Support NeoGAF

[Lunatic_Gamer]

In a recent Giant Bomb at Nite stream, Spencer gave a brief explanation of some of the reasons why Xbox is having a hard time attracting Japanese game devs.

"It's not any one thing. Sometimes it's business deals that are done, sometimes the team has a focus that they're just...'hey we can only support two or three platforms' and they're kind of reducing development risk. It is real, every platform you add, adds more work to the development team.

"Sometimes it's just a team that doesn't have a lot of connection to Xbox and they don't necessarily see it in their local game store when they walk in.

"It's even why our presence on the ground with Xbox--even if we're not selling as many consoles as the competition, if you go to Yodobashi Camera, I want there to be an Xbox section, I want there to be games that are shown.

"I also want the teams that are kind of on a base level that Xbox is a games platform and it's something they see in their daily lives.

"I love the progress that we've made over the last 5 or 6 years there, but there's obviously more work for us to do."





Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/91834/phil-spencer-explains-why-japanese-games-skip-xbox/index.html

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

What progress Phil? The Xbox leadership back in the 360 days at least fucking tried to open up to the Japanese market by funding epic JRPGs like Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon.

 

[Dis]

 

[L*][*N*K]

The Japanese companies know if Microsoft want their games day 1 they will have to make a deal, god knows what they pay Sega for those Persona and Yakuza games.

 

[Simply Sami]

They don’t need to buy studios. Just fund a third party Japanese studio similar to what Sony did with Bloodborne.

Yeah, Scalebound didn’t work. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try again.

 

[fuck_diggity_cunt_ingdon]

Tamoor Hussain, honestly, put your fucking phone away when you’re doing interviews.

 

[Thief1987]

Selling 2-3x less consoles weekly than PS4 is progress?

 

[Danjin44]

This summer showcase they did pretty damn good job with Japanese games announcements.…..I can’t say the same with Sony.

I never thought in millions years Project Re: Fantasy gets reintroduced in Xbox showcase…….in Xbox.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

This summer showcase they did pretty damn good job with Japanese games announcements.…..I can’t say the same with Sony.

I never thought in millions years Project Re: Fantasy gets reintroduced in Xbox showcase…….in Xbox.

When all of those announcements are multiplatform games that will come to PS5, it's not really meaningful.

 

[Neff]

Lost Odyssey 2 Phil

 

[Danjin44]

When all of those announcements are multiplatform games that will come to PS5, it's not really meaningful.

It doesn’t matter, I don’t own Xbox but it was much more exciting to watch Xbox showcase over Sony even tho I do own PS5.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

What progress Phil? The Xbox leadership back in the 360 days at least fucking tried to open up to the Japanese market by funding epic JRPGs like Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon.

They almost killed Ace Combat too by buying Ace Combat 6 as a 360 exclusive.

 

[Thief1987]

It doesn’t matter, I don’t own Xbox but it was much more exciting to watch Xbox showcase over Sony even tho I do own PS5.

This thread not about you, mr. narciss.

 

[jm89]

"I love the progress that we've made over the last 5 or 6 years there, but there's obviously more work for us to do."

AND

 

[Mibu no ookami]

What progress Phil? The Xbox leadership back in the 360 days at least fucking tried to open up to the Japanese market by funding epic JRPGs like Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon.

To be fair, the failure of those games has lead teams to not want to do this in the future, so he's certainly made a lot of progress. Back in the day, half these games wouldn't even be multiplatform.

 

[Crispy Gamer]

I fell asleep reading halfway through that word salad

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

It doesn’t matter, I don’t own Xbox but it was much more exciting to watch Xbox showcase over Sony even tho I do own PS5.

Woop-dee-do. Xbox showed more Japanese games in one single showcase out of many in a year. What does that achieve for them?

You're focused on a showcase. I and the rest of the gaming market care about the actual games.

MS hasn't drastically improved their Japanese gaming support, and it certainly isn't anywhere near the support PS gets from Japanese devs... regardless of what their latest showcases showed.

Even Phil Spencer agrees and acknowledges that there's more work for his platform to do to improve things in Japan.

 

[Ic3man]

That's fine I'm not into Japanese games anyway.

 

[Danjin44]

This thread not about you, mr. narciss.

 

[Danjin44]

MS hasn't drastically improved their Japanese gaming support, and it certainly isn't anywhere near the support PS gets from Japanese devs... regardless of what their latest showcases showed.

Unfortunately I have agree with that, but it was nice to see, because these Sony showcase has been very boring.

 

[Kumomeme]

sometimes the team has a focus that they're just...'hey we can only support two or three platforms' and they're kind of reducing development risk. It is real, every platform you add, adds more work to the development team.

then why the heck you add Series S?

there already rumors that devs skip the platform due to they didnt want bother with more work and development risk.

