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[Fukuzatsu]

I mean, Xbox does get a few Japanese games. Basically games based on anime popular in the West (DBZ, Naruto, Sword Art Online, Attack on Titan), games in a genre already proven to be successful on Xbox (Dark Souls, Code Vein), and big tentpoles with long reputations (FFXV, KH3, MHW). Don't expect more than that, not when most Japanese publishers focus on Japan first, then consider the western market after. Xbox is non-existent in their domestic market, so it doesn't make sense to develop for the platform unless 1. You are for sure localizing the title and 2. The title has mainstream western appeal. Otherwise any time spent developing on Xbox is wasted resources.

Even then though, if you look at it compared to 360, some series that appeared on 360 dropped out of porting to Xbox One:

NieR: Automata - Previous game appeared on 360, now console-exclusive to PS4 (hell, in Japan the 360 game had a different protagonist exclusive to the 360 version)

Star Ocean 5 - Previous game saw release on 360, now exclusive to PS4

Tales Series - Vesperia on 360, now all home console games are Sony-exclusive (with the exception of Graces on Wii)

 

[koutoru]

On one hand it seems crazy to think that Xbox will ever get any substantial Japanese support.

On the other hand were starting to see some games like Monster Hunter, Valkyrie Revolution, and Attack on Titan get releases on XB1 even though past games in the series never made it to the west on XB1 before.

 

[Shadow Broker]

This.

I remember them saying something similar in the past around the XBone launch.

 

[Lord of Ostia]

NieR:Automata most likely will never come to Xbox, sadly.

The game is published by Sony is Asia and iirc, that was for assistance with providing Asian languages that weren't Japanese.

It seems like whenever Sony publishes something themselves, it never leaves the ecosystem. It's sort of why I never expected Kingdom Hearts to go to Xbox -- Sony published the game in Europe.

This makes sense though, considering that KH2 came out prior to Square Enix purchasing Eidos. Now that they have a huge European arm, it's probably much easier for them to bring titles to Europe, so they don't need Sony's help publishing. And since Disney (and FF) is a big brand in the West, an Xbox version makes sense.

 

[tribal24]

This is not going to happen. Even if Microsoft fully paid for the port, that's still time Atlus could be spending developing another title that will sell in the Japanese market and overseas on a platform with Atlus fans. Maybe if Xbox hired and outside studio to port it, published it themselves, took all the risk themselves, and gave Atlus a nice payout...and then the game would move less than 50k copies, rendering the entire endeavor utterly pointless.

Yup it goes deeper then porting over games because persona may not interest alot of gamers who only play on Xbox. So they definitely have to make some moves on what works, i really think they can get the japan games back in movement on Xbox if only they would study their player base more. Take more risk and fund some stuff or even lend their I.Ps over to other dev teams. Example how about Atlus and Microsoft work on Lost oddessy or even square enix they have to test those things out first.

 

[Bits N Pieces]

Blah blah Japanese blah games Xbox blah blah.

They'll get a few games that appeal to the West but for the vast majority of 'Japanese' Japanese games it'll be a firm no no.

 

[MosquitoSmasher]

The thing with Nier Automata is that at one point a Xbox version wasn't out of the question. The devs said they wanted to wait and see how it would sell on PS4 and then a Xbox version might be considered. But before the game even released they basically decided to not bother at all.

As for Monster Hunter World, what if there initially were no plans for an Xbox version but Phil made a deal that they would port it over to Xbox as well? I've no idea how long porting takes though. But if not, it seems that trip really wasn't all that important then.

Also depending on how many people get a One X because they want the best versions, maybe that can change a few things. Doubt it though. The time to announce a nice list of titles have happened and are over now, E3 and GC would have been fine for it.

 

[WhoaIsThatMars]

I live in a major city in Japan (Fukuoka), and my local GEO literally does not sell Xbox Ones, used, new, or otherwise. They have exactly 5 Xbox One games (on a single rack along with 360 and OG Xbox games) for sale, and well, if you look at their sales numbers for Japan you can likely guess why this might be. Just in case you might think this is a weird one-off case, the Best Denki across from City Hall also does not sell Xbox Ones. Yodobashi is the only place I have seen it, in a section about 1/5th that of the PS4 section, if even that big.

