It's not very often that we get updates on the sales figures for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S — after all, Microsoft hasn't officially shared them in years — but courtesy of Famitsu, it looks like they've reached a new milestone in Japan.
The Japanese outlet is reporting this week that the two Xbox consoles have reached around 600,000 sales in total, with Xbox Series S leading the way at 315,431 units. Keep in mind these are described as "estimated" figures:
- Xbox Series X: 285,014 units
- Xbox Series S: 315,431 units
If you look at the PS5 (5m+) and Nintendo Switch (30m+) lifetime sales, the above figures obviously make for disappointing reading, although it's worth noting that Microsoft only sold just over 100k Xbox One consoles in Japan during that console's lifespan, and the Xbox 360 ended up finishing with around 1.6m sales.
This latest generation has been a big improvement compared to the last, but obviously there's still a lot more work to be done in Japan from an Xbox perspective. That is, of course, unless Microsoft feels it's no longer worth prioritising.
What are your thoughts on these Japan sales figures for Xbox? Tell us in the comments below.
[source famitsu.com]
Comments 34
Obviously not all markets are equal but it is interesting to see Series S outselling Series X in Japan too. Obviously these are only "estimated" figures but studies in major territories in the west by analysts have said the same. It may get some grief here but Series S is brilliant for non-enthusiasts.
@themightyant Amen. I have one just because the other 2 4K consoles are hideously large and would look ugly under my TV.
I’ve yet to play a Series S game that looked or played terribly and I’ve been through every major 1st party title. Forza 5 and Ghostwire looked lovely.
@RadioHedgeFund & you pretty much won’t run into any problems since the PS4/XboxOne/Series S are all collectively holding this generation back for almost 4 years straight now
@nomither6 And low end PC and Handhelds like Steam Deck will be holding it back for the next 4 years. Series S is fine.
Nintendo is almost a monopoly in Japan, the difference in sales compared to the rest is incredible.
I once read that most Japanese people live in houses with small rooms, and that is why they prefer consoles and portable devices.
I wouldnt have gotten into Xbox at all if it wasnt for how cheap the Series S is. Bought it on release and has since bought an X as well.
@RadioHedgeFund I would not agree completely. All UE5 games have been a mess on Series S as resolution that S can push is just too low for upscaling to be useful. But, majority of offerings works just fine.
@themightyant limitations of Series S and something like new Rog Ally X are very different in favor of handheld. Portable PC devices have room to iterate (vs. consoles that are locked in for 7 years cycle) and adapt to latest engines, and are far less affected by low resolution and upscaling artifacting.
All that said, Series S is a good device and there is a place for it in the market obviously. It's just that it has it's limitations and there is no reason to turn a blind eye to 'em (MS won't fix them in XSS2 unless acknowledged is my take I guess).
Tbh while not representative of all markets, those are very low numbers really and shows why Microsoft is pushing for their games on other consoles, possibly even gamepass. I don't think they will be leaving the console market any time soon, however I wouldn't expect much of a jump of spec for the next console, probably more evolutionary + more types of different devices
@Cikajovazmaj Very subjective calling Series S games on UE5 a "mess". To YOUR eyes perhaps, and to pedants like Digital Foundry, who I like, but also make mountains out of molehills. But to many Series S is fine, it's good enough. Many don't need the game to be graphically superior they just want to play games. Hence one reason why the Nintendo
PotatoSwitch is so popular. Low frame rates, low resolutions etc. don't bother many gamers especially if there is a cheaper option. That's the reality even if not popular here.(Me personally I prefer higher res, higher frame rates, hence I have a Series X, but we're in the minority)
I agree Series S has some limitations, but so does Series X or any console. As for "Portable PC devices have room to iterate" that's true, but only for those willing to constantly upgrade their hardware constantly. Developers will still be targeting low end PC's, where the bulk of the PC market is, for years to come. This holds us back far more than the Series S ever has.
@nomither6 With the rising costs of development it won’t end any time soon
@themightyant Series S UE5 games have been rendering internally between 436p-900p. Higher end of that spectrum is fine, but lower is just not enough to produce a passable image for a 50+ inch TV output.
And I'm a big fan of Nintendo's potato, but that relies on a specific art style (as big N very well knows what they can and can not pull off). 3rd party ports for example are a mess on Switch, and I don't see too many people getting Switch to play those if they have a choice.
I do agree with the upgrade note, but somehow PC master race is willing and eager to pump money down the drain at a stunning pace (many of my friends find XSX/PS5 too expensive, while investing 2500 euros into a PC they use for browsing and gaming).
