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[malfcn]

Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

 

[bchan555]

Falcom’s gone PS4 exclusive so it’s a surprise to hear Japanese success is their only priority.

Japan is where they target their efforts and where their biggest fan base is. Any money other regions bring them these days is just a happy plus.

 

[FStubbs]

Falcom is a huge supporter of Microsoft .... Windows.

I don't know if they've ever taken Nintendo platforms seriously.

 

[FStubbs]

you're making it sound like microsoft tried with two games and when they got no results in a month they put the arms up in the air and said "WELP WE'RE OUT"

instead of you know, trying since the launch of the original xbox till mid-end of the 360s (the longest gaming generation so far) life

I felt like Microsoft was about to break the Japanese market open with a volley of exclusive jRPGs until they all started getting ported to PS3 with extra features. That was what did them in.

 

[Veon]

I can MS going for Japanese games if the Western game market implodes but as for now, no way in hell.

I felt like Microsoft was about to break the Japanese market open with a volley of exclusive jRPGs until they all started getting ported to PS3 with extra features. That was what did them in.

They would have to create their own exclusives, but we all saw what happen to P so I doubt anyone is willing to work with them right now.

 

[Azriell]

Exactly. Let them be downloaded only. Scrape together whatever little Japanese support you can however you can. You would think they would be so desperate as to try anything but they obviously don't see the need. That needs to change.

The dumbest thing about Microsoft's apparent stance is that Japan will never support Xbox if they don't give them a reason to. Digital only for these niche titles is as close to zero cost as you can get. I don't expect MS to have a big JP campaign at this point, but it's a little disappointing to hear that they don't give a shit at all.

 

[NolbertoS]

Well I’d be lying if I were try shocked ar this news. Phil went to Japan to get Final Fantasy, Bamco games and Capcom upcoming games. Xbox fans still keep hoping NISA, Atlus, Gust and Falcom will show the console some love?? Based on these comments, kinda don’t see any glimmer of hope.

 

[LiquidSolid]

I'm sure nintendo had a console where it would work when they released WW in 2014

It's not magic, it would have been more successful, because i'm not defending them being nintendo exclusives, but ports - unless you don't think trails in the sky would sell enough to at least cover port costs in a nintendo console for whatever reason and i am the one curious now

2014?

So you're just talking about ports? In that case, it's more a matter of Falcom simply being too small and conservative to go out on a limb with an in-house 3DS port of Trails in the Sky. They wouldn't even port those games to the Vita, while XSEED ported Trails of Cold Steel to PC themselves.

 

[Quasar]

The dumbest thing about Microsoft's apparent stance is that Japan will never support Xbox if they don't give them a reason to. Digital only for these niche titles is as close to zero cost as you can get. I don't expect MS to have a big JP campaign at this point, but it's a little disappointing to hear that they don't give a shit at all.

I would have thought one reason would be the closeness on windows on Xbox and pc.

 

[Outrun]

But Phil went to Japan and everything.

Yep, MS never tried to make an impact in Japan...

Spoiler

/s

 

[Tenshin]

Whats way worst? this from ms or no crossplay from sony

 

[Spyder_Monkey]

But Phil went to Japan and everything.

We really don't know why Phil went to Japan.

 

[Bessy67]

I mean, it's not great for Xbox gamers but MS being supportive of Japanese games is a massive waste of money for them so it makes sense.

 

[dragonfart28]

Why should they?

The Japanese market is very limited.

 

[Atomski]

I feel like MS has been down that road to many times now and they got burned. They can't sell Japanese games in Japan and the Western user base seems more interested in western titles.

 

[DPtheGod]

Does anyone have any figures/stats to show how much money Microsoft spent on Mistwalker / Blue Dragon / Lost Odyssey and also Tales exclusivity, then how much revenue they generated to recoup the costs?

Also, the Scalebound situation became a nightmare.

Didn't FFXV sell like 300 copies on Xbox One?

I highly doubt MS sees any value investing in this market. Sony has held it down since the PS2 (hell, PS1) era.

 

[Keinning]

Didn't FFXV sell like 300 copies on Xbox One?

What? No, it sold a lot more than that. Where did you take that number from?

 

[FluxWaveZ]

I remember they introduced DB Fighterz as "hilarious" during the E3 2017 conference.

And that's all I have to contribute.

 

[Aters]

Whats way worst? this from ms or no crossplay from sony

Sony having no refund policy and no backward compatibility is worse than both.

 

[Herp Derpington]

Investing in Japanese studios is lip service. It's a shrinking market. I'm fine with them ignoring it. No great loss. They're better off investing in their own studios and growing their market that way.

 

[mjc]

Investing in Japanese studios is lip service. It's a shrinking market. I'm fine with them ignoring it. No great loss. They're better off investing in their own studios and growing their market that way.

Shhh you'll upset the masses even though you're pretty much right.

 

[Wagram]

Investing in Japanese studios is lip service. It's a shrinking market. I'm fine with them ignoring it. No great loss. They're better off investing in their own studios and growing their market that way.