Xbox One undersold the PS3 and Wii U this past month. I'll just leave it at that.

Any game brought to Xbox isn't going to be brought to Xbox to sell domestically

 

[ShirAhava]

Vroom in the Night Sky on ONE X in 4k!!!!!! COME ONNNNN

 

[Spiritwalker]

Bring on Lost Odyssey 2 and I'm in.

 

[MikeBison]

They've been saying that since the XB1 launched. And they haven't delivered.

If you want to play lots of Japanese games, just get a PS4 and maybe a switch. But everyone interested in them already knew that.

 

[Fukuzatsu]

Any game brought to Xbox isn't going to be brought to Xbox to sell domestically

Perhaps so, but I'm just saying if you go to Japanese developers to talk about Xbox ports, the domestic market is what they'll see first and foremost (with maybe the exception of the biggest guys like S-E, Capcom, Sega).

If Xbox is entirely a non-starter in Japan, what kind of hurdle do you imagine exists to convince someone with the argument "no really trust us, it'll do fine overseas"?

 

[Lord of Ostia]

Even then though, if you look at it compared to 360, some series that appeared on 360 dropped out of porting to Xbox One:

NieR: Automata - Previous game appeared on 360, now console-exclusive to PS4 (hell, in Japan the 360 game had a different protagonist exclusive to the 360 version)

Star Ocean 5 - Previous game saw release on 360, now exclusive to PS4

Tales Series - Vesperia on 360, now all home console games are Sony-exclusive (with the exception of Graces on Wii)

For all 3 of those titles, the reason is obvious: They didn't sell well on Xbox. We have outright confirmation of that being the case for Vesperia, and Star Ocean 4 saw an expanded version on PS3 that Xbox never got. With the sequels skipping Xbox, that tells us that 1. Sales were bad on Xbox and 2. Xbox is an even weaker platform in Japan and in the West than it was last generation. No reason to continue those series on a platform that is dead in Japan with a western audience that won't buy your product.

 

[ch4fx_]

When?

 

[Jaded Alyx]

They've been saying that since the XB1 launched. And they haven't delivered.

If you want to play lots of Japanese games, just get a PS4 and maybe a switch. But everyone interested in them already knew that.

Or a PC.

So basically anything but an XBOX.

 

[watdaeff4]

The fact that Secret of Mana remake is announced for Vita but not XB1 shows that it's still an uphill battle for them.

Or a PC.

So basically anything but an XBOX.

Yep.

 

[Lord of Ostia]

Perhaps so, but I'm just saying if you go to Japanese developers to talk about Xbox ports, the domestic market is what they'll see first and foremost (with maybe the exception of the biggest guys like S-E, Capcom, Sega).

If Xbox is entirely a non-starter in Japan, what kind of hurdle do you imagine exists to convince someone with the argument "no really trust us, it'll do fine overseas"?

It goes beyond that, because most Japanese companies already known that the games they aren't already bringing to Xbox won't perform well overseas, they have the data from previous entries in franchises that bombed on Xbox. These publishers aren't stupid, they generally understand what has a chance to sell on which platform and what doesnt.

 

[Zukkoyaki]

I genuinely do not trust anything Greenberg says

 

[borges]

I mean Scalebound was a Japanese developed game.

Stop talking and do it.

I mean, stop using Scalebound for everything.
They have made awesome japanese games in the past, give at least the benefit of doubt.

 

[Lord of Ostia]

The fact that Secret of Mana remake is announced for Vita but not XB1 shows that it's still an uphill battle for them.

Yep.

I'm 99% sure the Western audience that buys niche Japanese games is bigger on Vita than it is on Xbox.

 

[The Giant]

and the games will still bomb. Majority of Xbox owners would rather play AAA shooters than play anything from Japan.

 

[Justinh]

Bring on Lost Odyssey 2 and I'm in.

I wish this would happen too, but I stopped... aching for it after reading that the development for Lost Odyssey was so tensionedfrom the Oral History of Final Fantasy 7 article.

Yeah, I'm in the "I'll believe it when I see it" camp.

I'd like to see the Xbox One get all sorts of 2D shooters like the 360 did. At least we got Raiden V so far.

 

[Boke1879]

I mean, stop using Scalebound for everything.
They have made awesome japanese games in the past, give at least the benefit of doubt.

