Big thanks to Massdrop for sending me a really awesome headset and sponsoring the video! Here's the headset if you guys want to check it out! ► dro.ps/censoredgaming-pc37x
xbox is a dying brand. they don't have many games on their platform. while pc is raising in the number of games,xbox going the opposite.if you notice games traditionally only on PlayStation like Tekken, monster hunter,musou games...crawl themselve into pc while games in exclusive to Xbox are getting fewer and fewer.the rise of emulator also made an effect.while most game developers now focus on mobile game which make quick money return,mobile emulator like blue stack,OS player and droid4x....also help pc as a "platform"
Agreed, many on Steam are also on Vita or PS4, or the more particular ones that stay on Vita are only on Steam in the West because its convenient to do so and it usually works out for those customers.
Duc Tran point is that xbox globally lost the console wars this generation. The One series released late and had not a whole lot of super amazingly exclusives. By the time they did, PS4 dominated the living rooms. Kids would ask their parents for a PS4 because friends had it, and with the same platform they could play together. Which is probably why Sony is so against cross platform with the PS4, to keep their "I want to play with my friends who have PS4" selling value.
I live and work in Japan as a elementary school teacher, that focuses on teaching English. Just last week I told one of my students that a new Battletoads game was coming out, but that neither of us could play it, because it was only coming out on xbox (we both own switches) he replied "what's xbox?"
@@bigboi9711 my japanese friend says back then it was the way the console looked like and game that made the Xbox flop but nowdays it's just the game. Xbox first party games just don't appeal to the Japanese.
When Nintendo brought the Famicom to the west, they rebranded it as the NES, as Famicom would be seen as childish by westerners. They also completely redesigned the box, making it look less child-like and more like an expensive piece of hardware (by entirely redesigning its shape and color scheme). Sometimes you just have to adjust your product to suit local needs, especially when you are the underdog. Microsoft really failed to do this, which is one of the big reasons the console failed in Japan.
In truth it really showed how willing to adjust and prepare Nintendo was, especially at that time. It's a shame cause Microsoft has some great hardware but they're very rigid with their intellectual property
I'm an American, and the Xbox has been slowly dying back home here in the States if you can believe it. Alot of my friends and acquaintances who used to game on Xbox back in the day have switched back to Nintendo, Sony, and PC gaming systems now! In fact, I don't hear anyone talking about Xbox in the States where I live. Greetings and Respect from U.S.
@@G.L.999 ? literally everyone has been contemplating to buy an xbox series x or a pc because xbox is actually starting to integrate pro and consumer friendly features such as backwards compatibility and more gamepass benefits and more content to be cared about on xbox compared to sony who havent implemented backwards compatibility, large amounts of Japanese games being censored, general censorship of other games while turning a blind eye on their own games, no games for the ps5, and general distaste of playstation attitude towards the domestic Japanese market who they abandoned for the american market and losing grip in the japanese market with xbox looking forward to replacing sony's void with more japanese oriented content
Remember the E3 where XBOX ONE was showed? remember the huge emphasis they put on "eat doritos, drink mountain dew and watch American Football?" (yes American) Because in south America we don't play that and people was like: they made a console only for USA market, not even Europe. Now think... if in South America and Europe the console never appealed for being way too American... then for Japan was worse.
Take a look at the sale numbers. The Switch just reached 50 million sold units, surpassing Xbone, in less than half the time on market. One sells well in USA, and okay in Europe, but not anywhere else.
In south america there are people playing ps4 more than xbox because play station have been there for quite a while so it's well known and because xbox didn't bring anything new.
Kinect didn't help either. When you make motion controls that requires 6-10 feet away from the screen, and most Japanese citizens reside in small apartments, it's destined to fail. Then, when Microsoft announced the XBox One needed Kinect in the beginning, the XBox immediately went six feet under in Japan.
In summation, the Xbox's colossal failure in Japan has been the result of miscommunication with Japanese developers, a gross misunderstanding of Japanese gamers, and the console's several design flaws.
Brandon Roberts Sort of. They really messed up in that meeting with multiple game developers. Maybe that will teach others that first presentations are very important. Bill Gates just completely ruined that for the company.
I believe the fact that Japan is a commute culture means that most gamers would rather play something portable than a console hooked up to your TV. True, this wasn't always the case, but Japanese culture moved away from the home, which only became smaller & smaller, &onto mobile. Thus why the PSVita, for some reason, still sells there.
