Does Scorpio need Japan's support?

Both PS4 and Switch are heavily supported by Japanese developers, obviously. But in the case of Xbox One, Japan has been pretty bare. There was Final Fantasy XV, but other popular franchises like the Tales series, Persona, Dragon Quest, Ni No Kuni, Monster Hunter, Ys, and hundreds of more niche type games, are absent. I personally enjoy those games and see it as a negative that MS doesn't do more to cater to them. Or maybe they do, but it's just not going well (Scalebound was a huge missed opportunity). Do you think it matters, SW? Does Scorpio need Japan's support? Even games like Persona are becoming more mainstream, so it's more noticeable now more than ever.

I don't know if it matters as a whole. The Xbox 360 had comparatively smaller Japanese support to the PS3 but was still a success.

I personally like Japanese games so it will be a loss. I have a Switch and I plan to buy a PS4 Pro this year.

I think Microsoft have given up on being a factor in Japanese gaming at this point.

An exclusive Minecraft would gain a lot of Japanese support.

Whether they "need" it or not, Japanese devs have shown that they prefer to work with their own than others.

The 3DS and Vita (yeah Vita, can you believe it) are outperforming the PS4 there. They don't care about specs, but rather portability and accessibility and how many prepubescent teen upskirt dating sims will it have? I hear those are super important for the success of a console round those parts in Japan.

nope, japan just blew their load. it will be another decade before they're relevant again

Scorpio has enough trouble getting America's support.

Probably not going to happen until they figure out how to sell more consoles in Japan or at least at 360 levels.

First they've got to figure out how to get their own territory back which I'm sure no one expected after the 360.

I don't think it matters much.

The 360 was a huge success and they did that without having anywhere close to as much Japanese support as Sony. The audience that likes Xbox doesn't care much about those types of games and the people that love those kind of games are already aboard the Sony train and they aren't going to switch, so I don't think it's worth Microsoft making a big effort to gain more Japanese support.

It would be better to focus their efforts and resources on other things that have a chance of being more fruitful and regaining the 360 users that they lost this generation which had nothing to do with Japanese support.

MS already catered to the japanese market in the early 360 days with Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Eternal Sonata, etc. It didn't help sales in Japan, they were losing money even selling there. So I'm sure MS gave up, and I don't blame them. I don't like it though because I like quite a few japanese games that X1 doesn't get.

Every Console that wants to be relevant needs Japanese dev support. Not having these games eliminates a whole bunch of people from even considering your console.

@primorandomguy:

How many units did the 360 sale vs the x1 in Japan?

They'd probably love to have the 360 Japanese sales back as well as some exclusive games.

@lrdfancypants: I'm not sure. I know the 360 sold like shit in Japan, just like X1 is selling like shit in Japan, but I can't give you raw numbers.

As much as Nintendo needs western support.

@lrdfancypants: Xbox 360 sold only $1 million units in Japan and it's the only MS Xbox console to achieve that milestone. Trust me, MS will never see the opportunity making another Xbox console reaching another million sold units again.

Seeing Xbox 360 $1 million sold in Japan is really amazing.

@primorandomguy:

I'd bet that MS would love for the X1 to have 360 sales numbers.

Truth is they'd love to have PS4 Japan sale numbers.

Everyone says MS just ignores Japan or should ignore Japan. This isn't logical.

@lrdfancypants: Did you even read my first post? I said I wish they did get japanese support, and I made a fact that in the early 360 days they did cater to the japanese market. The fact is even if they got most japanese support, their sales wouldn't change much, if at all.

@davillain-:

The point is, I googled it, the 360 sold 1.6 million or so.

The X1 has sold what? Less than 100,000?

People who say Japan hates MS because it's American doesn't make sense. Maybe they hate the x1.

I'd think it's smarter to find out why the x1 doesn't sale in Japan and fix that instead of writing off a country that bought your direct competitor at a % of probably more than 10 of your overall global sales on X1.

No

Nope. Japanese games are mostly terrible. The only time Japanese games tend to not suck is when Japanese developers leave all the Japanese stuff out of them and make western-style games.