The past at this point is the past. Scalebound was a game in active development this gen. It was exclusive. In the context of everything it should be brought up.

It's reasons like that why people question why people question MS on japanese games. Among other reasons.

 

[watdaeff4]

I'm 99% sure the Western audience that buys niche Japanese games is bigger on Vita than it is on Xbox.

Agreed, and think of how little sales the Vita had in the West. That's my point.

Spoiler

I own a Vita FWIW

and the games will still bomb. Majority of Xbox owners would rather play AAA shooters than play anything from Japan.

There are those of us (i.e. Xbox owners) that do want Japanese games, but those like me who really want to play them, have other platforms. It's one of the reasons why if I was unfortunate enough to have only one console, it wouldn't be an Xbox.

 

[Lord of Ostia]

Or a PC.

So basically anything but an XBOX.

Just to go a step further with this, if you need more proof that niche Japanese games don't sell on Xbox, look at the behavior of localization companies. In the last few years, it's been common for these companies to port games from Sony platforms to PC and Switch. There is a willingness from localization companies to port Japanese games from their original platforms to platforms that aren't viable in Japan. The fact that Xbox isn't among these is because the audience for these games isn't there.

 

[Logash]

Doubtful, words mean nothing and it doesn't change the biggest factor that is preventing Japanese games appearing on Xbox, the fact that Xbox One is selling like shit in Japan.

 

[Fukuzatsu]

It goes beyond that, because most Japanese companies already known that the games they aren't already bringing to Xbox won't perform well overseas, they have the data from previous entries in franchises that bombed on Xbox. These publishers aren't stupid, they generally understand what has a chance to sell on which platform and what doesnt.

I agree. My point is even with the biggest benefit of the doubt you can give, this claim that Japanese games are coming (in a way they weren't before/are currently), seems pretty shady.

 

[David___]

I mean, stop using Scalebound for everything.
They have made awesome japanese games in the past, give at least the benefit of doubt.

"Stop using an example thats very recent to paint a picture about MS and Japanese support. Instead, use an example thats nearly a decade old"

 

[Danjin44]

Or a PC.

So basically anything but an XBOX.

Seriously. PC getting Japanese games that I though it be impossible to come on PC in 360/PS3 era. l mean who would thought remaster for .hack//G.U. would come out on PC?

If someday Atlus do decide to releases mainline Persona games to other systems, there is bigger chance PC getting that than Xbox.

 

[Sparkedglory]

I remember hearing this before...

Funny, me too 🤔

 

[tribal24]

I mean, stop using Scalebound for everything.
They have made awesome japanese games in the past, give at least the benefit of doubt.

actually scale bound is a good talking point on this. Its the most and made by a jp team. Which i thought would have been awesome if they went through with it.

 

[Lord of Ostia]

Agreed, and think of how little sales the Vita had in the West. That's my point.

Spoiler

I own a Vita FWIW

There are those of us (i.e. Xbox owners) that do want Japanese games, but those like me who really want to play them, have other platforms. It's one of the many reasons why if I was unfortunate enough to have only one console, it wouldn't be an Xbox.

I figured. I mean, I own a Vita as well, and I play a ton of niche Japanese games.

 

[Fukuzatsu]

I mean, stop using Scalebound for everything.
They have made awesome japanese games in the past, give at least the benefit of doubt.

On different systems, in a different market.

Original Xbox picked up a ton of the Dreamcast's leftovers and had ample exclusives from FromSoft, not to mention Dead or Alive 3 and Ninja Gaiden Black. Xbox 360 too, while not as grand as the original in this regard, had stuff like the aforementioned NieR/Tales/SO4, Operation Nightmare, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, a variety of things.

But at least in those days you could see an Xbox selling over a million in Japan. To this day, they haven't even sold 100,000 Xbox Ones.

 

[watdaeff4]

I figured. I mean, I own a Vita as well, and I play a ton of niche Japanese games.

fistbump

 

[LiquidSolid]

The thing with Nier Automata is that at one point a Xbox version wasn't out of the question. The devs said they wanted to wait and see how it would sell on PS4 and then a Xbox version might be considered. But before the game even released they basically decided to not bother at all.

