloud Gaming.

As I said on other threads, the main Japanese RPGs have come or are coming to Xbox. The fact that the new Xbox consoles are doing much better than Xbox One in Japan is good news because it also means that the Japanese support will continue even before considering the success of Game Pass in Japan on their beloved mobile devices. Sony is not as focused on Japan as before and the niche Japanese games thrive on Switch because Nintendo and Switch are a craze in Japan and Nintendo still is a very "Japanese" company. Remember Iwata talking in English even though nobody understood him until Bill Trinen was given a more prominent job. Getting new releases day one like Tales of Arise, the Square Enix games after the exclusivity deals expire, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest... Even Rune Factory! Xbox is getting more and more Japanese stuff and that will only get better.

@LtSarge not to mention that they shipped way fewer ps5 units to Japan in Holiday season in order to prioritize sales in the west.

But @Snake_V5 is right. Sony "turning its back" to Japan is still much more attractive to Japanese gamers than Xbox giving its full attention to that market. In the end of the day it's all about games and Xbox has no exclusive Japanese games.

@Magabro Exactly. Every time a Japanese game releases for PlayStation and not Xbox I roll my eyes and think, well there's another Japanese game not coming to Xbox again.

And the biggest thing is when a Japanese game releases and it releases for every platform except Xbox? How does that even happen? Would it of been that difficult to release the game for just one more platform aka Xbox? There's no excuse at all for that. Why all the platforms and not Xbox? Surely it's not Microsoft stopping or saying no to the games? It has to be the developer not being interested in Xbox.

Xbox will always be a niche in Japan, and there's nothing wrong with that.

While undoubtedly the PS5 has sold much better in Japan than Xbox, their sales figures are nothing to start celebrating either.

Japan seems to have just moved on from home consoles, it’s a cultural and societal thing. They love their handhelds.

@Snake_V5 People have short memories, the 360 had plenty of JRPG exclusives and games, it was a time when Xbox really did try and make a push into the Japanese market and they pretty much failed as hard as they may have tried. Xbox imo will always be a niche in Japan. I think Xbox can and do still try harder to get Japanese games on their consoles now for us to play but I’ve never quite understood the push to sell consoles over there in such a hostile market.

@Fenbops I agree with you but that was back in the day with Xbox 360, not now. Even FF7 Remake still hasn't come to Xbox.

The Console is just a 'part' of MS's presence in Japan and not really MS's primary platform either. Game Pass is their primary platform and whilst I don't expect them to compete with Hardware sales in Sony's 'home' territory, their overall presence with Game Pass could be significantly higher than just the number of Consoles sold.

Its still an impressive tally for the Console in its first year. Considering that the predecessor had very little presence in Japan, this is remarkable growth. To reach the 100k milestone in less than a year, something that took over 4.5yrs to do last gen, that is impressive. Add in the fact that the Console has 'no' exclusives as they all release on PC at the same time, Game Pass is available on PC/Mobiles and gives you 'free' access to those 'exclusives' on Day 1, its not like you 'have' to buy a Series S/X in order to play those games.

With PS5 or Switch, if you want to play their 'exclusives' on Day 1, you have to buy their hardware - even if some of those games do come to PC after a year or so.

In the build up to launch, all the talk was about MS's lack of Exclusive launch titles and the fact that the games would all release on last-gen and/or PC on Day 1 so why buy a Series S/X? Just get Game Pass on your PC and you have access to Flight Sim, Gears, Forza, Halo, Fable etc as well as the Yakuza series.

So taking all that into account, not having Game Pass Subscription figures for Japan to go on, the fact that the Series Consoles sold 100k in ~20% of the time it took Xbox One consoles to reach that target - that has to be seen as remarkable growth...

@Snake_V5 that’s just because of Sony money. There’s no other reason otherwise it would be.

@Magabro I don't agree that it's all about games, it's also about creating good will with your customers. A lot of Xbox 360 owners decided to get a PS4 instead of an Xbox One because Microsoft ruined the trust they had with their customers. They've been slowly gaining back that trust by doing stuff like adding backwards compatibility, introducing an affordable subscription service and next-gen hardware, focusing a lot on accessibility, making their titles available on other systems such as PC and smartphones, and so on, i.e. things that benefit consumers a lot. These things are all very important and will give Microsoft an edge over Sony in Japan.

I think it's easy to forget that not all Japanese people want to play only Japanese exclusives. There are so many Japanese people who play on smartphones and play other kinds of games in general. They don't care about exclusives, they just want to have fun in a cheap and convenient way. That's where Xbox and Game Pass will come in.