Funny how Microsoft knew that they were playing in a whole different arena, yet every subsequent story here saw them making the same mistakes over and over and OVER again.
+florestin777 Easy if you use the current American narrative and mentality. "Wait, we can't be wrong. It shouldn't be us or our products or way of doing things... THAT'S IT! It must be them! It has to be them! They are the ones who are causing us to fail! They are the problem!" I mean, this kind of mentality didn't spring out of nowhere for no reason...
American mentally is that the product will sell itself. I kinda like it to be honest. Whilst in Asia it comes with "services" or is sold to you in a nice way. That said, XBOX is failing not just in Japan but also America. Its position is about as bad as Nintendo's...but at least in Nintendo's case they are trying to sell you toys. Xbox is largely seen as mediocrity if not for Xbox Live.
I don't see these as Japan exclusive problems. I remember thinking "the controller is too big" and "the console is ugly / not elegant" and I'm not Japanese. I heard many other europeans complain about this. surprised it sold so well despite that.
Japanese native here. At the risk of veering off, one interesting point to note regarding the iPhone argument is that despite the iPhone being extremely successful in Japan -- hell, it's about the only country in the world where iPhone STILL has higher marketshare than Android -- the landscape of apps that are being commonly used can vary greatly depending on genre, sometimes looking very different than that of the west. You will see a lot of familiar faces when it comes to productivity apps (Google's apps, Evernote, Slack) or media consumption (Kindle, Spotify, TH-cam, Netflix). But in commerce, while Amazon is popular, eBay, Craigslist, and Yelp are nowhere to be seen, those voids filled by local players like Rakuten, Mercari, and Tabelog instead. With social networking, Twitter is disproportionately popular (even moreso than Facebook), while Messenger and WhatsApp aren't used much, and pretty much everyone uses the Korean-developed LINE messenger. Most importantly, the landscape is VERY different with games - hardly any of the western popular mobile games are performing at the top tier here. Puzzle & Dragons, Fate/GO, Monster Strike, etc... The games popular here are almost exclusively Japanese games. While we have been seeing a gradually rising number of non-JP games lately, eg Azur Lane, Houkai 3rd or Knives Out, but even then, many of these are still Asian. (Pokémon GO and Fortnite perhaps are the rare exceptions.) This tells me that, while JP users can and will accept American products if done right, they still seem to have domestic tastes when it comes to gaming. Coming back to the Xbox, it looks to me like Microsoft DID try as hard as they could in the 360 era. They spent a whole lot of money and effort to create/attract exclusives or Xbox-first releases that cater to the the JP audience, eg. Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Ace Combat 6, The Idolmaster, Lost Planet, Eternal Sonata, Tales of Vesperia, etc. Passionate fans of the platform did exist, some of them doing their own evangelism like creating DIY promotional videos of favorite 360 games and putting them up on video sites. The JP voiceover for Gears of War was appreciated enough to have its own set of memes only circulating here. In fact, I was a happy Japanese owner of an X360 myself! However, combined with how the RRoD issue being handled in an American way went down very poorly here, much like the disc-scratching issue outlined in the video, I guess it still wasn't enough to overturn the overwhelmingly negative sentiment that built up in the previous generation. It's not as if Microsoft was never succesful with gaming in Japan - I wasn't there to witness it, but like some noted in the comments, the MSX seems to have been popular here back in the 80s and even became the grounds for Metal Gear 1 and 2. But these days it seems Microsoft has stopped even trying. I just hope it doesn't become a lazy excuse for future companies to point fingers at to justify ignoring the Japanese market.
Was quite surprised to see how well Azur Lane fared in Japan, considering how heavily Kancolle was tailored to the Japanese market and its huge, relatively hardcore fanbase. Also how did such a hot mess of a clone of PUBG like knives out did so well in Japan?
As a translator and gamer and having played many Japanese games, I can see where Microsoft failed to deliver in Japan. Lots of games in America are hack and slash, action and are not translatable as they are very American. Microsoft is also more on the American side of things too and do not understand Japan well at all. Throw in a mix of poor communication, misunderstandings and assumptions and you have a recipe for disaster.