As for Monster Hunter World, what if there initially were no plans for an Xbox version but Phil made a deal that they would port it over to Xbox as well? I've no idea how long porting takes though. But if not, it seems that trip really wasn't all that important then.

Also depending on how many people get a One X because they want the best versions, maybe that can change a few things. Doubt it though. The time to announce a nice list of titles have happened and are over now, E3 and GC would have been fine for it.

You can say "what if" with any theory, it doesn't make it true or even likely. The fact is, there's no reason to believe that happened at all.

It's far more likely Phil Spencer's trip was about 1X support than magically convincing a number of publishers to suddenly support their platform. And in that case, you can probably consider the XV patch a win.

Just to go a step further with this, if you need more proof that niche Japanese games don't sell on Xbox, look at the behavior of localization companies. In the last few years, it's been common for these companies to port games from Sony platforms to PC and Switch. There is a willingness from localization companies to port Japanese games from their original platforms to platforms that aren't viable in Japan. The fact that Xbox isn't among these is because the audience for these games isn't there.

Forget porting, there are games that are already ON Xbox in Japan, like Steins;Gate 0, that localization companies aren't even bothering to localise.

Anyway, to illustrate the enormous gap in support between the two platforms, here's a list of the Japanese games Square Enix alone has announced for each platform this gen:

PS4
Dragon Quest
Dragon Quest II
Dragon Quest III
Dragon Quest X
Dragon Quest XI
Dragon Quest Builders
Dragon Quest Builders 2
Dragon Quest Heroes
Dragon Quest Heroes 2
Final Fantasy Dissidia NT
Final Fantasy Type-0
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD
Final Fantasy XII HD
Final Fantasy XIV
Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy XV: A King's Tale
I Am Setsuna
Itadaki Street: DQ & FF 30th Anniversary
Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 HD Remix
Kingdom Hearts 2.8
Kingdom Hearts 3
Lost Sphear
NieR Automata
Secret of Mana
Star Ocean 5
World of Final Fantasy

XBO
Final Fantasy Type-0
Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy XV: A King's Tale
Kingdom Hearts 3

 

[30yearsofhurt]

Fool me once, shame on you
Fool me twice...

 

[Head.spawn]

Less talking, more doing.

It's absolutely stupid that some games aren't coming to Xbox for no damned good reason and are just defaulted to PS4. Hell, there are tons of Japanese and Western games don't even come to Xbox in Japan at all. I've also heard there are some titles released over there that don't even get translations/dubs. Whoever is heading things over there is not doing an good. Saying they're doing a shitty job might sound too positive.

 

[RichiRamjag]

Phil, just fucking do it already. The point of the Xbox One X should be to play all the best versions of games, and that means having the game available on the system in the first place. Literally dozens of exclusives on other consoles are only exclusive because Xbox doesn't get them by default. If I was Phil, I'd keep following the mantra if GaaS for Xbox One (since MS does it better than competitors), BUT I would also have a third party team available for getting every and all games available on Xbox, even if only digitally to start.

Start out with only digital versions of games if they're too niche to get a disk version, let the audience and user base build up. Send teams to help port games that already have a Windows version; look at what small MS teams can do with complicated PC games like PUBG and PoE, you're telling me you can't get a quick port of NieR done and test the waters? A game that had it's predecessor out on Xbox 360? Comparing sales to Japanese consoles with established fanbases is irrelevant. Do it like Steam did. According to Streamspy, some JRPG games sell abysmally, but nonstop support, ports and games have the Steam base buying more and more Japanese games.

Some of the anime and jrpg Clubs on Xbox have followers/members in the hundred thousands. Dark Souls has a MASSIVE Xbox fanbase. I mean, theres an audience there. Your console isn't that popular in the eastern part of the world, and it's up to you to fix that.

This honestly is a pretty good way to go about it.

 

[eso76]

They tried and 360 was off to a good start with Vesperia, star ocean, lost planet, dead rising..
That might not have helped in the east but I think it made the console look a lot more attractive in the west.
Ehh, we'll see, tbh I never thought we'd see the amount of exclusives the PS4 is getting in this day and age. Third parties exclusives were dying last gen and I thought they would be extinct by now but look at the PS4

 

[Lord of Ostia]

Less talking, more doing.

