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[Alex_Mexico]

Well uh, you have Valkyria Revolution to look forward to on Xbone in the realm of Japanese games ¯_(&#12484_/¯

Spoiler

Still salty that it's coming to Xbone but not PC.

Yeah I don't get that either. If this doesn't bomb on Xbox I'll be amazed.

Didn't the VC1 Remaster over performed on Steam? And then the next Valkyria game is not on PC? I don't get it.

 

[Mikey Jr.]

GamesBeat: Will KH 2.8 only be on PS4?

Yasue: Yes.

GB: But KH3 is coming to Xbox One.

Yasue: Right.

Lol.

The only way XB1 is getting anything other than KH3 is if Spencer pays for it.

I still have honestly no idea why KH3 is going to XB1. Not that I care either way. But they must have signed some sort of contract or something with MS.

 

[Gestault]

Backwards compatibility with 360 exclusives is probably the most compelling reason so far, sadly.

If you define the premise as "for people who don't like titles specific to XB1" then sure. Otherwise I feel like your scrutiny may go a little past reasonable here. More so since part of your premise is focusing on "console exclusive" titles, you're sort of stepping on your own toes if you're discounting them for one situation and not the other.

 

[Banjo-Kazooie]

Backwards compatibility with 360 exclusives is probably the most compelling reason so far, sadly.

A Japanese game fan would buy an XB1 for the three Japanese games that are Bc so far?

 

[a Master Ninja]

It is a big problem that they didn't have with the 360.

I mean the 360 got Japanese exclusives over the PS3.

MS needs to fund direct sequels to their games they got in the 360 days like Ninja Gaiden and Lost Odyssey.

I'm not even suggesting throwing that kind of money around. I'm just saying do whatever it takes to even get ports. Maybe lower Microsoft's cut on game sales or send over some technical support if that's what it takes.

A Japanese game fan would buy an XB1 for the three Japanese games that are Bc so far?

No, I only said it was the most compelling reason.

 

[Bsigg12]

That title lol

Xbox audience doesn't care about those games unfortunately. What do you honestly expect MS to do to incentivize these devs to put their games on a system for those games to sell 20 copies?

I do kinda wish they could find a way to offer them as digital only to at least build out the library a bit.

 

[Wedzi]

Lol.

The only way XB1 is getting anything other than KH3 is if Spencer pays for it.

I still have honestly no idea why KH3 is going to XB1. Not that I care either way. But they must have signed some sort of contract or something with MS.

Well it was announced for it way back at E3 2013 so they probably planned that the Xbox One would sell somewhat better is my guess. Still the game is running on Unreal Engine 4 so it's not like you're porting a specific engine built for one platform. Also it's Disney! Shit sells itself.

 

[RexNovis]

From what I've heard the reason this is happening is due to MS' high minimum print quotas for all retail releases on their systems. The audience for these game son Xbox is small and the minimum print orders often exceed even the most optimistic sales projections for these titles. As such it is unprofitable for publishers to port and release the games on the platform so they just don't do it. If MS relaxed their high minimums for print orders I've no doubt they would see more of these games releasing on the platform thanks to the aforementioned ease/relatively low cost of porting.

 

[ZSaberLink]

There's a huge difference between XB1 sales in Japan vs. 360 sales in Japan. The 360 sold about 1.6M by the end. Not great, but at least it had somewhat of an audience.

This is how much the XB1 has sold so far: 75.764.

Yeh... it hasn't even outsold the original Xbox's first week. For titles that don't sell outside of Japan, they probably didn't think it was worth the effort. You're also forgetting that until recently, the Japanese weren't super good about multiplatform games.

 

[xZoneHunter]

90% of japanese AA industry doesn't come to x1 either. It's sad really because there are some real gems in there that everyone should enjoy.

Danganronpa 1-2 reload & the Berserk game isn't coming to x1 either.