The Xbox brand has lived just fine with the scarce Japanese games it's got over its lifetime and will continue to do well without the effeminate garbage they usually pump out.

@primorandomguy: "Did you even read my first post?"

Yes

"It didn't help sales in Japan, they were losing money even selling there. So I'm sure MS gave up, and I don't blame them."

This is what I was referring.

@lrdfancypants: I mean it's a fact.

The biggest games this year have all been Japanese, this post was always going to be ignorant, but it's a special kind of ignorant now.

No.

@tjandmia: what?

I think most of the good games this year have been made by Japanese developers.

Sure why not? Thats why Phil went to Japan. They are putting Xbox back to the OG Xbox marketing mode. It had plenty of Japanese games. Just dont blow the budget on them, you wont outdo Sony at being Japanese. More AA type Japanese games (Phantom Dust, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Jet Set Radio, ReCore) cant hurt, I'd play a few of them.

They also are going to start pushing more Chinese games so I expect to see a bunch more wuxia games on Xbox if thats your thing.

As far as Scalebound goes, I still think it had more to do with the devs than MS. Sure its a disappointment, but if the game wasnt running it had to be cancelled. MS wasnt gonna pull a DriveClub and get more negative press dumbed on them, not when the bigger plan of crawling back to respectibility was already full throttle. Had to cut the deadweight lose.

Well Phil Spencer did just come back from begging for games in Japan.

Xbox used to have some awesome Japanese games, Microsoft dropped the ball so hard this gen. Ninja Gaiden, Otogi, Chromehounds, Otogi, JSRF, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, etc. All the progress Microsoft made with Japan was lost this gen, the PS4 is back to getting exclusives like the PS2 had.

All the games you listed did poorly except of Ninja Gaiden.

Nonetheless, do you think Xbox should get Japanese games? Do you think it needs them?

Unless you happen to like Japanese games, then you know, not so terrible.

But hey, sweeping generalizations ftw!

They don't need them. But it can be beneficial.

Scorpio's selling point isn't original games or exclusives (it has neither) the system is being sold on the ability to produce multiplat performance slightly better than PS4 Pro and worse than a half decent PC. Zero fucks given by MS for Japanese games (or any other games for that matter).

To be #1? Yes. To be successful? No.

@tryhardtroll: It would be great. I know the Xbox brand doesn't have much of a following in Japan (or home consoles at all, really) but it would still be excellent for the western market who do have interest in Xbox.

@charizard1605: So desperately in order to finally have a rounded library?

Pretty much

Should they even bother? Japanese gamers and developers have made it clear they do not want Xbox.

If I want Japanese games my Pro will do fine. If Xbox gamers want Japanese games, they should consider PS4 or Switch. Japanese platforms that Japanese developers will support.

No. What it needs is what the Xbox One doesn't have. Games.

Japan doesn't give a shit about Xbox, Xbox has survived and even thrived without Japanese sales, evidently, Xbox doesn't need Japanese support.

@raugutcon: But you have to admit that it wouldn't hurt for the western market either. Especially when you consider the quality of games coming from Japan recently.

@tryhardtroll: I can't imagine it would be cheap and it's certainly not the first time they have tried.

Scorpio doesn't need JRPG's it needs an identity and games of its own i.e. a reason to exist outside of making multiplats slightly better. Any gamer knows this. Spencer doesn't.

Also, you come across as a really badly written kvally or nyaddc troll alt. Yeah, try harder, or just fucking try at all.

@tryhardtroll: It really isn't as simple as that. :P

Keep in mind that Microsoft tried this before and were unsuccessful, even going as far as obtaining two high profile RPG exclusives such as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-18-ms-responds-to-xbox-360-in-japan-concern#comments

I'm not saying it is impossible for Microsoft to create hype around the Xbox brand in Japan, but it isn't as simple as throwing money at it. The console market in general isn't very strong in Japan, this includes the market leader, PS4.

Hmmm I don't know... maybe. I personally couldn't care less about Japanese games, but it'd probably help if Xbox had a few JRPGs etc for fans who want it. But I wouldn't spend huge sums trying to lure Japanese devs to make games for Xbox.