20 moments that defined Xbox: #9 — Committing to Japan

By Luke Albigés,

The next chapter in our defining Xbox moments feature series is a bit of a strange one. You see, it's not easy to fit something into a timeframe when it's still ongoing so we weren't really sure where to place this one, but I felt Microsoft's commitment to the Japanese market was worthy of discussion so really wanted to include it. This spot on the timeline — the tail end of the Xbox 360 generation — seemed a suitable one. After failing to crack the east with the original Xbox, you can't blame MS for having a second pop at it with the next console, but seeing things fail in much the same way twice would likely be enough for many companies to admit defeat and pull the plug. Microsoft did no such thing, and while the Xbox One generation was arguably its weakest in terms of Japanese Xbox presence, that ongoing commitment hasn't waned. While it's still not going to topple Japan's natively-created consoles on their home turf any time soon, all signs point to Xbox finally finding some degree of footing in the market, meaning two decades of persistence might finally be paying off.

Like many of these articles, this one begins before Xbox even existed, taking us all the way back to the turn of millennium and Sega's final console, the Dreamcast. This wonderful little device can, in some ways, be seen as a forerunner to the Xbox — the online focus and controller that seemingly influenced the design of Xbox's original Duke pad are key ones, as is the fact that Microsoft itself was involved in Dreamcast from the beginning, developing a custom version of Windows CE designed to make porting PC games to the not-dissimilar architecture of the Sega console easier. In hindsight, it's clear that Microsoft had a vested interested in the Dreamcast, a system that was perhaps just a little early to the party with a lot of the ideas that Microsoft was already throwing around for its own foray into console gaming.

When Dreamcast was bullied out of the market by the commercial juggernaut that was the PlayStation 2, Sega decided it was time to throw in the towel and shift into solely developing games, not hardware. That existing relationship between the two tech giants would prove to be extremely useful and mutually beneficial, with Sega's games needing a home now they weren't going to be building one themselves, and most of Microsoft's games library being western-developed titles. The partnership between the two firms continued, leading to Microsoft managing to secure some key Sega sequels such as Jet Set Radio Future, Crazy Taxi 3, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and more as console exclusives on the original Xbox — presumably, the hope was both to diversify the Xbox lineup to attract even more players globally, and to give the console a fighting chance in Sega's home territory of Japan, where launching as the first major non-Japanese console was always going to be an uphill struggle. The first part worked really well, the second... yeah, not so much. A few factors will have contributed to the low uptake of Xbox in Japan: the sheer size of both the machine and the controller, for one thing, as well as an inherent distrust for this gaijin Microsoft trying to muscle in on a console market that had been dominated by Japanese firms for decades. Even as other Japanese developers were tempted over to develop for the most powerful console on the market — Team Ninja being among the biggest, bringing Dead or Alive 3 at launch, a remarkable Ninja Gaiden reboot, and the really-quite-Japanese DoA Xtreme Beach Volleyball — the situation didn't improve much over the course of the generation, but Microsoft's commitment did not soon falter.

Roll on the Xbox 360 generation, where it seemed like Microsoft's ambitions may have shifted somewhat, looking to a specific genre rather than a specific developer to offer it unique exclusives. That genre was the JRPG, killing two birds with one stone by delivering Japanese games typically extremely popular in their home country, while filling a clear gap from the original Xbox's library. One of the biggest gets here was attracting Mistwalker, the Japanese team founded by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, to put out two brand new RPGs as Xbox 360 exclusives: Blue Dragon in 2006, then Lost Odyssey the following year. Team Ninja would also return with more exclusives, including Dead or Alive 4 and Ninja Gaiden II (which did admittedly later see a PS3 release, but through a heavily censored Sigma version), and more and more developers seemed to be coming around to the idea of Xbox as a platform, with popular teams like Cave and Treasure bringing their hardcore arcade shmups to the system to help further increase library diversity and give the 360 more games that could attract eastern players.