 

[a Master Ninja]

From what I've heard the reason this is happening is due to MS' high minimum print quotas for all retail releases on their systems. The audience for these game son Xbox is small and the minimum print orders often exceed even the most optimistic sales projections for these titles. As such it is unprofitable for publishers to port and release the games on the platform so they just don't do it. If MS relaxed their high minimums for print orders I've no doubt they would see more of these games releasing on the platform thanks to the aforementioned ease/relatively low cost of porting.

Would Microsoft allow something like Persona 5 or Neir to be "digital only" on Xbox, if PS4 had a physical release?

 

[Figments]

From what I've heard the reason this is happening is due to MS' high minimum print quotas for all retail releases on their systems. The audience for these game son Xbox is small and the minimum print orders often exceed even the most optimistic sales projections for these titles. As such it is unprofitable for publishers to port and release the games on the platform so they just don't do it. If MS relaxed their high minimums for print orders I've no doubt they would see more of these games releasing on the platform thanks to the aforementioned ease/relatively low cost of porting.

Huh. Interesting. If true, then this seems like a relatively simple fix in the short term. Though why not do digital only?

 

[Banjo-Kazooie]

Not buying the print run thing. They could offer digital only. Seems obvious to me they don't even deem that as a viable method to break even in the port

 

[chronic_archaic]

Warriors games are on the Xbox One, the rest are obvious except Nier Automata which I'm still praying gets a port.

 

[Inuhanyou]

As people have been saying...i could never game on Xbox exclusively cause i like a balance of genres and games from different regions.

But Xbox gamers in general are by and large super monolithic in the entertainment they consume, that's why they chose Xbox. They want American focused, American made content made with western sensibilities in mind. Most you'll find out of the mainstream is Dragonball Z and Naruto fans playing some of those anime licensed games.

They don't care about the content they are losing out on and MS obliges them and is happy to not care as well. It helps that Japan doesn't care about Xbox either.

Its a two way street.

Not for long...
[/IMG]

And Nintendo with Switch has the exact opposite problem in regards to western third parties.

It seems neither of these consoles actually get everything from every region. Out of consoles, PS4 has the most variety between west and east. PC is slowly catching up though.

 

[Holundrian]

Never ending cycle of me not being overly interested in Xbox because of the dudebro portfolio and then the general Xbox userbase not being interested in those games making it a fruitless endeavor to expand their portfolio in those areas.

Chicken before the egg problem.

 

[dreamlongdead]

We all know Xbox has issues with getting Japanese games.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

As a Xbox owner I won't miss any of these titles, will I get kingdom hearts and final fantasy? Good that's about all the JRPG I can handle. at my age, I'm Just not interested in that style anymore. Between 12-25 I was really into all those games coming out of Japan, now I'm not.

I mostly play shooters / loot grind games.

Unfortunately, this is is how the vast majority of XBox owners feel about Japanese games and that is reflected in the sales. Thats why most of these games are becoming exclusive to the PS4, PC and maybe even the Switch. The audience for Japanese games on the XBox is very diminutive and I am sure Microsoft and most developers know this. This isn't speculation, but irrefutable, bonafide facts. Seriously, if you want Japanese games, buy a PS4 or even a PS3. Honestly, porting to XBox isn't worth it for most developers financially and Microsoft imo shouldn't invest so much money into something that has such little demand. When I heard the preorders were low for FF15, I knew it was over for Microsoft.

 

[Roboculus]

Bit of a chicken-egg problem, no?

Nintendo has a similar problem with getting western third parties to support their console.

It's an issue that I think could be potentially solved if they were willing to put enough time and effort into trying to foster an audience. Imagine if Microsoft started up studios specifically to make JRPG games or what if Nintendo started making more open world games or shooters. This could maybe get the ball rolling but sadly I don't think they would consider the investment worth it.

They tried in the past and the games didn't sell well. So not only would they be less willing to try again but also third parties will be less likely to try again.