Considering Japanese studios have put out much of the best software this generation and Microsoft has been flubbing it with the first party. They definitely need to do something because what they're doing now isn't cutting it.

 

[Dangansona]

Personal attacks against people at companies you don't like is really lame.

Personal attacks?

Kink shaming against people at companies you like is really lame.

 

[Crayon]

I'm thinking the audience that wants small Japanese games but only if they are on Xbox is fairly small.

 

[Dr.Tentacle]

But Phil went to Japan and everything.

And here is the result from his trip 8)

 

[TRUE ORDER]

Tell me something I don't already know lol

It's a shame but true...

 

[Zafir]

I mean it's not hard to see why, they tried supporting JRPGs back on 360, and it didn't work out well for them. Xbox just doesn't sell well in Japan.

Not sure if the western audience for Japanese games is that big on Xbox One either. I feel like most people interested in JRPGs and the like have probably already bought a PS4.

 

[The Dear Leader]

Microsoft doesn’t seem very supportive of any games given their holiday line up, I can’t say I blame them, Japanese games on Xbox are a waste of money.

 

[BrokenJohnCena]

Japan is where they target their efforts and where their biggest fan base is. Any money other regions bring them these days is just a happy plus.

but Asia,Western and all those stuffs,Don’t both two of them contradict each other?

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

This minimum print shit is a real pain in the ass for the exclusive indie games MS gets like Cuphead, thank god Ori managed to get a physical release after it released.

 

[Zee-Row]

I always get reminded of this picture when i think of the Xbox history in japan.

 

[Novocaine]

Two way street. Japan isn’t very supportive of Xbox One either. Capcom Square and Bamco release most of their big games and you get the occasional smaller titles like Raiden V and Superbeat Xonic but it’s pittance compared to what the Playstation gets.

 

[Lord of Ostia]

Two way street. Japan isn’t very supportive of Xbox One either. Capcom Square and Bamco release most of their big games and you get the occasional smaller titles like Raiden V and Superbeat Xonic but it’s pittance compared to what the Playstation gets.

They don't have much reason to because the domestic market has no interest in the platform. They will release games on Xbox if those games appeal to the western Xbox audience (Naruto, DBZ, Souls and similar titles) but the more niche stuff doesn't sell on Xbox in Japan or America so why bother?

 

[Novocaine]

They don't have much reason to because the domestic market has no interest in the platform. They will release games on Xbox if those games appeal to the western Xbox audience (Naruto, DBZ, Souls and similar titles) but the more niche stuff doesn't sell on Xbox in Japan or America so why bother?

They probably shouldn’t bother.

 

[MisterR]

But Phil went to Japan and everything.

I wonder if he really even goes. Probably takes a week off and tells everybody he’s in Kapan.

 

[Novocaine]

I wonder if he really even goes. Probably takes a week off and tells everybody he’s in Kapan.

Really?

 

[flawfuls]

This isn't a story about the Xbox One. The 360 had games, Japanese exclusives, price, and power, didn't sell for shit in Japan.

Personally I think the 360's failure in Japan is overstated. It sold 1.5 million, carved out a small niche for itself and was supported for more or less the full life span of the 360.

I'm sure that is a big reason why way more japanese games were multiplat last gen and not just the very western oriented ones.

By comparison the XB1 sold 80 thousand. A complete DOA failure of a platform in Japan.

I think a fair comparison would be that the 360 was like the Vita in the west, while the XB1 was like the N-Gage.


That being said I don't necessarily think it was wrong for microsoft to ignore Japan. They invested a lot to get the 360 to where it was and I can't imagine it was worth it to them to continue to do so.

 

[Cynn]

They may not have a viable business in Japan but they can have business selling me Japanese games in the US.

 

[petran79]

Personally I think the 360's failure in Japan is overstated. It sold 1.5 million, carved out a small niche for itself and was supported for more or less the full life span of the 360.

I'm sure that is a big reason why way more japanese games were multiplat last gen and not just the very western oriented ones.

By comparison the XB1 sold 80 thousand. A complete DOA failure of a platform in Japan.

I think a fair comparison would be that the 360 was like the Vita in the west, while the XB1 was like the N-Gage.


That being said I don't necessarily think it was wrong for microsoft to ignore Japan. They invested a lot to get the 360 to where it was and I can't imagine it was worth it to them to continue to do so.

Xbox360 versions of Japanese games were also ported to Windows later on

 

[oti]

This doesn’t bother me because I don’t like Japanese games anyway.
Beside, most Japanese companies now focus on mobile games which are more profitable. And Japanese players have lost interest in console gaming.
So why would MS support them?

This post is pure gold.

 

[DPtheGod]

What? No, it sold a lot more than that. Where did you take that number from?

Oh it was just an exaggerative joke. I know it sold significantly well, just not that close to PS4.

 

[Luminaire]

They may not have a viable business in Japan but they can have business selling me Japanese games in the US.