@Snake_V5 Actually, its not that simple. The developer would have to spend time, therefore 'money' on porting the game over to the Xbox and then 'optimising', bug fixing etc etc to get the game running to a similar standard on 'different' Hardware with different API's etc.

Getting Gears 5 up and running on a 'Series' console, with 'no' optimising or tweaking took about 2weeks - that's a game built for Xbox with similar API's.

As we know, the Xbox had very little hardware sales in Japan - it took over 4.5yrs to hit 100k. Not all of those would buy that developers game (even if its a popular JRPG) because people have different tastes and maybe a proportion of those had a Playstation too. If on average, they sell to 30-40% of the potential (in Japan) users, when you consider that even games like Ghost of Tsushima for example still hasn't sold to 10% of the potential consoles (over 8m sales as confirmed at CES this week with well over 100m PS4's let alone PS5 sales), that's only 30-40k sales at 'best' in Japan on Xbox.

To the developer, that's a LOT of work, time and resources dedicated to releasing a game that just can't sell enough to justify the cost. Persona 5 sold 1.64m on PS4 with Japan accounting for ~480k - that's nearly 5x more than there were Xbox Consoles. I don't know how many PS4 owners there are in Japan, but it sold more than both Series S/X combined in the last year alone.

If you do the Maths, lets say there are 8m PS4's sold in Japan (its now ~9.4m) and you sell 500k of your game, that's about 6-7%. If you have 100k consoles in the Market as Xbox had and project a similar 6-7% sales, that equates to around just 6/7k games for weeks of work.

That's what makes those developers/publishers not want to release on Xbox - the cost outweighs the return and therefore not worth doing. That's also without accounting for all the costs to market, to produce the Discs, use MS's trademarks/logos and the 'cost' to the Publisher to release their game on anothers (in this case MS's) platform.

Hellblade released first on PS4, not because Sony was paying for timed exclusivity, but that Ninja Theory didn't have the financial resources to add 'Xbox' on to the development and opted to add PS4 because it had a larger 'reach'. Its success helped them then go onto port and optimise for Xbox but that game was developed by a 'Small' team whilst the rest of Ninja Theory were contracted out (working for other Studios/publishers on their projects) to try and fund the development of Hellblade.

Point is, its not as simple as MS not 'allowing' them to release on Xbox and much more to do with the 'cost' to port and release vs the potential returns from sales and if the projected outcome due to 'low' hardware numbers mean they could 'lose' money (even if they can make LOTS on PS for example) on Xbox, then its not worth doing

Japan do certainly only care about Japanese created games and exclusives, there was a poll in Japan not long back on the top 100 games ever and you could count the western games on one hand. Also they love JRPG's and handheld gaming and gacha games hence why xbox won't ever gain the traction that sony and nintendo have in Japan. And the main decline in playstation sales in Japan is because of the Nintendo switch and its hybrid design that is perfect for both console and handheld lovers, if Nintendo go back to separate console and handheld consoles then sony's console sales will also go back up.
Also I believe Japanese consumers aren't very interested in western products altogether.

@UltimateOtaku91 I agreed.

Just adding that’s it’s not just the design. Japanese players seems to really like Nintendo and their game library better. Which to be fair Nintendo has a lot more co-op entries than PlayStation.

@mousieone yeah games like mario kart, pokemon and the main one monster hunter. I've been to Japan twice and on trains and buses there's people playing handhelds (the ds and psp at the time I was there) yet in the UK I see no one playing handhelds on transport or outside.

@BAMozzy I agree but they don't have a problem with putting in the work and "costs to port" with every other platform except Xbox though. What you said could also be said about PC, or Switch for example. It's always Xbox though instead.

Sorry this is a bit out of topic but since this comment section also talks fair share of JRPG then i'm gonna ask does anyone know that rumour of SE won't be releasing FF games on Xbox this generation? What's the credibility on that? If it's true then it's damn huge blow for Xbox especially on japan.

@Snake_V5 "It's Xbox that's absolutely terrible when it comes to Japanese games and RPG games, as well as console sales in Japan." Of course the japanese devs won't put ther games on a console not popular in japan unless MS gives them more money that it can recoup. The same thing happened when the Wii U was not selling.