Most people nowadays buy Microsoft consoles to play western third party games and Nintendo consoles to play their first party software and sadly I just don't see that changing anytime soon.

 

[The Artisan]

Those aren't multiplatform games. Those are exclusives...for PS4.

thank you, I was gonna say this lol

 

[hanspampel]

Would Microsoft allow something like Persona 5 or Neir to be "digital only" on Xbox, if PS4 had a physical release?

In today's world? Hell yes!
5 years ago? Likely not!

They even make more money on digital. So why not?

 

[Bsigg12]

Would Microsoft allow something like Persona 5 or Neir to be "digital only" on Xbox, if PS4 had a physical release?

I would think Microsoft would be all for helping games get to their platform by any means necessary at this point.

But who the hell knows. Maybe they'll have something in a pre-E3 event but who am I kidding. It's all Halo/Gears/Forza.

 

[FinaruDensetsu]

Literally 3 people on Xbox would buy them

Most of my Xbox friends look at any Japanese game and just assume its some tentacle porn thing. That's why Japanese devs don't care

Lol that's part on the xbox userbase mentality that I've always not understood. It's like game racism or something.

 

[AnotherDayAnotherDollar]

You might as well include spiderman if you're gonna include sony money.

 

[Jawmuncher]

I do know that Microsofts archaic wants of a physical releasing needing so many copies printed is hurting things in the west. It's probably why sega didn't even bother with Puyu Pop Tetris in the states. I wish MS did a bit more work on that front for niche titles, that could still have a devoted audience built on xbox. The anime games for bigger properties seem to do fine.

people like to bring up stuff like the sales divide when looking at FFXV. But it's another case of Square not being there to build a fanbase. When you pick and choose what you wanna release, people don't wanna deal with that.

 

[whalleywhat]

Perhaps, but they need to target people who don't own an X1.

I got a 360 solely because of their Japanese exclusives (Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Vesperia, etc).

Unless its a situation where MS funding is creating games that wouldn't exist otherwise, why would you care? Only needing one or two platforms to fulfil your Japanese gaming needs is a much better situation than having to buy a 360 just to play a handful of JRPGs.

Lol that's part on the xbox userbase mentality that I've always not understood. It's like game racism or something.

It's called not being a Japanese person or a, er, Japanophile. It's a different culture which is alien in many ways. There's nothing racist about not actively seeking it out, even if your assumptions about it are based in stereotype.

 

[Apathy]

To be fair, the companies see how much the big guys like SE sell of their big, "well known" japanese franchises and if their sales suck, they must figure that the cost to port vs projected possible xbox sales aren't worth it for their smaller "lesser known" IP.

 

[Crayon]

From what we've been hearing, the focus is shifting towards long legged, multiplayer game with potential for long term monetization. Everything else can go pound sand.

And then there's the sentiment we see in this thread. These xboxes are going out in the two countries that maybe care the least about japanese games. More; you can detect a palpable disdain for the existence of these foreign games.

It just kind of how it is. If the games were going to find real extra success on xbox, I would wish they were there but as of now it's simply not my problem. You have sony and nintendo consoles being almost multicultural in comparison while xbox is american as can be.

 

[thenameDS]

I honestly couldn't care less about any of those games, same with scalebound that got cancelled. JP games are pretty much dead on Xbox and so is the console in JP.

With that said it's a bummer to those that care, but hey they probably wouldn't be buying a Xbox and would choose thePS4.

 

[Mass Effect]

Yep, I honestly don't care for any of those games.

This is the problem with so many of these "Whats wrong with Xbox" threads. They all assume Xbox owners care about the same type of games they care about. Nothing in your list interest me. The fact that Scalebound is canceled, while disappointing, didn't bother me. I have over 100 game on my XB1 that I have yet to even push the "A" button to start up. I like my FH3, Halo, GOW4, EA Access, and GwG. I'm good.

