Despite its own efforts, Microsoft is still seeing disappointing Xbox and Xbox 360 sales in the Land of the Rising Sun. MS Game Studios boss Shane Kim has said previously that Microsoft is "committed to success in the region," but today one of Microsoft's own developers played down the importance of the territory.
Speaking to website Ars Technica, Microsoft's Matt Lee, a developer in Microsoft's Game Technology Group, said that "Japan is not necessarily the most important market for gaming these days," adding, "it is also not quite as large as the US and European markets."
Admittedly he's no Peter Moore, but Lee does share some knowledgeable insights on Microsoft's Japanese dilemma. "The main problem with the Xbox 360 launch in Japan was that none of the big Japanese titles (such as Dead or Alive) were ready for launch day," he said. "That hurt us a lot. The main concern is getting the games that players in that market want to play."
"Both the Japanese and US markets are reaching saturation at this point," he continued. "The big battleground for us (and for everyone) is going to be Europe."
Does this mean we can finally expect faster - and indeed cheaper - releases this side of the pond? Let us all hope so.
Comments
17 comments so far...
marty11 on 15 Jun '06 said:
X360 will never sell in Japan ever,but Japan could decide the winner of the nex gen war if its close.
maguire12 on 15 Jun '06 said:
What a load of bollox. The days of the Japan ruling the console world are long gone.
myoldfruity on 15 Jun '06 said:
Just realised what i just said didnt really add up
basically tho, Sony are gonna lose a massive slice of the market, MS not gonna do even remotely well in Japan but take a much bigger slice of Europe and America, and the Wii, well if it works as well as hoped is gonna be under every gamers telly for the price it comes at with the innovation (see: fun) it offers
myoldfruity on 15 Jun '06 said:
oh yeah forgot thats what i was going to say as well, look at the size of europe and americas markets compared to japan!
rico_dredd on 15 Jun '06 said:
Hhmm so MS admit their games like generic FPS, American Sports and Driving games don't appeal to Japanese players, well don't appeal to lots of other races either to be honest. The original XBOX was awash with these 3 genres and the software for the X360 looks to repeat the same yawn...
Innovate, imagine and invigorate users
falloutwarchief on 15 Jun '06 said:
Yes, it will be tough for them once the PS3 launches. I'm sitting squarely in Microsoft territory though, Sony's last generation was a joke for the most part, they have the least interesting system-specific games, and they lie. They lie all the damn time.
Its unfortunate that more people don't actually understand gaming. I read on these forums before about how some people in England don't know about Nintendo or Microsoft, becuase Playstation is such a big brand. Chavs all love Playstation becuase they're too thick to actually care about games/systems that aren't Fifa, Pro Ev, Champ Manager and GTA.
Its the same here in Ireland, any kid or "skanger" (our equivalent of chavs) that I ever mention games to immediately mentions Playstation. Hardly any of them have even played Xbox or Cube but assume Playstation is best because all the other morons on their intellectual level and with their amount of interest (none) in actual games all have the system.
I hope Microsoft win, they deserve it for bringing such marvellous hardware, software and services to the market for two solid generations.
Sony on the other hand, sits on their brand and churns out truckloads of crap.
Its no coincidence that the hardcore crowd are turning against them.
myoldfruity on 15 Jun '06 said:
what a pile of wank, every console is awash with those three genres, just the Xbox did them better than the PS2 so people remember them more! Also "races"?!?!?! What the holy hell are you talking about? Please, fill me in cuz it seems like your mouth and your arsehole, have somehow been mixed up
myoldfruity on 15 Jun '06 said:
dude, i feel like we are somehow connected in mind and spirit - keep on preachin the faith good man
silverwolf38401 on 15 Jun '06 said:
Japan isn't as important as many make it seem. Xbox1 has even less support and it held second place! As much as I like certain Japanese games I do have to say I can also live without them. Besides to me IMO the best Japanese developers are Square, capcom and komami. Capcom being my favorite and they happen to be on board already. Besides from what I've seen lately US and EU developers are now amongst the best out there.
steven_h1 on 15 Jun '06 said:
Did you just ignore what Matt Lee posted later?
"Hey everyone, this is Matt, the guy being interviewed. I have a few clarifications:
1. SpeedTree is not a Microsoft product; it's a 3rd party piece of middleware (http://www.speedtree.com).
2. I was slightly misquoted on my comments on the Japanese market - it's a very important market, and what I was trying to say is that it is not quite as large as the US and European markets. The Japanese market is very important to Xbox 360, and we've got a whole bunch of great Japanese titles on the way from major Japanese developers.
3. The quote about Kameo is also slightly incorrect - we've been using full game titles to test and develop XNA Build (the build system), not the XNA Framework (which is the managed code system).
Jeff: Yeah, this article was done in the middle of May, a few weeks before the spring update went live.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Matt Lee, June 14, 2006 21:49"
potnoodle1 on 15 Jun '06 said:
Japan is where a lot of the innovation in games comes from so of course it's an important market for Microsoft.
I gotta agree with what Rico_Dredd said earlier. The 360 so far is saturated with FPS and sports titles, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing if you like those types of games, for others - me included - they're pretty boring. There's a distinct lack of other genres for the machine. The original XBox has the same problem.
More Japanese interests means more Japanese developers, which means different types of games for the machine. That can only be a good thing and it's what Microsoft needs if it really wants to win the console war this time around.
LEEROY_UK1 on 15 Jun '06 said:
Why should we in the UK care if MS make it big in JP,What should matter to us is what we get in return for our hard earned here in europe.
Stuff the JP market -WII will outsell ps3 and 360 in the land of the rising sun.
Darth_Malik on 15 Jun '06 said:
I totally agree. I think that the Playstation had the best library of games last gen. And no i'm not a chav, or dumb. It was just my opinion. And I didn't like those games falloutwarcheif mentioned other than GTA. To say that anyone who likes those games is a Chav, or stupid is very pretentious. Playstation had loads of better games than that. MGS, DMC, and Final Fantasy (and XI doesn't count) to ame but a few. Are you saying they are dumb and stupid aswell.
Oh and FYI Sony has come up with some of the best and most original games. Ico and Shadow of the Collosus aswell as God of War (great if not original).
And if you want to talk about games on other systems, the Xbox and 360 are the worst possible examples. A surprising number of those games, come to PC. Good for me, not so good for MS fanboys.
Also I certainly wouldn't describe MS software as maarvellous.
ptechg on 15 Jun '06 said:
Of course Japan is not most important. To Microsoft, America is. Home turf and all that. Concentrate where the brand is known and respected... and word will follow in gaming circles.
Anonymous on 15 Jun '06 said:
That's right, Microsoft. Give up Japan already. Next, give up US. Finally, give up Europe. Sony's the winner!
Anonymous on 15 Jun '06 said:
Mistwalker games such as: Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey (my most anticipated RPG
) and Cry On will win the hearts of the Japanese people.
I, for one, can’t wait for these RPGs to be released!!!
Anonymous on 16 Jun '06 said:
And once again, Microsof officials says something stupid and are now trying to damper the damage done. Nice strategy, Microsot. First, try to win Japan. Failing that, call Japan unimportant. Yeah, like that'll work to Microsoft's advantage.