It's absolutely stupid that some games aren't coming to Xbox for no damned good reason and are just defaulted to PS4. Hell, there are tons of Japanese and Western games don't even come to Xbox in Japan. Whoever is heading things over there is not doing an good. Saying they're doing a shitty job might sound too positive.

It's not stupid, the audience isn't there. Bringing the games to Xbox would be stupid, because in most cases it's a waste of time, money, and effort.

 

[That1BlackGuy]

I have no reason to doubt them as they've had plenty of Japanese games on the XONE; getting support from companies such as Bamco, Koei Tecmo, Capcom, etc. but that support ultimately gets ignored anyway from a perception stand point. No matter how many Japanese games they get on the platform, it'll never be enough. The initiative is appreciated regardless.

 

[Compbros]

I feel like Kingdom Hearts 3 is gonna show how viable Japanese games are on Xbox. I mean if it can't move the needle with an acceptable amount of sales what chance does the next Hyperdimension Neptunia have?

 

[unknownstranger]

I don't really get how they stopped getting most Final Fantasy games. I know FFXIV was because of cross play but FFX/X-2 Remastered could have done well on 360/XBO.

 

[Offline]

Xbox PR feels like a never ending stream of bs right now, everything they say seems to be a lie to try and bamboozle us. I can't imagine there are any more hold outs on Xbox left still expecting Japanese games though, Japanese devs don't seem to like Xbox and partial exclusivity incentivizes purchases for example they'd piss off more people who have purchasing power if Dragonquest or Ni No Kuni was ported to Xbox than they would win potential buyers in the paltry hundreds on Xbox because the majority of Xbox players think Japanese games are trash sadly. Xbox has missed too many Japanese games at this point and will continue to miss key titles for this PR to convince anybody of anything. Stop the BS MS and make some good games instead.

 

[W.S.]

Anyway, to illustrate the enormous gap in support between the two platforms, here's a list of the Japanese games Square Enix alone has announced for each platform this gen:

PS4
Dragon Quest
Dragon Quest II
Dragon Quest III
Dragon Quest X
Dragon Quest XI
Dragon Quest Builders
Dragon Quest Builders 2
Dragon Quest Heroes
Dragon Quest Heroes 2
Final Fantasy Dissidia NT
Final Fantasy Type-0
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD
Final Fantasy XII HD
Final Fantasy XIV
Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy XV: A King's Tale
I Am Setsuna
Itadaki Street: DQ & FF 30th Anniversary
Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 HD Remix
Kingdom Hearts 2.8
Kingdom Hearts 3
Lost Sphear
NieR Automata
Secret of Mana
Star Ocean 5
World of Final Fantasy

XBO
Final Fantasy Type-0
Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy XV: A King's Tale
Kingdom Hearts 3

Out of those Nier, I am Setsuna, the remastered Kingdom Hearts games, & the Dragon Quest Builders really should be on Xbox One. The remastered Final Fantasy games would be great too but I don't know if SE has some sort of deal in place during the PS2 era that prevents them from going to the Xbox platforms.

 

[Tohsaka]

Less talking, more doing.

It's absolutely stupid that some games aren't coming to Xbox for no damned good reason and are just defaulted to PS4. Hell, there are tons of Japanese and Western games don't even come to Xbox in Japan. Whoever is heading things over there is not doing an good. Saying they're doing a shitty job might sound too positive.

Japan isn't interested in Xbox, and most people in the west who are interested in Japanese games already own another platform where they regularly appear. It's not hard to figure out.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

I am extremely surprised Code Vein and Monster Hunter World are coming to XB1.

But I'm hesitant to give credit to the Phil Spencer effect(TM)

 

[Lord of Ostia]

Out of those Nier, I am Setsuna, the remastered Kingdom Hearts games, & the Dragon Quest Builders really should be on Xbox One. The remastered Final Fantasy games would be great too but I don't know if SE has some sort of deal in place during the PS2 era that prevents them from going to the Xbox platforms.

Those games would not have sold on Xbox One (Nier is the only one which might have sold OK). As for the remasters, they clearly can't appear on Xbox, but yes they probably would've done OK.

 

[Pie and Beans]

Hey Kamiya! You're dogshit at developing and you're fired!

Every other japanese developer out there that isn't anywhere near as lauded, you're all welcome to eat at this inviting Xbox Trough though!

 

[LOLCats]

Ya ive heard this before.