As the generation went on, though, and the 360 picked up momentum in the west to present a legitimate alternative to the established console names on the Xbox's turf, it must be said that it seemed that Microsoft's attention was more on growing that than continuing to invest quite so much in its weakest market. Instead, it appeared happy to let that early groundwork snowball as the 360 continued to attract Japanese developers, and the console did manage to carve out its own niche in Japan. Unfortunately, this less proactive approach continued up to and beyond the launch of the next console — Xbox One arrived in Japan almost a year later than its initial release, boasting a higher price tag than its direct rival, the PS4, and undoing a fair amount of the good faith the 360 had started to build in the territory. A new generation is always an exciting time and many loyal 360 fans simply couldn't wait, either picking up a PS4 to kick the next generation off early, or simply importing the Xbox One if they were fully sold on going green. Xbox One didn't even have that same kind of Japan-focused push behind it, at least not in a way that generated any actual movement. If anything, seeing how Microsoft bungled a potentially massive partnership with the incredible PlatinumGames over the ill-fated Scalebound, it may even have just made matters worse rather than improving them any. The amount of major Japan-developed XB1 exclusives can be counted on one hand, and the early focus on the returning Kinect accessory wasn't doing the console any favours in a country where space is famously at a premium and many wouldn't even be able to use the thing. With sales data indicating weekly unit sellthrough of Xbox One to be down into just double digits per week across the entire country by the tail end of the generation, these were without a doubt Xbox's darkest days in Japan.

But our story doesn't end there. Between Xbox Series X|S, cloud gaming, and Game Pass, Microsoft had a multi-pronged offensive with which to go for one more push at breaking the east... and it looks like it might be working. Reports suggest that the new consoles may have already surpassed the install base of the One (which was admittedly not the highest bar at just over 100,000) and while they may still have a way to go to match the 360 — which apparently managed over a million — it's not all about the consoles anymore. Portable and mobile gaming has been massive in Japan for a long time, to the point where it's almost replacing traditional console gaming. So with a vast library of games available on most devices thanks to Xbox Cloud Gaming and Game Pass today, Microsoft has never been in a better position to finally crack the market, if perhaps with subscriptions and instant remote game collections rather than consoles. The two machines are obviously doing well to surpass XB1 numbers inside of a year (MS revealed at E3 this year that Japan is the biggest growth market for Xbox), with the small form factor and footprint of the S and X respectively likely having a hand in that on top of things like cloud play via mobile and Game Pass. Microsoft certainly looks to be interested in pushing that last point too, adding recent JRPG Scarlet Nexus to the service at the Tokyo Game Show last month, and clearly working with the likes of Square Enix to ensure there's always a selection of major Japanese games and talent available via Game Pass.

Finally, after twenty years of treading the course, if feels like Microsoft's commitment to the Japanese market might be starting to pay off, and it certainly won't hurt that its slew of major acquisitions even brings a Japanese developer (Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami's Tango Gameworks) under the firm's wing. I won't offer a premature kanpai just yet, but things in Japan are certainly looking a lot brighter for Xbox than they were a few years ago. And to think that MS could just have given up after one or two tries... just goes to show that a little perseverance can go a long way.

That'll do it for today, with tomorrow's piece set to jump forward to the next generation and the Xbox One. So what are your favourite Japan-developed Xbox games? Could (and/or should) Microsoft have done more to try and forge a path in the console capital of the world? Do you think MS will try to add more Japanese talent to its Xbox Game Studios family? Thoughts welcome in that little box down below...

Also in this series:

Industry News

Written by Luke Albigés

Luke runs the TA news team, contributing where he can primarily with reviews and other long-form features — crafts he has honed across two decades of print and online gaming media experience, having worked with the likes of gamesTM, Eurogamer, Play, Retro Gamer, Edge, and many more. He loves all things Monster Hunter, enjoys a good D&D session, and has played way too much Destiny.