Why doesn't Japanese gamers buy the Xbox Consoles ?

[Apexnexius]

Why ?

Xbox Series X/S - 0.19 millions sold
Xbox One - 0.12 millions sold
Xbox 360 - 1.66 million sold
Xbox - 0.53 millions sold

What are the reasons behind this ?

[*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆Prinny☆]

The original Xbox was stupidly large and had no games on it that appealed to the Japanese.
They're only just recently starting to take interest in Western games.
They weren't fond of the Sega Genesis, much, either. It, too, was considered "too Western" by them.

[Electric Cupcake]

Gaijin bakayarous. Sony is kuso, but not nearly to that extent.

[crunchyfrog]

Originalmente postado por Pronnu:

The original Xbox was stupidly large and had no games on it that appealed to the Japanese.
They're only just recently starting to take interest in Western games.
They weren't fond of the Sega Genesis, much, either. It, too, was considered "too Western" by them.

Also, to add to this Microsft made some absolute HOWLERS of bad decisions for the Japanese market.

You're absolutely right in that they didn't take the Japanese market seriously or correctly and there were few games that were for them.

Last time I went to Japan in 2008, I remember seeing the Japanese version of Bioshock having recently come out and few in Akihabara were taking notice of it. It still is quite rare for western games to have such crossover unless it REALLY gets Japan and caters for it.

Anywho, what made things worse back in the day was MS' decision to open up a Japanese office for Xbox. They handled it miserably - it's pretty well documented if you check back to reporting of the time.

They made a number of poor decisions, and didn't familiarise themselves with things like Japanese laws much, or marketing tastes or anything really. They stuck fairly closely to the American way of doing things and it REALLY rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

Then perhaps the cherry on the cake was when MS took the decision to close the office. They handled that TERRIBLY. Especially back in those times (maybe not so much now) jobs in Japan were seen as long term things - once you got employed you could stay on and almost become part of the family in some respects.

MS just quickly decided "nah it's all over, we're closing" and just dumped the final notices on all the staff, and they were very, very pissed.

This tainted their reputation further, if that were possible.

[Coinkydink]

Nationalism is big in Japan, and Microsoft sucks big time

[Midori]

Why would you when there's a domestic game console with more exclusives you likely care about?

[Crystal Sharrd]

You can just get Xbox games on Windows PCs.

[vkobe]

Originalmente postado por Apexnexius:

Why ?

Xbox Series X/S - 0.19 millions sold
Xbox One - 0.12 millions sold
Xbox 360 - 1.66 million sold
Xbox - 0.53 millions sold

What are the reasons behind this ? :lunar2020thinkingtiger:

ask phil spencer, the guy think is good idea to release xbox game on ps5 and switch

so smart people buy pc, ps5, switch

and lol gamepass, you can still get it on pc, even pc cheaper than xbox s

and yes i know dude is from 2022 post

[EliteEndermanzz]

Sony and Nintendo more popular there

[crunchyfrog]

Originalmente postado por vkobe:

Originalmente postado por Apexnexius:

Why ?

Xbox Series X/S - 0.19 millions sold
Xbox One - 0.12 millions sold
Xbox 360 - 1.66 million sold
Xbox - 0.53 millions sold

What are the reasons behind this ? :lunar2020thinkingtiger:

ask phil spencer, the guy think is good idea to release xbox game on ps5 and switch

so smart people buy pc, ps5, switch

and lol gamepass, you can still get it on pc, even pc cheaper than xbox s

and yes i know dude is from 2022 post

A little bit of extra context needs adding too.

Raw sales figures are not much use. They indicate how many have been sold to stores and not much else.

The sad reality is that when you take a closer look at say, the Xbox 360 era, it held sway and the PS3 was a disaster at the start but by the end of the cycle the roles had largely reversed.

The PS3 rallied and their total sales were close.

But more importatnly, thanks to some idiotic decisions when MS rushed out the 360, they had two major problems. First was the disc scratching issue that occurred when you moved the console.

This occurred because MS didn't fit the tiny brake on the optical drive and they lost BIG on that one as internal documents showed they knew about the problem via a legal suit. As a consequence, it cost them and that's why there was that sticker on the drawer saying not to move the thing with a disc in.

Then of course the RROD problem. This was the kicker. The end result of that fiasco was that though they sold gangbusters of consoles, they made nothing profit wise.