"Even FF7 Remake still hasn't come to Xbox." Blame Sony and Epic

You are being too narrow minded on the success, or lack of thereof, of xbox in japan. These are business decisions that publishers and devs have to make. They won't port a game to a console for the love of art just to be relegated into oblivion. It takes time and money that they might not get back. And MS is also making a business decision whether they want to spend too much to woo the japanese into porting their games to xbox and convincing consumers to buy them.

@endlessleep not heard this rumour but Stranger of Paradise; Final Fantasy Origin, the next Final Fantasy game, is due out on Xbox in March…

@K1LLEGAL i think he means the main titles series by square enix themselves, I think stranger of paradise is made by a different developer TOEI KECMO

But I doubt that rumour is true since 13 and 15 were on xbox and the online one is rumoured to be coming

@Savage_Joe Sony aren't to blame for FF7 Remake not being on Xbox. FF7 Remake exclusivity has now expired with Sony, its now free to go to whatever platform now and it still hasn't come to Xbox.

Well, considering the article that said some stores aren't selling the series x|s' due to gamepass, xcloud being available elsewhere(ie phones, tablets) and on older consoles, I'm surprised it's that high.

@UltimateOtaku91 Japanese hate our products but they love our physical appearance 😂.

@endlessleep Maybe this is why FF7 Remake isn't on Xbox.

@Banjo- haha yes that is very true, even anime is based of us westerners 😂

Another example of what I've been saying,

https://www.gematsu.com/2022/01/post-apocalyptic-action-rpg-showa-american-story-announced-for-ps5-ps4-and-pc

Another Japanese game just announced coming to PS4, PS5 and PC but not Xbox. This is what I'm talking about.

@Savage_Joe ." Of course the japanese devs won't put ther games on a console not popular in japan unless MS gives them more money that it can recoup. The same thing happened when the Wii U was not selling.

But that needs to stop though, how can Xbox ever build a presence in Japan if they stick with that mentality? They need to give Xbox a chance.

@endlessleep Nope, it's just the timed-limited exclusivity deals with Square Enix and now Epic and of course niche Japanese games are much more usual on Switch than Xbox and even PS5. Now that Xbox got Dragon Quest for the first time, I want Atlus, owned by Sega, to bring their games as well.

@Snake_V5 You ignore that Epic bought timed-limited exclusivity for Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (current-gen Windows version).

@Snake_V5 first of all the rumor is Sony actually paid for more exclusivity.

The article being referred to actually states stuff like Strangers and Divine Force will come to Xbox buy all things mainline FF is locked into Sony for the whole Gen.

Coming 4th in a 3 horse race isn't much of an achievement, but glad to see that it's selling much better than the One did. Interested to know what MS' targets are for Japanese sales, and if this is on track.

@Snake_V5 as others have said, Epic bought the FF7 exclusivity just after expiring on PS. But with the "quality" that resulted on the PC port, MS would be glad that it's on Epic first.

@Savage_Joe How long is the exclusive with Epic for?

@endlessleep it’s not as big of blow as it might seem.

See people are overly focused on FF. But if you look at the remaining Square Titles DQ, OT, even Nier are all streamable on xCloud and MS upped Nier and DQs time on GP if only by a few months. Not to mention FF kept getting blocked for GP in Japan.

I’m also not sure how well FF 16 is going to do in Japan. I mean it’s got a mature rating as opposed to other JRPGs which tow the line but not by that much…

So yeah it stings but other titles are coming or have come like Rune Factory 4? Anyone pick up that? Record of the Lodoss War?

@Snake_V5 no one knows but it’s usually at least a year.

@mousieone Oh, okay.

@Snake_V5 square isn’t the company they used to be. Octopath Traveler has been sold for exclusivity or some kind of deal at least 3 times. The NFT garbage. The fact that they didn’t market Neo. Avengers. Outrider devs not being paid. Forcing Platinum to make Babylon’s Fall a live service. The sheer amount of mobile titles releasing in the next few years.

They don’t do much unless their pockets are lined these days.

@Snake_V5 from 6 months to a year. What is known is that the steam version is ready to launch as soon as the epic deal expires, but no dice about an xbox or pc game pass version.

@Snake_V5 also for the record “Showa American Story” is a Chinese Dev not Japanese.

https://www.gematsu.com/companies/nekcom-games

@UltimateOtaku91 True it’s not a mainline title but it is published by Square Enix, regardless of the developer. So they have the say as to which console it releases on and they are releasing it on Xbox. I haven’t seen this rumour; but with Xbox’s continued success; especially with Gamepass; it would be rather dumb of Square Enix to concretely stay with Sony for this Gen when they have no idea how much of the pie they would be missing out on.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade will definitely come to Xbox after Epic's timed-exclusivity expires.