 

[Aika'svyse]

I dont think Japan would have been this hard to tackle if they had ever been consistent there with output and I definitely dont expect many strides there unless like Starfield catches on this gen.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

They almost killed Ace Combat too by buying Ace Combat 6 as a 360 exclusive.

Exactly.

I think studios are going to be and ARE extremely reluctant to Xbox exclusives now. Japan might not be as big for consoles as it once was, but it's still the second-largest gaming region for consoles. Getting a 0 there isn't helping things.

Resident Evil took YEARS to get back to their franchise strength and who knows where they could have been had they not tried those exclusivity deals with minor selling consoles. Same with Tomb Raider.

This works out to Sony's advantage because they don't have to be AS aggressive with their deals. They don't have to fund Persona, because Persona is still going to come out on PS5 and they know no one is going to buy Xbox for Persona, because if they're a JRPG fan, they're going to get PS5.

Sony can be really selective about their deals, but Microsoft probably had to pay through the tooth just get Persona on Xbox in the first place. And Sony is okay with this because it's money that they aren't using on exclusivity deals. Do you think Sony cares about a 2-day marketing embargo? Even though that made their showcase significantly worse?

Think all the multiplatform games that Sony showed COULD have been on the showcase, but instead, they were on the Xbox showcase. Either Sony isn't making these marketing deals anymore OR they're looking to charge studios for advertising time and they don't want to pay.

Sony has absolutely sold the shit out of games like Sifu and Stray due to marketing.

The Xbox showcase had 2.7 million views on the xbox channel.

Fable has less than a million views on its trailer. Metal Gear Solid 3 remake has 2.1 million.

If you add the Starfield direct and the Xbox showcase they have 3.9 million views...

Spider-Man 2? 21 million across marvel and playstation....

How does that play out for Namco if Microsoft asks them for Ace Combat 8? The consoles are worlds apart at this point and momentum through the summer with FF16 is going to carry that into a strong fall mindshare for Spider-Man 2. The average person isn't going to care about Starfield. which is mostly a hardcore RPG for PC fans.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I dont think Japan would have been this hard to tackle if they had ever been consistent there with output and I definitely dont expect many strides there unless like Starfield catches on this gen.

If I were Microsoft, I would have partnered with Sega or Matsushita and sold it under their brand. Imagine if Microsoft said to Sega, hey... you're going to own Xbox in Japan and you can create whatever games you want for it and we're going to fund 3rd party games as well.

Sega's biggest problem is they couldn't keep taking Ls on hardware. This would have solved that for them.

 

[T_T]

'Sometimes it's business deals that are done'
Of course he'd start like this. What a clown.

 

[jumpship]

Another strongly worded letter from congress to the Japanese government should help Phil no worries. /s

 

[Begleiter]

These seem like problems he's actually in a position to solve by providing support (financially or otherwise), so zero sympathy.

 

[Pelta88]

Progress in Japan - Taking trips to Japan and announcing said trip on social media.

 

[AJUMP23]

Giant Bomb is still doing the same stuff.

 

[cireza]

They definitely made a very strong progress in terms of having more Japanese games on Xbox during these 5/6 last years.

Loop8 Celestial Edition will be joining my AI Somnium Files : Nirvana Initiative collector edition in the coming days. Both AI games were excellent by the way. If only they could get Shiren 5+ !

Getting the Steins Gate VNs would be good as well, what a wasted opportunity that these were never translated to English while already available on Xbox

 

[N0S]

Ah well more trips for Phil

 

[Neff]

I dont think Japan would have been this hard to tackle if they had ever been consistent there with output

Agreed. They made a good effort with 360 but gave up way too easily. They had a huge mountain to climb because

1. Xbox didn't have enough Japan-centric exclusives
2. Xbox wasn't PlayStation
3. Xbox was (rightfully) seen by Japanese gamers as an ugly, flimsy piece of American crap

3 is no longer a problem, and 2 could have been solved, or at least heavily mitigated, by doubling down on 1. All they had to do was keep chasing Japan and they could have had a presence there. They severely underestimated how important Japan is to console gaming, since they basically just looked at it as 'nope, we didn't win, pack it up'. And that seems to be a recurring thing with Microsoft.

 

[jm89]

Selling 2-3x less consoles weekly than PS4 is progress?

It's outselling the 3ds almost 8 to 1. Why not look at the positives bro?

 

[mejin]

This summer showcase they did pretty damn good job with Japanese games announcements.…..I can’t say the same with Sony.