@@StarWritterSW Pardon me for the year-late reply. Neither Doom nor Halo have much popularity in Japan, even among people who identify as fairly enthusiastic gamers. Doom Slayer and Master Chief are not the heroes of teenage boys, as they’re barely even known at all. Halo being an Xbox exclusive doesn’t do anything to boost the console’s popularity in Japan. Doom being bloody & gory is not considered ‘cool.’ They are only recognized among the fringe subset of hardcore gamers who specifically favor western style FPSs, which does exist but definitely isn’t a mainstream crowd. That said, some shooters seem to be picking up popularity in recent years, as I hear a lot of more ‘mainstream’ gamers talking about Apex Legends and Dead by Daylight.
when the first xbox came out, I heard about other kids in my grade playing on it, I thought it was some illegal black market version of a playstation that lets you play games for free.
This is super interesting, if you have any more topics like this on the back burner, please explore making videos on them, I love these more big picture, whole story things. Like a look at how and why a whole series fares in a particular region for one reason or another, always super fun to learn
In Japanese culture, the X is also shorthand for "no". So, while X has no other cultural significance in the west, essentially, the Xbox is considered the "Nobox" in Japan. Highly unfortunate.
Yep, also becomes annoying when you play both Nintendo, which keeps the same ABXY order everywhere and so does with confirm on A, cancel on B, and then play both Japanese and Western Playstation games. A week of 3DS on a row and you'll be cancelling stuff on western PS games all the time. Sony was wise by placing the circle key on the same place as the A and X on same place as Nintendo's B, no confusion for who plays both over there
Come on, man. When you get a question wrong in the exam, won't you receive a cross('X') next to your answer? The Sony buttons layout in the west is absurd: you confirm something with 'X' and cancel something with 'O'. I didn't notice this when I was a kid (and now I feel like I was brainwashed), but ever since I knew the buttons layout in Japan were opposite, I immediately switched back to 'O' for confirming and 'X' for canceling. Secondly, it makes more sense how the 'O' and 'X' button is positioned respectively. Assuming that the majority of people write with their right hand, you always write from left to right on a paper, and when you want to erase sth that you wrote previously, you'll go left to erase it. This daily life intuition/concept is applied to the positioning of the 'O' and 'X' button (you go left to press button 'X' to "erase" sth).
Jack M Well, The Last of Us is one of those games where the mechanics and story tie into each other to create actual immersion, and pretty much everything in the game is there for a reason. It's hard for games like that to not be well-received, especially because they take so much effort and therefore are incredibly rare.
Uh, Call of Duty and GTA seem to be the exception to this rule in Japan. I don't know why Xbox don't do so well. But when a western game get released on Playstation consoles in Japan, it does so well in Japan.
Agreed. Even I found the massive controller just unnecessary and clunky. Same with the behemoth of a console. I'm so glad they took that lesson to heart and then proceeded to make the the 360 design. Much better. Hell, my friend got me the Xbox elite controller. And it's freaking awesome man. I may be a PS guy and almost always end up playing on PC, but since PC is Microsoft, the compatibility and customization is just awesome. Much better than that crappy POWER A FUS1ON Tournament Controller he originally got me....
Basement Dweller I dunno I like the 360 and Xbone controllers more than PS4, but maybe just because I'm used to them. I almost never use controllers though as a PC gamer.
Honestly Xbox has always been fighting an uphill battle in Japan. Sony and Nintendo always had a level of prestige or a reputation that Xbox was fighting against and (at least to me) it’s never really done anything to distinguish itself from PlayStation.
3 years later japanese market is turning sour towards sony who abandoned the japanese market for the us market where japanese gamers have shown alot of distaste to especially how playstation handles japanese games with censorship
@Evangelos Killer mike Sega produces great games under their wings (aside from 3d Sonic games), it just happened to be they had a string of failed consoles
Hearing that America's response to the Xbox'failing was to lay off a ton of Japanese staff got me. Japan has a strong work ethic and companies will do everything before laying off someone there. Nintendo's passed president Iwata gave himself a massive pay cut before even considering lay offs. I can't help but feel for the staff who wouldn't have thought it could happen.
Companies will Fire you on a dime in Japan if they are lacking in sales. I lived in Japan for 16 years, the company comes first. Has nothing to do with work ethic but numbers
Basically, it's not that it wasn't made in japan, it's that it wasn't sold for japan (at least not properly), you can tell across the story you showed that they were never really as serious about japan as they claimed to be, the part at 6:31 strongly suggests that, they say they were serious about the japanese market, yet the guy they chose to represent them was so distanced from the rest of the team (or so inept) he couldn't even answer when asked about the company's philosophy.
Pixie Panda Plush no. Japan has white, the us and everyone else got a standard black ps2. While in japan they had ps2 but it was white and it looked completely different than what we got, look it up on google if you want more info.