[vkobe]

Originalmente postado por crunchyfrog:

Originalmente postado por vkobe:

ask phil spencer, the guy think is good idea to release xbox game on ps5 and switch

so smart people buy pc, ps5, switch

and lol gamepass, you can still get it on pc, even pc cheaper than xbox s

and yes i know dude is from 2022 post

A little bit of extra context needs adding too.

Raw sales figures are not much use. They indicate how many have been sold to stores and not much else.

The sad reality is that when you take a closer look at say, the Xbox 360 era, it held sway and the PS3 was a disaster at the start but by the end of the cycle the roles had largely reversed.

The PS3 rallied and their total sales were close.

But more importatnly, thanks to some idiotic decisions when MS rushed out the 360, they had two major problems. First was the disc scratching issue that occurred when you moved the console.

This occurred because MS didn't fit the tiny brake on the optical drive and they lost BIG on that one as internal documents showed they knew about the problem via a legal suit. As a consequence, it cost them and that's why there was that sticker on the drawer saying not to move the thing with a disc in.

Then of course the RROD problem. This was the kicker. The end result of that fiasco was that though they sold gangbusters of consoles, they made nothing profit wise.

xbox 360 was last time xbox really take seriously video game

after they stopped to care about video game and try to turn xbox into smartphone for video game

currently they mess badly xbox like with their rule not sexy waifu in video game, matt hansen insult players, release xbox game on ps5 and switch, so seriously i only see idiot still continue to buy xbox, if people want avoid ps5, they can still get steam deck, pc or laptop, asus rog, they all run greatly gamepass

[crunchyfrog]

Originalmente postado por vkobe:

Originalmente postado por crunchyfrog:

A little bit of extra context needs adding too.

Raw sales figures are not much use. They indicate how many have been sold to stores and not much else.

The sad reality is that when you take a closer look at say, the Xbox 360 era, it held sway and the PS3 was a disaster at the start but by the end of the cycle the roles had largely reversed.

The PS3 rallied and their total sales were close.

But more importatnly, thanks to some idiotic decisions when MS rushed out the 360, they had two major problems. First was the disc scratching issue that occurred when you moved the console.

This occurred because MS didn't fit the tiny brake on the optical drive and they lost BIG on that one as internal documents showed they knew about the problem via a legal suit. As a consequence, it cost them and that's why there was that sticker on the drawer saying not to move the thing with a disc in.

Then of course the RROD problem. This was the kicker. The end result of that fiasco was that though they sold gangbusters of consoles, they made nothing profit wise.

xbox 360 was last time xbox really take seriously video game

after they stopped to care about video game and try to turn xbox into smartphone for video game

currently they mess badly xbox like with their rule not sexy waifu in video game, matt hansen insult players, release xbox game on ps5 and switch, so seriously i only see idiot still continue to buy xbox, if people want avoid ps5, they can still get steam deck, pc or laptop, asus rog, they all run greatly gamepass

Well, sure to a point.

They're not and havent' considered making it mobile like. But they have made howlers of mistakes as have Sony.

But the point here is HOW you deal with your faux pas. Sony messed up with the PS3 but turned it around by the end. They got it right for the PS4, but ended up making the same mistakes for the PS5 that they have for the PS3.

But MS, in the OPs question, for the Japanese market, they UTTERLY ruined their reputation long before they messed up with the Xbox One and after. I detailed this above with how they handle the Japanese office.

So it's not just their global policies that are bad, but how they handled the Japanese market was utterly tone deaf.

[Xero_Daxter]

Truth be told the only Xbox Console I owned was the 360 and even then I played my PS3 more often.

[crunchyfrog]

Originalmente postado por Xero_Daxter:

Truth be told the only Xbox Console I owned was the 360 and even then I played my PS3 more often.

From the point of view of playing the 360 was fantastic.

SImply because they did have a head start and they had one massive benefit - an easier chipset to code for.

I love the PS3 too, but sadly there's tons of multiplatform games that run worse on the PS3 due to not being correctly ported to accommodate the multicell architecture. Great for first party titles, but awful on multiplats.

Of course, this perspective has nothing to do with how well they did in Japan or performed as a business.

[Zero]

Because they suck at shooters.

[Xero_Daxter]

Originalmente postado por Zero:

Because they suck at shooters.

You realize that Shooter Games are more prevalent in PC? Look at Counter-Strike.