Do you think Xbox could ever succeed in Japan?

I was recently in Japan's Akihabara district and went to a local electronics store to check out the gaming section. I wasn't surprised to find that the Sony and Nintendo sections were way bigger than the Xbox display. But I am surprised that MS tries to support it lol. What do you think, SW? Will Xbox ever succeed in Japan?

Oh, and Sony really marketed the hell out of Days Gone.

Maybe? Probably not this gen or the next though. At least not traditionally.

No

It depends on how you define success. Above Sony/Ninty? Nope.

What else is there? Apple?

Success is entirely arbitrary for a company. MS won't surpass Sony/Nintendo within Japan.

They absolutely could! Japanese people love American goods if they trend.

Japan is one of the world’s most xenophobic nations. They can’t support outsiders. It’s part of their DNA. They won’t even allow migration or refugees into their aging and dying population.

I wish MS would set a precedence and drop Japanese support. Clearly the Japanese have done so with global brands.

Yes, that is it. Japan is pretty liberal but their society is still pretty conservative if you research deep enough. Most people probably don't know that......

lolno.

Maybe. I think that it would certainly be nice to see them succeed in Japan though. Would bring some great franchises to the platform.

As someone who lives in Japan I would say no unless they start to actually advertise the thing. If and when I look at TV I will always see a PlayStation or a Nintendo commercial heck even a mobile game commercial. You would never see a commercial about their console or games. It's only the 3rd party games that will show the Xbox logo alongside the PlayStation at the end of the commercial if it is being release on both consoles and that's a bit rare. Also if you look at the digital market place on the Xbox the US region and the Japan region you would see that some games are missing if they have already been release or coming soon. If you go to a store to find a Xbox or games for it you are going to have a hard time. If you go to a convenient store like 711, Lawson, or Family Mart your not going to find a Microsoft gift card, Game Pass or Xbox Gold. If I remember correctly there is a machine in Lawson that you can purchase Xbox type stuff and take it to the counter for the worker to stamp and confirm it. You can correct me if I'm wrong though.

It has little to no chance. They could get to the point where they double their weekly sales but that'd still only be 200 units.

Purely on hardware sales? Never. But Japan is just one more market that's wholly rejected the brand this gen. They have their work cut out for them again.

And that's why products like iPhone, and American fast food chains and beverages like Coca Cola and McDonald's aren't successful in Japa...oh wait, they are, FOH!

Xbox isn't successful in Japan because MS didn't bother to make a product the appeals to Japanese gamers. Xbox is a regional western focused console and that's why it only seems to do well in NA and UK. Japanese people aren't the only ones indifferent to Xbox, other Asian countries don't care about it either and neither do Middle Eastern or most European countries, I guess they are all hostile towards outsiders too according to your dumb logic.

Japan in general can be Xenophobic but it doesn't extend to consumer products or culture. You make something that appeals to them and they will buy it. American music and culture is very popular in Japan, they aren't as Xenophobic as you make them sound, it's mostly the older generation that are Xenophobic towards outsiders. The younger generation is very open to Western movies, music, food, and culture.

@son-goku7523: Less than a handful of examples does not change the narrative. Japan doesn’t innovate or take chances in the fast changing mobile arena so they can’t compete with Apple. Believe me - they’ve tried but their consumers are more selective with tech products.

Bunch of bullshit and stupid excuses you're giving for MS there. Even if what you say is true it doesn't explain for MS' abysmal performance in other Asian countries and most of Europe. Fact is, MS made a product that was American centric from the start and they've only concentrated on only selling it to an American audience and that's why it's a joke outside NA and UK. I've lived in Japan and know from first hand experience that Japanese people are open to a variety of American products and culture. MS didn't bother to adapt the Xbox brand to the Japanese market and that's why it's failing there when other American products have found success, stop giving excuses for their incompetence.

Sure why not. I still remembers that Tales of Vesperia and Star Ocean 4 sold around 200k in Japan with the 360. If xbox wants to dominate japan they just has to try again with bigger ambition like getting FF and DQ exclusively to Xbox. I mean it worked with the original Playstation.

That's true. The idea that Japanese people only buy Japanese games is a myth. The Playstation brand is an international brand so its marketed towards having games for everyone and from everyone.

The problem with Xbox as a whole in Japan is that the console itself isn't even designed for the Japanese market, and when it comes to Japanese games it's even more of a joke. First of all the name "Xbox" is a terrible name for Japan because the symbol "X" means death in Japan so Xbox roughly translates to "DeathBox" in Japanese. If MS had any brains at all behind their marketing they would start by changing the name for the Japanese market. They can't market it with such a negative and terrible name over there. Second, there's an almost complete lack of JRPGs on Xbox. There's no way the console can sell without Japanese games especially JRPGs. Japanese people buy western games like Call of Duty and Days Gone on PS4 but with the PS4 they also get those Japanese games and JRPGs that are key to doing well in Japan that Xbox totally lacks.

@Shewgenja: not electronics. That's mostly fashion.

I think they had a chance when the brand was new, but it didn't work out and now I just don't see why they would gain appreciable market share there. They'd have to fill a niche in that market that Nintendo and Sony don't.

i guess if they just straight up bought a bunch of popular japanese franchises

@son-goku7523: Sony’s marketing Day’s Gone HARD because it’s not Japanese and they know it’ll be a tough sell. Luckily for them the marketing worked. That, and it’s been slow competition so when there’s nothing to buy, you buy something.

And since you’re such a marketing expert. Tell me - how is Winnie the Pooh such a beloved character when his name is literally verbally translated as feces?

The easy answer is nope.