@themightyant You're very confused if you think the Steam Deck, or anything in the PC space, is holding anything back.
Unlike Microsoft's idiotic parity clause for the X and S, Valve has no such thing.
Games aren't obligated to work on the Steam deck. Nor are they generally built for it. They're made for PC. If they happen to work on Steam deck then you can play it there.
You saying the Steam Deck is holding anything back is like saying someone using a GT710 is holding things back. When in reality, no. Nothing is made with that card in mind, and if something happens to work, yay, otherwise you're SOL.
@Cikajovazmaj There you are calling it a "mess" again on Switch. To you or I who have more refined tastes perhaps, but many are fine with Series S. THAT is the point, gaming is FAR wider than us, we are the minority. Most are happily playing on the Switch, Series S or potato PC not caring about one bit about resolutions, frame rates etc.
@InterceptorAlpha Not confused in the slightest. LOL. While you are absolutely right that Microsoft has a specific parity clause, PC simply doesn't need one because developers will almost always develop games that work on the widest range of PC hardware (within reason). That means low to mid range PC hardware. They don't have to have an explicit clause because it is implicitly necessary in order to make money back, especially on graphically demanding/expensive games.
Go and have a look at Steam's hardware survey for instance and you will see that the VAST majority of gamers are playing on low to mid end GPU's, CPUs etc. Well over 50% of them are using XX60 cards, equivalents OR LOWER, most are several generations old. Hell the 2019 low-end GTX 1650 is the second most used GPU on Steam.
... developers aren't going to ignore all those users
For more evidence: we know what PCs CAN do, every now and again we get something like Cyberpunk's Overdrive Ray Tracing mode that has to be seen to be believed. Yet almost no games are built like this... for very sensible business reasons, only a tiny percentage of the audience have PCs that can run it, and consoles can't.
Meanwhile most of the best looking games on the market, things like Alan Wake 2 or Hellblade 2 run fine enough on Series S albeit without all the bells and whistles.
I know it's popular round here to bash Series S and say "it holds back the Series X", and in a FEW isolated cases that might be the case, but in FAR more cases it will be lower spec or legacy hardware elsewhere holding us all back.
@themightyant Then you'd also know, if you were using more than half the data, that the majority of games that release that are within those specs are indie developers with smaller budgets. And that, because of the obscene number of PC users, even the minority is a larger install base than any one console. Which is pretty easy when your install base in general is nearly all three consoles put together.
You also see a significant number of those are from countries developers don't typically target to begin with. So them getting to play is just a bonus if their hardware is up to snuff. But if not, it is of no consequence.
Developers do and will ignore larger portion of PC gamers because they don't need to cater to them for the sales. That's why you see pretty much every AA and AAA require higher specs than the average. Hope this helps!
@themightyant I have no idea what are you basing mostly "happily playing" info on. Every performance compromised port on Switch has sold considerably less compared to uncompromised platforms, metacritics score was lower, and user reviews have been vocal about the issues..
Maybe you know a few people who happen not to care? There are cases where property popularity/value outweighs the actual game (Pokemon, Harry Potter, etc..) but those are exceptions rather than a rule.
@InterceptorAlpha There's some truth in what you say, but I still don't think the Series S holds back development as much as lower specced PC's. We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. Happy gaming.
Get a Xbox S if your TV is basic but get a X if TV is high end. If you violate this simple rule you will be unhappy at some point. My plasma TV and series S are a great team! And the heat they generate warms the whole house….
@AlwaysPlaying I like that rule, makes sense.
@themightyant.
You know full well that switch gamers play on the move on a tiny handheld screen, so issues like resolution are far less noticeable and important. Thats not the case for series S, and you attempt to support a lower spec console with such a statement has to be the worst argument Ive ever seen you make. Ive no idea why, you are usually pursuasive and make good points, but that reeked of desperation.
Theres plenty of arguments you can make supporting series S without resorting to obvious miscomparisons mate!
That the series s sells more in the land of miniturisation, where space is at a premium, is hardly a huge surprise? Its a cute little console - of course it is more desirable there than the featureless black monolith😊.
@Titntin The Switch is not just a handheld is is also a full console attached to the same TVs as series S.
But the Switch was only one line of my argument, not the crux of it. The main point is that the vast majority of lower end PC's with their slower hard drives, less VRAM and more are holding back game dev far more than Series S ever has. But I seem to have angered some people with this view.