There are three other platforms that get Japanese games regularly. Consider looking into them if you like those games.

 

[curiouscharles]

To be honest the PS4 is definitely a western console if anything, it gets it's Japanese games purely because of the relationships Sony has with certain publishers and the willingness of its userbase on buying Japanese games compared to the Xbox userbase.

The PS5 will fall into irrelevance in Japan but will still get its (niche) Japanese games here and there.

Sony is hardly an American company in my mind, am I wrong in that thinking?

Sony pictures / music, sure, always thought of them as an American company, but all of Sony's consumer hardware companies have always come across as purely Japanese.

Again, am I getting this wrong or sumthin'?

 

[Bastables]

Sony is hardly an American company in my mind, am I wrong in that thinking?

Sony pictures / music, sure, always thought of them as an American company, but all of Sony's consumer hardware companies have always come across as purely Japanese.

Again, am I getting this wrong or sumthin'?

Sony's always been quite foreign focused, you should have noticed this with all the UK and American's they have in their game division, ignoring their music and film workforce make up.
SIE's hq is literally in San Francisco.
Historically inconsumer electronics they tend to get rolled by much lager japanese firms like Panasonic in Japan forcing them to focus on “foreign markets”.

 

[AniHawk]

"Honestly speaking, Microsoft's approach to Japanese games hasn't been very supportive."
This is uninformative. Define "supportive". My issue with this is it does not convey actual circumstances but rather placates to a perception very easily.
What support does NIS require to get their game out? Are these demands reasonable? Is Microsoft "unsupportive" (lack of support does not mean causing functional problems doing so.)
The "also" statement of MS having minimum order quantities clearly isn't their holdup as they added it as a post-statement. So what outside of this order minimum is required to be supportive?
We do not know because the statement is unfortunately lacking. Either by omission in article or by "drive by comment" on the part of NIS.
What we do know is the following statement is more accurate: Xbox sells horribly in Japan. I personally do not believe MS can do anything about that, though this doesn't answer whether or not they should try. 3 Generations, 2 with legitimate marketing attempts (entire branches devoted to trying to make those ties with native Japanese workers) and nothing.
When someone says, "You don't support me" you have to ask, are you insisting someone carries you or is there a mutual give/take? Personally, I'm suspicious of the statement and feel it's much more of a corporate "here's your reason you'll gobble up" rather than any real indication as to why they don't actually work with MS, just done in a Japanese way.
Perhaps it's a basic business decision for Japanese-centric businesses to not take the risk on the "possible" sales when data on their own shores shows it wouldn't sell on an Xbox because no one owns an Xbox in Japan. To me, that makes much more sense and is much more informative than "we're not supported" (but I cannot define what support would be.)

the environment in which it takes to get something on xbox isn't a supportive one. every platform has a minimum order quantity, but microsoft's is much higher than the competition's even when nintendo's was high. when there's no audience for your kind of game, it's a pretty big barrier in and of itself.

plus xbox doesn't like to admit it straight out, but they still require parity on everything. you can do a digital-only game on xbox, but it has to be digital-only on playstation too. if microsoft was to budge on one of these issues, it would open things up a lot more.

 

[potatohead]

I mean... why would they be?

The thing is they sell the idea that they are active in looking for solutions for jpn games on xbox but the results speak for themselves

They actually sell the idea of being progressive on all fronts but again 10 plus years of other results speak for themselves

Ms doesn't know how to play am investment game long term in gaming only dividend payment term schedule

 

[Head.spawn]

I always found it weird that there is a Microsoft Japan and they never bothered to open any studios over there, rarely got an exclusive games, only a handful of RPG partnerships exclusives that seemed to be more of a push from NA MS than Japan. I'm not sure how accurate it is but someone told me apparently a lot of MS 1st party games aren't even dubbed over there.

Does MS Japan just party a lot or something?

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

They don't have much reason to because the domestic market has no interest in the platform. They will release games on Xbox if those games appeal to the western Xbox audience (Naruto, DBZ, Souls and similar titles) but the more niche stuff doesn't sell on Xbox in Japan or America so why bother?

Ostia, have you considered making a thread detailing all the problems companies face when porting a game to explain why it’s not as simple or cheap as dragging all the files into an XB1 converter?

It seems way too many people still have that impression after hearing it’s easy to port between PS4-XB1-PC

 

[blubb]

I always found it weird that there is a Microsoft Japan and they never bothered to open any studios over there, rarely got an exclusive games, only a handful of RPG partnerships exclusives that seemed to be more of a push from NA MS than Japan. I'm not sure how accurate it is but someone told me apparently a lot of MS 1st party games aren't even dubbed over there.

Does MS Japan just party a lot or something?

MS = XBOX
So they are definitely just partying.
They have nothing to do with Japanese versions of Windows or Office or Surface or...

 

[makingmusic476]

Investing in Japanese studios is lip service. It's a shrinking market. I'm fine with them ignoring it. No great loss. They're better off investing in their own studios and growing their market that way.

As if they do that. :lol