You guys have a point; not many people on Xbox care for these kinds of games, which is why it's not getting them. I mean, really, if someone cared a lot about Japanese games, they'd have a PS4/PC/3DS by now, or at least be looking at one. Certainly wouldn't be looking at an Xbox for those.

And I feel like it this apathy isn't exclusive to Japanese games. We see it with western games too, especially with games that are... different? It's probably why there isn't going to be a Sunset Overdrive 2 or Recore 2 either.

But it seems like that is part of the problem, no? IIt means less sales and less variety of games. As to what metric it's hard to tell, but over time I certainly don't think it's helping matters. It's not just about appealing to existing Xbox users, but attracting new ones.

We know Japanese games don't do well, but I do wonder how some indie games are performing. It seems they generally do well enough I suppose. I do wonder how games like The Witness or Firewatch have done, and how something like Yooka-Laylee will do.

 

[GamerJM]

This is one of the biggest reasons I have zero to very little interest in getting a Scorpio. If things were still like last-gen where Japanese publishers ignored PC and supported Xbox for multiplats then I might be interested in it for the best versions of Japanese multiplats, but as it is nah.

 

[RowdyReverb]

I only have an Xbox and Wii U right now, and I can honestly say that I know nothing about these games aside from recognizing their names from NeoGAF thread titles. Not to say they aren't good games or anything, I just most likely wouldn't buy them even if they came to my platform because my experience with Japanese games begins and ends with Nintendo (with the exception of MGS)

 

[Head.spawn]

Just looking through that list:

-Nier Automata has Sony cash involved, right? It has PS exclusive DLC in it.
-Ace Combat 7 just got a rating for an Xbox One version last week
-Dynasty Warriors 8 is on Xbox One already. Dynasty Warriors 9 was announced on a PS spot, it didn't say it was exclusive IIRC, right?

You also have to factor in Sony's other money bag which is their Third Party Production efforts which definitely factors in somewhere. I'm not sure if any of these games in particular were part of that program but it's worth noting that it does happen a bit and would depending on the agreement could possibly rule out an Xbox One version of certain games.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Warriors games are on the Xbox One, the rest are obvious except Nier Automata which I'm still praying gets a port.

Not happening considering Platinum and MS just had a falling out and SE don't care anyway about XB1. Its dead jim.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

thank you, I was gonna say this lol

They are multiplatform though.

 

[Holundrian]

Despite the core userbase not caring it should be said if Microsoft wants Xbox to grow they need to cultivate a more diverse portfolio that speaks to a bunch of different types of gamers. Sure maybe trying to pay JP devs for ports isn't the way to go.
Personally I think they need to first party fund a bunch of smaller games in the vein of Journey/Tokyo Jungle and what not. Weird smaller games but still with relatively high production values(I would say examples of that for them things like Below and Cuphead but we need waaaay more).

 

[Eternia]

The exodus happened mid-way through last generation when Microsoft gave up on Japan. There absolutely was an audience for it back then, far too late now. Nearly everyone that cared saw the warning signs and left.

 

[godhandiscen]

It's posts like these that make me really sad that the majority of Xbox owners actually feel this way.

If you're truly satisfied with mostly Halo/Gears/Forza, more power to you, but if Xbox was my only console, I would want the most amount of games available as possible, even if I had little interest in them.

Why are you sad there are different tastes?

The X1 has actually been getting some cool indie games through the game preview program, and I am really thankful for BC as it is letting me explore tons of games I never finished last gen.


The only game I am mildly interested in from the OP list is Ace Combat 7. It's fine.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

It's honestly like trying to force gamers to adopt Nintendo platforms as their place to play "mature" game like GTA6, Witcher and COD exclusively. The demographic just isn't there and unfortunately I do not see much anyone can do about it. The user base doesn't care, why should Microsoft?

 

[theWB27]

The exodus happened mid-way through last generation when Microsoft gave up on Japan. There absolutely was an audience for it back then, far too late now. Nearly everyone that cared saw the warning signs and left.