MS is slowly but continuously building back it's market share, even abroad. I'm actually surprised they sold as many if the XOnes as they did.
GP is a solid deal and with the cheaper console option, it's a tempting choice. The S is a solid console. Not every gamer wants the highest resolution or fastest poss frame rate, they want to play games they enjoy. Good on MS for offering a choice.
We're likey to see a fully subsided version of the S for the next gen and maybe even a subsidized X version. MS already takes a loss on consoles so the more consoles they get in gamers hands, the better to recoup that loss.
Oh, the Japanese LOOOOOOVVVVVVVEEEEEEE Indiana Jones, people don't even know. When Sony was marketing Uncharted 3 in Japan, they brought in Harrison Ford to play the game. THATS ALL THEY DID was put a camera on Harrison Ford face and he was Nintendo Smiling and loving it. He was impressed and blown away games had hit that point and it was flattering to him Uncharted took from the Indiana Jones franchise. So, Sony released it as a trailer in Japan, and what happened? Uncharted 3 sold.
I'm willing to bet my PS5 and my entire game collection that's why Xbox's are selling in Japan, they're anticipating Indiana Jones because Japanese like Americans, mostly because of the Hollywood life. It's all they know in America is Hollywood and music and Indiana Jones on Hollywood. The Japanese aren't buying anticipating Gears of War, they're not impressed by it. It's not for Perfect Dark, they're not impressed by it but I'm totally willing to bet they're gearing up for Indiana Jones
The series Xbox is in third place but its has room to grow and is no were near market saturation.
@themightyant yeah, in the context of all your other posts, it was not the main thrust of your reasoning, but it was a big part of your points on the individual post I read and immediately replied to!
Everyone has something different they are looking for of course, and its clear many people are happy to make that small compromise. Not me, im a tech junkie and ex dev who cant 'switch off' my noticing of any compromise, so Id always choose the most performant version of any design for myself.
Lets face it, sales are pretty poor anyway of xbox hardware, I think they would be an uncontested disaster if the series S had not offered a cheaper way into the system, so it looks like a good call to me. Is it a barrier to development? It is an issue, I know this from my own remaining dev colleagues, but as you suggest, scalability has to be designed into this software anyway to allow for the required PC releases, and that does represent an issue for some devs with some projects, buts its par for the course with most projects.
Nice to see some sales in Japan, but its still not a lot for that territory. I wander if the new games coming will help shift more units in japan, or if MS studios are a bit western to have much impact? I'd love to see Blue Dragon 2 - that would shift some!
@Pabpictu Japanese people are tired, and portable game consoles and smartphone apps that can be played casually are more in tune with the times now.
Also, large screen TVs are very expensive in Japan, so not many people make it a priority to buy them. (4K TVs are less popular than in the West because of a protection called B-CAS)
And most importantly, Japanese people prefer Nintendo Switch because Nintendo games are fun. The "political correctness" that is prevalent in Western games is not well accepted.
@Titntin Blue Dragon 2 would be an insta-buy!
I love my Series S. Such a comfort machine.
@themightyant
There many reasons why I think S is doing well. First is cost. It is the cheapest way to get a powerful console. Second, I think would be TVs. Most smaller TVs are only HD, so there is not much sense buying an X if your TV is only HD and you intend to keep it that way. Finally, as a secondary console. If you primarily game on PS or Switch and decide to buy an XB secondary console to play some of the exclusive games, you probably see S as a cheap way to do that.
Personally, I bought an S for my one and only HD TV. No need to have an X when an S will do on a secondary gaming TV.
IMO MS should just commit and either start or hire a small Japanese team and make a new series or 2 in the JRPG genre.
Take a risk and make it memorable but don’t drop it if the first game underperforms. Nintendo managed to carve out a niche in the FPS genre somehow and Sony managed to sink FF.
@VoidPunk They've alreadyt tried a similar approach with the Xbox 360. I don't know how big all of the dev teams where since some of the games were made by squenix and one fromsoftware squeezed in but the Xbox just cannot gain a foothold in Japan (Sony definitely has to have played a role in that though).
@themightyant there have been a number of developers that have said the S is holding back ps5/X progress.
Not looking for beef, just saying.
It's no longer worth prioritizing.
@datamonkey Have there been a number saying that? If so I missed it, do you have a source. I HAVE seen devs say it was harder to develop for and hit the targets they want, but that's not quite the same thing as "The S is holding back the ps5/X".
Not looking for beef, just accuracy.
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