Do you even understand anything you read? What does Winnie the Pooh have to do with the symbol "X" in Japan?

I just told you that the symbol "X" in Japan translates to the word for Death and your response to that is Winnie the Pooh in the US? ?‍♂️ How are they even correlated?

Is the US the same country as Japan? Is the Japanese word for feces "Pooh"? Are death and feces the same thing? Jesus Christ lol.

@son-goku7523: Please tell me you’re trolling, because explaining an easy correlation couldn’t be more superfluous.

@Sevenizz: Dude, I think it's time to walk away from the computer for a while.

@subspecies: Who posts from a computer anymore?

@Sevenizz: Phone, then? Sheesh. Point is you're drowning in this thread.

Japan is all about mobility and on top of that Xbox doesn’t seem to have many games they want.

Never say never but you can say they have a long road ahead of them.

@subspecies: I’m talking to one person who presently doesn’t understand an easy correlation between brand names having little to do with success or failure in a given market.

Who’s drowning? Do you understand what the term means?

Windows PC gaming has better success in East Asia while game consoles dominates US non-mobile gaming market (1/3 gaming PC vs 2/3 game console), hence the reason for Xbox's position.

True. With that said, the Playstation brand is still far more successful in East Asia than Xbox is despite the popularity of PC gaming. Suggesting that whatever they are doing with Xbox just isn't working outside NA and UK. PC gaming isn't big in Middle East and Xbox is still drowning there.

Don't try to help him, let him keep drowning. It's hilarious watching him fail so badly at damage control.

I wanna see how Winnie the Pooh marketing in the US correlates to Xbox marketing in Japan in his peanut sized fanboy brain.

@son-goku7523: Wow, I’m amazed you actually don’t see it. Pretty much dismiss anything you say from here on out lol.

Windows PC gaming is strong in China and South Korea.

@son-goku7523 Honestly at first I thought he was definitely trolling you, then I had the horrifying realization that he wasn't. Dude is up in here comparing Xbox marketing to Winnie the Pooh and poop. That's some next-level buffoonery right there.

Estimated Total Sales: 102,931 (As of Feb 2019)

If they even could manage to double that number for next gen, it would be a success.

@subspecies: He’s saying the Xbox brand doesn’t sell in japan because of the name. I’m telling him (and apparently you now) that a name is irrelevant to a brand because Winnie the Pooh is a decades old beloved brand and he’s similarly named after feces.

Do you get it now? Because I’m not drawing you dopes a picture.

Did someone said that among American servicemen stationed in Japan that the Xbox brand is popular there?

Sure if the Japanese decided to start buying systems that provide no games.

MS only provided 1 Halo, 1 Gears and a bunch of Forza rehashes for xbox during it's 6 years on the market. The Switch has put out 3x more system purchase worthy games in a short 2 years time period.

Any one who purchased an xbox one, any version, over any other system this gen as their main gaming system played themselves.

Why would Japanese buy an inferior American product? Buying an xbox is like buying a car with no wheels.

Xbox is not the same as Windows, you're not making any sense. Stick to the thread subject.

Xbox is a failure in Asia period, end of story.

I'm not surprised, he has Kinect in his avatar. Any fanboy of Kinect in 2019 can't be too bright.

It would cost to much to secure content for a market that is shrinking every year

No.

Just like Audi and VW difference which address different market segments.

Xbox address this issue in the US market. MS will not leave ~48 percent of US desktop gaming market to Sony.

Deal with it.

@Sevenizz:

Back in the early 2010s, domestic Japanese phones were actually more advanced than the iPhone in various ways. That's why the iPhone initially struggled in Japan. But over the years, Apple adopted various features from Japanese phones. For example, Apple adopted the "emoji" from Japanese phones, in order to win over the Japanese market, while at the same time introducing Japan's emoji culture to the rest of the world. Apple also made efforts to win over Japanese mobile developers, and convince many of them to develop apps for the iPhone. Apple also worked closely with one of Japan's biggest companies, SoftBank, to effectively market the iPhone in Japan. Here's an article about how Apple won over Japan, the world's largest and most competitive mobile market:

How the iPhone won over Japan and gave the world emoji

Apple succeeded in Japan because they understood the market, and catered their products for the local market. Something which Xbox has repeatedly failed to do. So there is no valid excuse for the Xbox's failure in Japan. And like others have said, Xbox has also been beaten by PlayStation in most other countries across the world, not just Japan. So it's ridiculous to single-out Japan when Xbox is losing in almost every other region, with the sole exceptions of North America (its place of origin) and the UK (which is culturally similar to NA). If Xbox is losing to PlayStation in most of the world, then it's a given that it would lose to the PlayStation by a much wider margin in its country of origin.

And finally, to address the issue of xenophobia in Japan, e.g. its strict immigration policies. That mainly comes down to the age of Japan's population. Japan has the highest ageing population in the world, with the elderly population vastly outnumbering the younger population. Younger Japanese tend to be more liberal and open-minded, whereas older Japanese tend to be more conservative and xenophobic. But the older population heavily outnumbers the younger population. It's like Brexit, which exposed a generational divide in Britain between younger liberals and older xenophobic conservatives. But in Japan, the demographics are skewed more heavily towards the older conservation population.

MS has been trying to make Japanese Xbox games to appeal to the Japanese market for ages.

But it did not work on 360 with Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, despite the latter being better than FFXIII saga...

And not on OXB either, with Jade Empire...

And it will not work on Xbone either...

@Jag85: What is known about older populatons is that true, they become more conservative, but also they tend to vote more often than younger generations. Older people tend to have a stake politically than younger people as evident in issues affecting them. Brexit is one of them.