I never thought in millions years Project Re: Fantasy gets reintroduced in Xbox showcase…….in Xbox.

Sega and Atlus really gave Phil some face, but the games are coming to PlayStation. At Sony showcase we saw announcements of Metal Gear and Phantom Blade 0. We got updates of Granblue, FFXVI and Dragon Dogma 2. FFVII Rebirth would do wonders If It was at the showcase...

Anyway, I can agree Jimbo is fucking the presentations.

 

[oldergamer]

'Sometimes it's business deals that are done'
Of course he'd start like this. What a clown.

He isn't wrong in saying that. The only clowns I see are those that implies there is more to his factual statement then there seems. Street fighter 5 says " hi" btw.

 

[T_T]

He isn't wrong in saying that. The only clowns I see are those that implies there is more to his factual statement then there seems. Street fighter 5 says " hi" btw.

Are you under the impression that I have a problem with exclusives? I have no problem with Sony securing SF5 or MS securing Bethesda and scrapping all the Playstation builds. I do have a problem with dancing around and PR-ing though, like "When everyone plays we all win" and at the same time having 2-day embargo on announcements for other platforms.
I call him a clown because his first response, the most important one, is shifting the blame on others. "Yeah no one cares about Xbox in Japan but the primary reason is because Sony does this and that." He did the exact same thing at the Kinda Funny interview to excuse the shit sales of Xbox.

 

[oldergamer]

Are you under the impression that I have a problem with exclusives? I have no problem with Sony securing SF5 or MS securing Bethesda and scrapping all the Playstation builds. I do have a problem with dancing around and PR-ing though, like "When everyone plays we all win" and at the same time having 2-day embargo on announcements for other platforms.
I call him a clown because his first response, the most important one, is shifting the blame on others. "Yeah no one cares about Xbox in Japan but the primary reason is because Sony does this and that." He did the exact same thing at the Kinda Funny interview to excuse the shit sales of Xbox.

Don't put words in my mouth and stop being so defensive. Yes I used sf5 as an example and that is also factual.

Who said he was only talking about Sony? The fact you are jumping to Sony's defense and getting all up in arms at a very factual statement, is telling that you aren't thinking clearly.

They have been in Japan for 20 years with Xbox, just because you refuse to admit the obvious doesn't mean he isn't being truthful. During the 360 years they only got titles by paying for them and making deals. Sony undeniably has made deals to prevent that in all regions.

 

[Kacho]

Japanese publishers know Xbox want their games on their platform so that gives them leverage. It's up to Phil to keep being proactive and opening the check book as needed.

 

[T_T]

'Don't put words in my mouth'. Did I? You brought up SF5 for some reason.
'stop being so defensive'. What is even the point of saying this?
Why did you bring up SF5 in the first place? Was is it to say that Sony has exclusives so MS get the short end of the stick? Ok. So does MS do exclusives. You don't see Ryan bitch about Starfield PS5 getting scrapped and that this sets them back with the WRPG crowd worldwide.
'Who said he was only talking about Sony?' Ok I see. 'Well he didn't say it so technically it could be anyone. Maybe he was talking about Amazon Luna. You can't prove otherwise'. Everyone here knows how to read between the lines.
'They have been in Japan for 20 years with Xbox'. Yes and after all those years and so little outcome proves that the primary problem was with Xbox's Japan strategy and not outside factors.
'just because you refuse to admit'. Admit what? I never said that it didn't happen or that it didn't have an effect. You should read again my comment. But him shifting blame more than once and making it the number 1 factor is the reason for the original comment.
Edit: Forgot to reply. oldergamer . Thanks L*][*N*K for the reminder.

 

[L*][*N*K]

'Don't put words in my mouth'. Did I? You brought up SF5 for some reason.
'stop being so defensive'. What is even the point of saying this?
Why did you bring up SF5 in the first place? Was is it to say that Sony has exclusives so MS get the short end of the stick? Ok. So does MS do exclusives. You don't see Ryan bitch about Starfield PS5 getting scrapped and that this sets them back with the WRPG crowd worldwide.
'Who said he was only talking about Sony?' Ok I see. 'Well he didn't say it so technically it could be anyone. Maybe he was talking about Amazon Luna. You can't prove otherwise'. Everyone here knows how to read between the lines.
'They have been in Japan for 20 years with Xbox'. Yes and after all those years and so little outcome proves that the primary problem was with Xbox's Japan strategy and not outside factors.
'just because you refuse to admit'. Admit what? I never said that it didn't happen or that it didn't have an effect. You should read again my comment. But him shifting blame more than once and making it the number 1 factor is the reason for the original comment.