To be fair, even if the Japanese PS2 was black (some of you are saying that it was white, but I found no confirmation of this on the internet), I think that it was a deliberate choice, in fact, the first PS3 (fat) looked just like a coffin.
It strikes me that a little deal-making to produce a Japanese variant of the XBox with a nod to Japanese designers and culture would go a long way to improving the situation for Microsoft in Japan.
One of my favorite clips from the old X-Play show was when they went to Japan and asked people if they would buy an Xbox 360. Everyone spoke Japanese but there was a translation in the subtitles. Everyone they asked said "No". There was one guy who obviously says "Yes" in English but the subtitles still said "No."
I'm an American and I still hate that controller. The original XBox controller suuuuuuucks. I was a big fan of the XBox 360 and I still use a 360 controller for some games on my PC. However, that original controller was complete shit. How did they think it was a good idea to make their controller the size of a dinner plate?
3:14 "While Microsoft's domestic focused testing claimed that, testers loved the controller's size" What?! I mean... maybe they meant that loved to crack jokes about its size... but I've only ever talked to literally one person who liked the old controller's size.
I am a female with medium-sized Anglo hands (not small, Asian female-sized hands) and average-length fingers. I find the new XBox controller slightly too large and the off-set left stick is in an awkward position, so that it's difficult to use accurately. In fact I find it's harder to walk my character in a straight line even because the natural upward movement of my left thumb doesn't follow a straight line with the XBox controller, unlike with the PS4 Pro controller. I find the latest PS4 controller to be extremely comfortable and more easy to use and that it fits my hand and finger-length more comfortably. I also find that the rougher plastic and the position of the joins in the plastic and the flatter shape, make the XBox controller less comfortable. I also find that the DC vibrating motors in the XBox controller run hotter than the ones in the PS4 controller so my hands get hotter and my hands also sweat more when I'm using the XBox 1X controller in hot weather. I'm not sure if this is because of the motor type or power of the DC motors or because the motors are closer to the plastic. Either way, in summer it's very unpleasant to the point that I repeatedly have to put the controller down and wipe my hands, something I never have to do with the PS4. I always immediately feel more comfortable when I'm changing consoles to the PS4.
I still find it funny that people praise Microsoft for cross play and are mad that Sony doesn't allow it. If it wasn't for Microsoft, we would have cross play a fucking long time ago. They actually were the cock block for 2 whole generations.
Btw, the cross play was from PC to Xbox. Not Xbox to PlayStation. Also, Sony didn’t want to cross play with Microsoft because of the competitiveness they had (so I’ve read and heard. Not saying it’s true). So it wasn’t Microsoft’s full fault.
*14:55** It's because it started bad. Once you start bad, it's very difficult to gain positive traction, even if the future products are good or even better than its competitions.*
@Fozzy W Pretty much. Seems like though Nintendo played the long game and built up trust by sticking with the Wii U instead of ditching it like Sony did with the Vita and Sega did with the 32x. Which led to ppl trusting ninty no not abandon the switch.
How about Project Gotham Racing and the pre microtransaction days of Forza Motorsport? I played Forza 2 for a bit and man, that was the shit at the time...
The last console I bought was an xbox 360 wanted to buy a ps3 but bought a P.C instead and now that's all I use for gaming. Since I can play almost every game on it I have no need for a console. Sony has always made a good product from what I can remember and RPGs are why I would buy a ps4 now if I was to buy a console.
The Xbox doesn't really have games that appeal to the Japanese like the PlayStation. In my experience Japanese people really like deep stories in their games and they really like to grind if JRPGs are anything to go by. The Xbox is all about online games, FPS games racing games and so on. Where as the PlayStation always has the much better single player stories ie. God of War and the Last of us. If they Xbox expanded it's game libraries with exclusive story based games I bet that would help sales a lot.
i feel like this isnt the case anymore now seeing the japanese market being incredibly sour towards sony now especially during the last of us 2 where sales were going up before stagnating and then falling after people mass sold their copies in reselling shops which to this day barely have been sold along with oversupplies like fallout 76 did in the us and europe
When you have PlayStation and Nintendo to get all your gaming needs from regarding 1st to 3rd party games, there is no reason to get that unattractive 3rd console with inferior games that are also on other platforms. Xbox has no leverage. Period. You lose more by owning an Xbox than with a PS/Nintendo console.
