Malright. Microsoft is commited to releasing Xbox in Japan.

The Xbox 360 has not been a runaway success in Japan, but that doesn't mean Microsoft is shying away from the region with its all-new Xbox One next-generation platform.

"We're committed to Japan," Microsoft president of Interactive Entertainment Business Don Mattrick told OXM during a roundtable discussion recently. ..

"We think it's an important market. And we'll continue building on the working investment that we've done over all these years," Mattrick said. "There'll be more news in appropriate ways [for each geographical region], including the content partners, all classes of content, what's been tweaked and what's the same as what we're rolling out in the US."

GameSpot: Microsoft 'committed' to Japan for Xbox One

Now: Kinect, XBLA, regular games: What Japanese games would you like to see come out from Japan? XSEED, Square, Mistwalker..

Persona Kinect. Think about it. Dating Sim, the characters react to your face. This shit writes itself!

Woohoo sunk costs. I guess Cave fans will continue getting their games, and that about accounts for the entirety of Xbox owners in Japan.

Why bother? They tried last time and failed horribly. I'd rather they focused their resources on North America and Europe, which are much larger markets anyway. They should make sure they still get the next Final Fantasy and whatever Japanese games still sell outside of Japan, but making original games to court the Japanese market sounds like a bad idea.

lol.

Didn't MS say they were committed to Japan with the 360? Around the time of Blue Dragon came out?

I reiterate this opinion, with significant amplification.

Good luck with that.

Ha ha ha. This made me laugh

They totally said this last time too. Yeah good luck with that.

Of course it's an important market, but you won't get close to Sony's success.

If you thought the facepalm reaction NA/EU gave the XBone was bad, Asia in general you wouldn't believe..

Respectful to not entirely dismiss it of course.

YAY just buy more JPRGs exclusively so less players can again play it. And in the end no one else will care. Hopefully Namco now knows that Tales of should be a Playstation title because that is the console it sells on.

N.U.D.E is ripe for a sequel with kinect

Yah lol, why should people in Japan that are interested in XBOX games be catered to. All big corporations will tell you the secret to success is "if you don't succeed once, give up and never try again" thats how the biggest companies in the world made it.

Of course Mattrick is going to say that at this stage when asked about Japan. What else is he going to say, "We're not committed to Japan at all, fuck 'em"?

All four of them? I mean let's be real, if the reaction in the west was met with tepid response, what do you think the reaction in Japan would be? Non-existent. No one in Japan wants the damn thing, and they especially don't want any of the integrated TV bullshit that is coming with it.

The Region Microsoft should put up a fight against should be Europe. Because they still have a very though stand here. But unlike Japan, Microsoft has still a chance in Europe.

I forgot about that old adage, "if you don't succeed twice then make a third go of it making absolutely no concessions to the market and blindly blundering ahead oblivious to the reasons for your continued failure because that's a really good idea." Sorry Mom.

When Microsoft says that they're committed to Japan, I hear "I guess we'll release it there too."

I'm sure they are committed. I mean they gave us such wonderful marketing pushes for the 360 where all you need to go to Youtube and see how serious they were.

The problem with the Japanese market is that have small living room. If Americans had problems trying to get Kinect to work in their houses, it was impossible to get it to work in most Japanese apartments and homes.

Don Mattrick keepin' it real all up in this piece.

@rebgav: You must share your sources for this inside information about Microsofts overseas marketing strategy, I'm fascinated to read all about it.

Good one Microsoft!

I'm going to make a wild guess and say that they aren't really "committed" but that as long as they manage supply it will be infinitely more profitable to sell a few in Japan rather than publicly give up on the market and proclaim to their investors that they failed. Non story.

If that's not complete bullshit, maybe I'll be interested in the X-bone. The 360 really only interested me because of the good chunk of (albeit mostly shitty) exclusive JRPGs that had early in the lifecycle.

The most prominent complaints about the 360 are even more valid when applied to the new box. It is still a big ugly box, it is still online-service focused, there are still no meaningful Japanese games exclusive to the platform (that we know of.) MS can strategize around that maybe but I am perfectly happy to state that I think that the Xbox will continue to struggle in Japan and it will be because it's a Western machine for Western markets. You're welcome to continue arguing with me about my opinion though!

@rebgav: I certainly wouldn't want to make the mistake of arguing with someone on the internet. Of course you're absolutely right in that you are fully entitled to your own opinions no matter how unnecessarily condescending in tone they can get.

Great commitment! Xbox one in Japan LATE 2014!!

This is pretty hilarious in retrospect. Committed to ignoring all of Asia until next year.

cool so they will buy another bunch of JRPGs the most people will not play? As long its not Persona....

Yeah, given what we know now, "lol" sounds about right. Another classic case of Microsoft saying one thing and then demonstrating differently.

But didn't they essentially say that Japan wouldn't be getting online at launch? And isn't this a console whose entire operation depends on an Internet connection?

Oh Microsoft, they so funny!

I was very confused about this topic until I saw it was started before E3.

@hailinel: Give them a year and they'll release it over there and it probably won't sell very well but at least they're still trying.

haha

There's a difference between "trying" and "actually giving a shit when you do." Microsoft views Japan (and all of Asia, really) as a secondary market in which they have no chance, and so they're not even making the effort to engage in a world-wide launch. By the time the Xbox One is available in Japan, the market will already be overtaken by the PS4 and Wii U. The hardcore dedicated audience of the 360 will either have moved on by that point or continue to be part of a tiny market.

Yep, most of Japan went "Fuck the Xbox", so Microsoft went "Fuck everyone in Japan".

Hope they can make a significant impact this time around

To be fair, I think it's entirely fair for the Xbox to not commit to Japan. They clearly aren't interested.

I just think pretending they are when it's the exact opposite is silly.

While I am 100% sure no one who work at Microsoft will read this or if they do it will even matter, here are some advice from someone who live and work in asia (Japan, Thailand, Hongkong).

As long as the DRM stuff is still in place, the Xbox one will bomb even harder than the 360 in asia. I am talking a few thousand units, bomb. Unless Microsoft have Final Fantasy exclusive games, I predict the Xbox One not even crossing 1 million unit sold in asia combine. Most gamers in asia are pc gamers (net cafe) and the only reason they buy console is for the big exclusive (RE, FF, MonHun). So lock those down or fail.

what a load of bull.

unless they have a Japanese exclusive lined up next year for that market, they will sink again,

microsoft, with those policies on that xbox one, show that they do not cater to the minority markets anymore.

the 8-4 guys have said japan is HUGE on used games, the policies ridden on this machine will never fly with the asia market, only way this takes off is if the controlling your tv with voice happens to hit with that market. and even then, that'ill only be a short term market for them to put focus on, as they have made it very clear their target is more the US.

unless they do have a big exclusive IP aimed at Japanese markets, or they locked-down an exclusive, then no significant progress will be made in the japanese market.

I want to see Sony or Microsoft hold a press conference where all they say is, "Suikoden," drop the mic, and then wave their bare naked ass at the smoking ruin that was their former competitor.

No, but seriously, more traditional JRPGs, please. Or at least RPGs that feel like RPGs, like Lost Odyssey or Ni no Kuni. Hey, what the hell is Level-5 up to, anyways? Bring them on board! Get them making Dark Cloud 3, or Rogue Galaxy 2, or something that will sell all of ten copies but be adored by those ten fans for life.

Good grief, I'd be a terrible businessman.