I am confused

 

[graywolf323]

'Sometimes it's business deals that are done'
Of course he'd start like this. What a clown.

yep that was the first thing I noticed as well, just subtly implying it’s because of PlayStation making deals (let’s ignore all the games that come to Switch/PS/PC but not Xbox which would have nothing to do with deals )

 

[Del_X]

I actually think Xbox needs a complete rebrand in the east. Like, don't even call it Xbox. Different UI, different box, different subsidiary that actually stays in Japan and markets it there. I don't think it'll ever make much progress short of that.

Japan isn't that big of a market outside of mobile, so it's not like it's critical to profitability - however the above is what an actually serious attempt would look like.

 

[LordCBH]

I mean they know that if they make a great game they can just wait for MS to fund the port of it.

 

[yurinka]

Some 3rd party Japanese devs instead of signing with MS they sign with Nintendo or (most of them) PlayStation because they PS and Switch are their main markets.

I think for some other Japanese devs the Xbox market is too small for them to be profitable to port their games to Xbox. It isn't even worth it for them to get moneyhatted for an Xbox exclusive.

I assume for some of them would accept MS money to pay the Xbox port, but their sales in Xbox must be too low, to the point MS thinks it isn't worth it to pay the port.

MS should highly increase the 3rd party game sales on Xbox to make it more appealing for devs. But instead they keep shrinking them when focusing on 'day one on GP'. So I think the 3rd party support, specially the one from Japanese teams, will keep shrinking outside the few supersellers or paid by MS.

 

[K' Dash]

man, people really hate Xbox around here, it's like Phil fucked their girlfriends.

Edit: the fact that people reported this joke and I was given a warning is just hilarious.

 

[Honey Bunny]

'because it doesnt sell anything there' was running through his mind throughout that entire reply

 

[consoul]

if you go to Yodobashi Camera, I want there to be an Xbox section, I want there to be games that are shown.

The Xbox section at Yodobashi couldn't be any smaller. It's tiny presence sends a message alright, but it's not the one Phil has in mind.

 

[oldergamer]

'Don't put words in my mouth'. Did I? You brought up SF5 for some reason.
'stop being so defensive'. What is even the point of saying this?
Why did you bring up SF5 in the first place? Was is it to say that Sony has exclusives so MS get the short end of the stick? Ok. So does MS do exclusives. You don't see Ryan bitch about Starfield PS5 getting scrapped and that this sets them back with the WRPG crowd worldwide.
'Who said he was only talking about Sony?' Ok I see. 'Well he didn't say it so technically it could be anyone. Maybe he was talking about Amazon Luna. You can't prove otherwise'. Everyone here knows how to read between the lines.
'They have been in Japan for 20 years with Xbox'. Yes and after all those years and so little outcome proves that the primary problem was with Xbox's Japan strategy and not outside factors.
'just because you refuse to admit'. Admit what? I never said that it didn't happen or that it didn't have an effect. You should read again my comment. But him shifting blame more than once and making it the number 1 factor is the reason for the original comment.
Edit: Forgot to reply. oldergamer . Thanks L*][*N*K for the reminder.

umm, admit that what he said is factually correct? Xbox needing to make deals for nearly every game is just the point he was getting at. He wasn't going into an hour-long response to a single question and summed up some of the larger factors. Nothing wrong with that. just because you don't like it, doesn't mean he is a clown. The fact is, you don't know more about it than he does if that is what you are getting at...

 

[oldergamer]

yep that was the first thing I noticed as well, just subtly implying it’s because of PlayStation making deals (let’s ignore all the games that come to Switch/PS/PC but not Xbox which would have nothing to do with deals )

He didn't say "Sony" in his response. I'm sure Nintendo also makes deals, as they are competing with PlayStation too.

 

[T_T]

umm, admit that what he said is factually correct? Xbox needing to make deals for nearly every game is just the point he was getting at. He wasn't going into an hour-long response to a single question and summed up some of the larger factors. Nothing wrong with that. just because you don't like it, doesn't mean he is a clown. The fact is, you don't know more about it than he does if that is what you are getting at...

Xbox needs to make deals because Japanese devs don't see a return on investment on that platform. It doesn't help that Series consoles sell massively less than PS4 in the region. So they wait for Spencer to come with the bag of cash to even bother.
I called him a clown not because of the brand popularity in Japan, but of the disingenuous way he framed it. 'It's primarily the competition's fault'. I would not bother with his comment but this was the second time he has done it in the period of a month (KF interview).
'you don't know more about it than he does if that is what you are getting at...'. What the hell is this now? Appeal to authority? Should we take the word of executives at face value now? And he does know more about it than me. That doesn't mean he is telling the truth or that he doesn't obfuscate things to prop up his brand.