Nonsense. The Xbox had plenty of exclusives, timed or otherwise. Halo didn't come out on PC until 2 years after its Xbox release. If anything the Gamecube was the unattractive 3rd console (there's a reason it came in dead last out of the 3 consoles in sales). It had plenty of good first-party titles, but was mostly isolated to those. That, and it was a generally boring console that smacked of lack of innovation. On the other hand, the original Xbox revolutionized multiplayer console gaming and the PS2, well, the PS2 may just have been the best console to have ever existed.
@@thejawgz6719 No, Halo was the only game ever worth having an Xbox for, and even then, PS2 was much better and even tho it flopped commercially, the GameCube is still loved by Nintendo fans to this day, some of Nintendo's best games came out on the GameCube, every game I liked on my Xbox I could get on PC/PS
Exactly. The state of Xbox's exclusives is frankly pathetic and there's nothing more important than games. Nothing. Why buy a games console if you don't care about the quality of games it has?? I don't get it. How can people just ignore the best games that come out each year???????? Last year 4 of the 5 GOTY nominees were strictly console exclusives to PS4 and Switch. And the other one was timed exclusive to PS4. So 5 out of 5 of 2017's GOTY nominees were not available on Xbox LOL This year too. Definitely GOTY winner is God of War, Spiderman's a nominee for sure as well, Smash Bro's might be nominated too. That's at least 3 out of 5 even if Detroit don't get nominated.
Anyone who claims Halo was the only notable exclusive, has never owned a Xbox. You would be surprised how many good exclusives the original Xbox had, Microsoft definitely tried back then. Even 360 still has some good exclusives.
In terms of 3rd Party games, the Xbox is known for having the superior version. They much higher quality textures, higher frame rates, and could support wider aspect ratios. It’s just that Nintendo and Sony were there first, and therefore had a more developed and loyal install base.
Japanese gaming habit is sooo different. I think the one thing Xbox could never really breach is portable play. Commuters playing on train is so popular, that is why even tho vita is a pretty bad idea sony still have to get it out. Much like how Switch is attracting indie, Xbox need to attract developers of Japanese exclusive indie like VN.
My God I'm American and even I know Japanese Society works different you can't just go American speech style their and except it to go well. Anyone with common sense need to learn how the market works we're your selling. And the Xbox is to bulky they need it to be visually appealing and slim they love that type of stuff it's why the switch boomed their
Microsoft is too hard headed, they don't listen to obvious and reasonable facts, but instead they only listen to the loudest fanboys in the room. There's a reason why xbox always fails, just look at how they handled the development of Scalebound, that will give you all of the reasons why Microsoft is a terrible company when it comes to video games. Xbox fanboys will constantly say "the xbox didn't need Scalebound" while not realizing many gamers were literally waiting for Scalebound in order to actually buy an xbox one, I know that was my plan and my brother's plan until microsoft fucked it up with their BS. Not everyone like playing Gears, Halo, and Forza, there is a reason why other genres exist outside of sports, cover shooters, fps, and multiplayer. Different genres draw different people with different taste, the Japanese market understand this fact, too bad Microsoft and it's braindead fanboy white knights who attack everyone else refuse to learn this same fact.
What is XBox's philosophy? Xbox Live? Its to hopefully sell you more Windows and Office. Not games. That's what I got out of it when I bought the first Xbox. Microsoft has killed off every studio they ever owned even the one that makes AoE. They're here to do serious business and games are just a way to enjoy your down time. That's their philosophy. It's boring. That why it doesn't sell.