This is quite an improvement over the dark days of the Xbox One, as Xbox Game Studios games are now translated with subtitles.

However, many games on Game Pass must also be available in English only. There are still some issues, such as Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts being excluded from Game Pass in Japan.

@xboxjapanfan I wonder who paid Square Enix to prevent them from including those games in Game Pass in Japan.

@Banjo- I don’t know. Rumor has it that it was a company that rhymes with Peony

@endlessleep I believe you mean this article,

https://wccftech.com/final-fantasy-games-xbox-every-game-pc/amp/

@Snake_V5 Just a rumour based on wrong information. He says, "FF7 was supposed to be on Xbox by now, but here we are" because he doesn't even know about the Epic deal. His idea is just speculation that doesn't make any sense because Square Enix supported the much less successful Xbox One and Xbox One and Series X/S are based on Windows. The Xbox Final Fantasy XV version is the Windows Edition. Yes, Square Enix likes money as others have pointed out but they only sell timed exclusivity.

@Banjo- Jez Corden from Windows Central said the same thing though just not as official. Imran Khan who initially broke FF16 reveal said that’s there was talk about making it fully exclusive. The money involved here could be astronomically.

Either way exclusivity runs out 2023?

You can keep waiting for it but personally I can’t see them launching that long after release unless more money is thrown their way.

@mousieone And yet a while back I remember seeing this that gave some hope,

https://gamerant.com/final-fantasy-7-remake-xbox-port-leak/

@Snake_V5 to be fair I think that was the plan but I think when MS bought Bethesda; Sony had to make some changes.

@mousieone So in your personal opinion, can you ever see FF7 Remake ever coming to Xbox someday? I know that no one knows the answer to that but it's what your opinion is. Maybe if Microsoft offered a lot of money to Square Enix maybe they'll do it.

I always looked at it that pretty much all the other FF games are on Xbox so I don't see why not with FF7 Remake too.

@Snake_V5 Personally ? No. MS bought most of the big RPG houses in the West creating a lack in Sony’s library. FF while not a WRPG tows the line a lot more than a Tales series etc would. Hence, the need to at the bare minimum lock it down for 2 year increments.

The games might go to Xbox but years after release.

@mousieone The Windows version was released just three weeks ago, it's not the PS4 version but the current-gen version, it's Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade that started as a PS5 upgrade. The Xbox version could be released in 2022 or at the end of the year if the deal with Epic is one year. The Xbox port will be super easy to do because Xbox runs Windows and the Windows version will be fully patched by then. I was told the same about Final Fantasy VII not coming to Xbox and "here we are". I have no doubt about the Windows version of the remake coming to Xbox this or next year. Square Enix only sell timed exclusivity and Sony can't afford much more than that. All the Final Fantasy games will come to Windows and Xbox.

@Banjo- all the games come to Xbox? Well I can’t play Dungeon Encounters nor Neo the World Ends With You on Xbox.

Anyway, again while it is an easy game to port; the port would be years old. Wouldn’t you honestly buy FF7R over Elden Ring or Fable? Some would sure but… I betting a lot won’t.

@mousieone All the Final Fantasy games. Yes, I would buy the new-gen version of the remake in 2023. My backlog is huge so I don't need to buy a PS5 or a gaming PC to play it one year earlier. I could have bought the last-gen version for PS4 because I have one since launch. Anyway, you'll see next year that I am right as I was about Final Fantasy VII when the same discussion happened on NL. I'm happy to be right about good things 😁.

I just hope more Final Fantasy makes it way to xbox and specifically gamepass

Despite the lower numbers compared to the competition, Xbox deserves credit for doing better in one year than the previous gen Xbox did in it's entire lifetime. Gamepass is an amazing deal for gamers and Japan looks to respect that. I'm sure a this point those sales will only grow. This doesn't include how many people play Gamepass on PC and mobile as well. Overall good news for Team Xbox, I'm looking forward to seeing what amazing games come out this year for the green team.

To me, buying a Sony product is akin to supporting everything wrong online culture. Sony which started out as great company, has morphed into one of the most evil corporations. Every time you click a lengthy agreement without reading it, every time you get a copyright infringement notice or get censored online...you have Sony to thank for that.

@Banjo- Curiously, the Final Fantasy series, which has recently been removed from the Japanese Xbox Game Pass, is now available on PS Now. Why on earth is this, Square Enix?