Japan gave up on Xbox. You can't make someone like something they don't want.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Why are you sad there are different tastes?

The X1 has actually been getting some cool indie games through the game preview program, and I am really thankful for BC as it is letting me explore tons of games I never finished last gen.


The only game I am mildly interested in from the OP list is Ace Combat 7. It's fine.

I think because the lack of interest in Japanese games means there is going to less variety on XBox platforms in the future which is especially bad for an XBox owner who happens to love Japanese games.

 

[Crayon]

Despite the core userbase not caring it should be said if Microsoft wants Xbox to grow they need to cultivate a more diverse portfolio that speaks to a bunch of different types of gamers. Sure maybe trying to pay JP devs for ports isn't the way to go.
Personally I think they need to first party fund a bunch of smaller games in the vein of Journey/Tokyo Jungle and what not. Weird smaller games but still with relatively high production values(I would say examples of that for them things like Below and Cuphead but we need waaaay more).

They seem to have their own ideas about how to grow the usership. A wide selection and variety of games is a strategy that goes all the way back to the beginning of home videogames but they are going to try something else.

 

[RexNovis]

Would Microsoft allow something like Persona 5 or Neir to be "digital only" on Xbox, if PS4 had a physical release?

Huh. Interesting. If true, then this seems like a relatively simple fix in the short term. Though why not do digital only?

I'm not certain that MS would allow a digital copy only release for a retail releases PS4 game. It could be that they insist on equal representation at retail even at the cost of games releasingbon their platform. To be clear I don't know that but it certainly seems like a possible cause.

I mean that's the logical question to ask by forwahtever reason that doesn't seem to be a valid path for these publishers. Perhaps they don't think their titles will sell well without retail presence. Given that the vast majority of JP published games have a retail presence despite such a relatively small audience it seems like retail releases are a priority for them.

Keep in mind also that here in Japan digital is a very very small fraction of total sales. It's still very much dominated by retail and physical sales due to the strong second hand market here so that might play a role into why retail release is such an important thing to JP publishers.

On the other hand it could be a situation of not finding the revenue splits on XBL amenable. Perhaps games that get retail releases get a different revenue split for digital sales than digital only games do.

The minimum disc prints have been mentioned by so many different insiders, developers and sources over the years there is no way it's not a major factor in these titles getting retail releases on XB1 but y'all are right it begs the question why not release digital only. For reasons we are not privy to the publishers don't deem that a profitable enough venture for them to fund the cost of porting the games. We can really only speculate on why that is.

 

[Madrugador]

Not japanese, but I'm really surprised games like Hotline Miami 2 and Day of the Tentacle aren't on One.

I would have bought them but I got them on PC and PS4 instead.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

No one buys Xbox outside of US and UK. Why would you expect JP devs to make games for a console that doesn't exist outside those regions, especially since it's non-existent in Japan?

 

[Purest 78]

I like my FH3, Halo, GOW4, EA Access, and GwG. I'm good.

That's a major problem The older Audience for those core games is decreasing. Also there's so much competition in those genre they don't have the impact like when 1st released with younger guys. So that leaves MS in Trouble Continue making games with a declining Audience, or make New Ip that no one buys.

 

[The Artisan]

They are multiplatform though.

they are, but i don't really look at those games in that sense. some are playstation exclusive like persona 5, some are console exclusive like nier, but none are multiplatform in the sense that they appear on more than one platform brand.

 

[Samurai G0SU]

Remember microsofts hard attempt in japan when the 360 had good intentions?

Yeah well.. with how the xboxOne is atm, ppl think things would be better?

................

 

[Inuhanyou]

I know it offends those people who care about Japanese games to hear ambivalence and generalizations about them. Sure, i agree with that wholeheartedly.

But you cant force people to like what they don't like or are not interested in in the first place. And it just makes sense for MS to follow after their audience.

They aren't going to just jump on whatever and hope it sells.

 

[BeforeU]

lol

Never heard of most of the games listed in OP.