Great video! My thoughts: Look at the best selling game platforms since Xbox launched in Japan MOBILES (NDS, 3DS, GBA, PSP, soon to be Switch) Nintendo's latest flagship is a mobile, and the game market has shrunk to its lowest level since 1989 (1989-- when Japan went into national mourning after their emperor died, and they weren't buying anything. Yeah the modern gaming market is that bad). Even though Sony and Nintendo have stronger relations with Japanese developers/companies, they actually faced many of the same problems the Xbox faced in Japan. Look at all the weird Nintendo consoles, look at the low sales of the PS3 and PS4, look at the substandard development from Japan during the PS3 gen while the West finally became the dominant development region, etc There are many tales of woe from Microsoft surrounding Americans trying to enter Japan's market and culture, but there's a lot more to blame for Xbox's failure than solely anti-American sentiment I lived in Japan during the 3 Xbox launches, and I have to agree with Rob Fahey. A lot of "premium" and "luxury" local department stores and products and etc have a Spanish/French/German/Greek/English branding to them. Japan plays games on Apple iPhones, and they're the largest market in the world for app sales. They still use Windows OS on their PCs over anything else Some (not all) of Microsoft's complaints sound like bellyaching and making excuses for not having enough inexperience working in that market. The lesson from Xbox's failure is definitely not "if you're foreign, don't try to carve a niche in Japan's territory"
Mario Adventure 2 lol what? It absolutely is, you can take it with you and play it without an internet connection or the main console like the wiiu which you may be thinking of
Many American companies not only succeed in Japan, they dominate the market. Look at Coca-Cola, by far the best-selling drink company in Japan. Foreign luxury cars, clothing, computing, etc etc... suggesting that Japan prefers Japanese products over foreign is absurd, they like a mix of everything in their own weird way MS faced some xenophobia from the JP game industry (at first-- since the 360 had exclusive/multi JP support), but I think the evidence shows that Xbox debuted when gaming at home declined in popularity, once handhelds could produce any game experience reasonably well. Dedicated consoles in Japan dropped in sales after the PS2 gen ended, while handheld/mobile sales exploded. MS just didn't understand where the market was headed in that country
Xbox is also unpopular in the middle east. Not even during the Xbox 360 Era did I see that much people own an Xbox as much I saw people buying PS3's. The main reason is because ever since the PS1 release, the Playstation exploded in popularity among gamers over here so much that Nintendo and Sega consoles became forgotten. You barely hear about someone talking about N64 or Gamecube but everyone will talk about the PS2 as if it was the only console available on the market. Everywhere seems to be a loyal of Sony. As an owner of a PS4, Xbox One and soon to get a gaming build PC, I barely see anyone own a Nintendo Switch or Xbox One. Casual games just go for a PS4. Nintendo didn't have any official support in the Gulf States until recently and Xbox Support for our small market are a joke. Sony n the other hand added the Arabic language as an option to use on the PS4 since 2.0 update.
@@masteroogway3816 Nowadays? That would be games like GTA, COD, Fifa, Tekken, Fortnite, Battlefield, PUBG, Crash Bandicoot remaster and such. There's also fans of series like the TLOU, MGS, The Witcher, Uncharted, Tomb Raider and various anime fighting games like DBZ, One piece...etc
In all likelihood, it may just be possible that the reason for negativity isnt solely squared on xbox, but that microsoft's awful PR could be because of their shitty marketing team. We've seen before when they produced windows Vista, and how they branched away from that name by choosing to call their new product windows 7, then push out 8 and have the nerve to say that in the discussion room: "removing the start menu and shifting a desktop layout into a more mobile platform is the best direction to go in." Go look up comments on those inside teaser videos. They even have PR for their surface pro tablet, where they try to compete with apple tablets; they give out free tablets to news casters and football league to encourage more brand recognition, and even either shits on it, or just outright refuses to use it. There are so many examples of their failures... Does any one still remember or talk about Microsoft's Zune? What else can we point out, their mobile phones? Microsoft should just stick to their brand name and focus more on Software. They have the potential to support so many different platforms, but they try to take capitalism too far by over-reaching in fields they just aren't cut out for. They say companies that try to do too much, usually tend to not succeed. Does anyone even use bing?
Great video first of all. And this is just reinforced what I already know, which is that Microsoft just doesn't get japan. Let's start with the designes. Japanese consoles are trying to be smaller and more slick while Western consoles are big and bulky. The controller for the OG Xbox WAS an issue since japanese people have smaller hands to begine with. . Than comes theire way of speach..... It's very American so to speak. In America the discussions and deals are done fast. YOu go in get to the point quck and make up your mind on the spot. In Japan this isn't how it gose. You have to spend time with the business partner and NOT mention work or deal before he asks it. And that can take DAYS. Being blunt and haisty can be seen as disrespectfull and rude. . Than comes the over all massige. "We want our games to be like films". Japanese devs don't realy give a shit about that(-Kojima).They more often than not wanna make FUN games. That is why Sony and Nintendo has such a big hold on them. . And since they were unable to won over Japanese devs they didn't had many Japanese games. Which is basicly suicide there since Most Japanese player aren't realy into the things that makes western games popular.
A little trivia that might interest you, Xbox’s design looks like the Chinese character “凶” which means misfortune and to some extent even means death. Considering its less successful sell number in Japan, the nickname of misfortune box is created and still exists as a running meme around all Chinese character using regions.
