Microsoft has a Plan to make the Xbox One more Popular in Japan

We've said it once, and we'll say it again, but the Xbox One is not doing well in Japan. Sure, it may be selling better than Sony overall in recent months, but in Japan, sales continue to flop and flounder and generally embarrass Microsoft, who has historically tried many, many things in an effort to turn this historic trend on its head.

Well, speaking with Play Asia, Xbox Boss Phil Spencer says he thinks he knows the real reason why the big green box has failed to draw the attention they feel the console deserves: it simply doesn't offer the kind of games that Japanese gamers are drawn to.

"I think it’s due to a lot of games that are released on the console, I feel that a lot of the games are not games that the Japanese public would play and get themselves into. A lot of Japanese gamers really seem to like games such as Persona 5 or Nioh and that is why we decided to get in touch with Japanese developers to create such games as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey for the Xbox 360. If we plan on doing better in the Japanese game market we want to release games that the average Japanese gamer will really enjoy."

Astute observations, and as he says, Microsoft has historically recognized that was a problem with Blue Dragon, which was created by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, and drawn by Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, which couldn't be more Japanese if it starred the cast of One Piece and invasive tentacles. It didn't work.

So what's the plan for the future, then?

"So far we have made friends with a variety of developers that then asked to create games for our system; such as Mr. Inafune Keiji with ReCore & Mr. Kamiya Hideki and the staff from Platinum Games for the development of Scalebound. We plan to talk with many other developers in order to bring more games to the Japanese market"

More of what we've tried before? Well, it's certainly a better idea than some of the stuff they did in the past, which includes hosting lavish launch parties and hiring a "task force", so maybe they can win this war of attrition if they throw more famous names into the mix. However, if that'll be enough to overcome the Xbox One's perception as a 'hipster device' to the Japanese marketplace, well... I'd normally say "we'd have to see", but I think I can safely guess it's not going to work.

Still, it means good games for us. That's nice.