The issue of Xbox and Japan has been a recurring theme over the past few years, it has always been a tough market for Microsoft and for this reason we continue to have issues getting certain titles to the console.
On many occasions we see how games are announced from Japan that are moving to Xbox, obviously it’s not a decision that is taken lightly, just on many occasions the console doesn’t have enough of a presence in the country, so the studios don’t invest that extra for Phil Spencer it’s a bit of a problem, he wants me as many games as possible arrive on the platformbut he fully understands the situations that can arise when you want to develop him.
Japanese games that still aren’t coming to Xbox
There is no particular reason. Sometimes it’s business deals, sometimes the team is focused on that… “Hey, we can only support two or three platforms” and they reduce the development risk, the platform added form creates more work for the development team.
Sometimes it’s just a PC that doesn’t have much connection to Xbox and they don’t necessarily see it in their local game store when they visit. That’s also why I want our presence in the field with the Xbox, even if we don’t sell as many consoles as the competition: if you go to Yodobashi Camera, I want there to be an Xbox section, I want games to happen. I also want entry-level PCs to see Xbox as a gaming platform and it’s something they see in their daily lives. I love the progress we’ve made over the last 5 or 6 years there, but obviously there’s still a lot of work to do.
As you can read in the quote above, it’s not a specific reason, it’s a series of circumstances that make it difficult for all developers to be able to be day one in such a complex market than that of Japan.