Many seem to forget the Xbox was not Microsoft's first video game console but that honor goes to the MSX which was quite popular in Japan as well as some European countries and the middle east.
The Japanese know garbage when they see it. I find it interesting how M$ still hasn't answered Mikami's question: "What is your philosophy?" It definitely isn't art, and it clearly isn't games either.
Same here in the Philippines. There are console community groups here and for some reason all of them have PS4s and no XBOX Ones in plain sight. Although XBOX 360/One controllers are more preferred in the PC enthusiasts/gaming community due to ease of setup (on either USB type or wireless with USB dongle), especially on Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10. I do saw someone buying an XBOX One console one time on our local DataBlitz store (philippines version of GameStop), but that's about it.
Xbox just doesn’t appeal to Japan. They’re more into anime and RPGs, something Xbox doesn’t really offer. They’re more about FPS, which is an American thing.
@@aolanikainoa552 because xbox just didn’t market their console well, its got nothing to do with Japanese loyalty, probably for a few but if a product appeals to them, it doesn’t matter, there gonna buy it. Bill Gates and their marketing team just left a sour taste in their mouths
@@rolan5948 Microsoft never truly cared about Xbox in the first place let alone market it heavily in Japan. I think it's because iphone is the flagship product of Apple since day one whereas Xbox was just the side project for Microsoft until game pass happened.
The Xbox had a lot of really good Japanese games, Otogi 1, 2 , Shenmue , Metal wolf Chaos and every Team Ninja game. I am looking to get an OG xbox again, I loved it when I was a teen. Dead Or Alive 3 and Ninja Gaiden Black were my favorite games on it
anythingnew DoA was the first game I got on the reason I bought an XBox. They had awesome games but with 360's push for more shooters and online play along with the One just downplaying gaming in general, it was enough to cement me further in Sony's camp.
The mention of foreign companies becoming successful transplants in Japanese market seems intentionally stated to misguide the viewers. There are numerous vanity aspects of many cultures, including those in Japan. The luxury brands allow for people to show off their family, friends, neighbors, competitors, etc. The luxury brands are successful in many markets, as their brand carries the weight of appeal. Problem about comparing existing luxury brands (Mercedes, BMW, etc) are that they are established in their market. Mercedes did not introduce a new video game system, but just vehicles that they are known for. Apple did not introduce a new car, but phones/tablets/computers that they are known for and have built a brand (that reflect wealth, etc). The Japanese market will need to be catered to, as the market seems very reactionary and sensitive. The Asian systems are generally much more compact, especially Japan (living space tends to be very restricted/limited and expensive. The Asian (particularly Japanese) games tend to be designed differently, including difficulty that are dramatically harder supposedly. Domestic companies are favored by domestic consumers. Some people intentionally check for location of production etc, including Americans seeking "Made in America" labels. Seems to be more amp'ed up in Japan market. Microsoft needs to be vastly superior to Sony in hardware and software for them to gain significantly.
Even as an American consumer tho, I don't really care about the Xbox when compared to PlayStation, Nintendo and PC hardware. My big reason for this is because they don't have a lot in terms of exclusives besides Halo. A large majority of the games on Xbox systems that peek my interest wether they'd be American games or Japanese games are also available on PlayStation, Nintendo and Steam. Their controllers make good PC controller I suppose but that's really about all there is to Xbox imo.
@@MedIevalCyrax Exclusives actually discourage competition in the one space where it matters most to consumers. Without exclusivity, companies would need to make their systems stand on their own merits, and actually be better for gaming than the competition. With exclusivity, they're free to fall back on "nyeh, I have this title and you don't," which does nothing to benefit the consumer.
I guess they shouldn't name the new product "Xbox Somethingsomething" and have some kind of big marketing campaign push that feels entirely different compared to what they've tried before with a message of what it's approach towards gamers is and why it's unique. That's my best guess how they could make it work, maybe barely even have Microsoft's name attached at all. Maybe it can still be named "Xbox Somethingsomething" in the west while in Japan, it'd be called something entirely different (similar to "Mega Drive" and "Genesis") with a more compact/simpler design. But those are only guesses that come from someone in Europe and who's never been to Japan. Just seems to make more sense to me.
Speaking as someone who is part Japanese & lived in Japan, land & livable space is precious & expensive. A lot of Japan is mountainous & the areas that aren't are dense with a high population. America has vast expanses of land to build structures horizontally whereas Japan had/has to resort to building vertically mostly. Living space is extremely small by American standards & Japan favors indoor things to be as compact & efficient as possible to save space. The XBOX was the size of 1980s VCRs! It would have been fine back then when most everything was big but not in 2002 since people were starting to get used to things becoming smaller & more sleek. *Que the boxing announcer* In this conah, weighing in at ovah 8.5 pounds, The DirectX monstah! (excluding the external power adapter the size of a house brick!) Japanese liked to pull out the console from it's little space & have it sit next to them for easy access to change out games, hit restart, swap memory card, power up/down, etc. Most Americans liked to sit away from their consoles & only have the controller near them. (Remember the break-away chords?) In summery; the XBOX was too massive a device for the average Japanese gamer to keep around & it mostly had shooters & not enough RPGs. Automatic turn-off. Maybe laptop sized hard drives & disc drives could have helped the system slim down instead of desktop sized ones. Would have sold at a higher loss as with all consoles at the time but would gain profit once gamer has bought their 5th game. Not to mention 1st-party accessories.
In resume: Japanese public: "What do i get?" Nintendo: "Cute and entertaining games for the whole family" Sony: "Cool and hardcore games" Sega: "A bit of both" Xbox: "Shooters, lots of FPS shooters" Japanese public: "hmmm ok i made my mind"
I get why most Japanese gamers aren't into Xbox counsoles and Western games, but what I don't get is that how is it that Japanese counsoles and games that were meant for Japan but still popular in the US and other Western countries?? Sure, I admit that these days I exclusively play Japanese games on Japanese counsoles, but I figured it was just a preference of the types of games I liked (aside that I like anime, manga and kawaii culture) and that they just so happened to not be American or from anywhere else. When the first Xbox counsole came out in the early 2000s, I tried to play a game using an Xbox controller at a nearby Wiz (anyone remember that store?). It problably was at least in part because I wasn't used to the controls since I didn't have an Xbox, but I didn't like how the controller felt at all and where the buttons were placed. I don't remember which game I was trying out, but I wasn't impressed with my experience. Even before I ever heard of Japan, every counsole I've ever owned and played on were Japanese. They were either from Sega, Nintendo, or PlayStation from Sony. Most Western games I've played/owned were mainly based on an animated show or movie (with the exception of a couple of Harry Potter games since they were based on the books and live action movies) with only a few that were actually originated by game developers like Spyro the Dragon or Kya: Dark Lineage. Everything else were Japanese games, which makes up my entire collection since my childhood. So in this case, it may be sort of why I in particular play only Nintendo and Playstation games? I'm really not 100% sure about it, and I can't speak for every Western gamer that have similar preferences, but that's how I see it.
also, Xbox games tend to be versus/PvP... probably doesn't got over that well in a culture that emphasizes community, getting along, and avoiding confrontation.
And to think that microsoft refused a deal with the dying sega to allow the xbox to run dreamcast games, sega wanted to stay in the market after the failure of the dreamcast and they offered all of they catalog to microsoft, microsoft was interested but refused to allow the dreamcast games any online funcionality white sega wanted full support and the deal fall apart. Practically microsoft himself close the only door that was open to the asian market that sega offered.
Moncheero Elliene True that. I’m really pissed that Sony hasn’t established an actual backwards compatibility for the PS4. They’ve done it with the PS3 so why couldn’t they have done the same the PS4? Instead we have PS Now which isn’t all that perfect.
What killed the Xbox One was the very first press release when they announced you had to be on a friends list to share your games. PS4 even trolled them by doing a 3 step process of sharing. Buy game, give game to anyone, enjoy game. They did fix this before release but when the Japanese gaming companies got that ammo it sunk the One and it was DOA in Japan. If scratches that had zero effect on playability made them hate old Xbox then no resales allowed at all would 100% sink the newest one.
yeah, how dare those Americans who have the world's strongest economy and strongest military, and who saved both Europe and Asia during World War II, how dare they have an attitude! (note - I am not American)
William Hetherington So you're saying, that because of the biased/special view on history that puts us Americans on gold pedestals, we should be treated like royalty and people should just kiss our feet because we're the most special country to ever exist? Even if some of our companies make business mistakes and suffer for it? Even if our country has also made horrible, immoral decisions in the last and present? Okay.
As an Asian myself I can assure you the issue with the Xbox boils down to the marketing and its exclusive titles, it's just too western and that doesn't appeal much to our easterns taste.
yasashii89 not once did I use the word "all" I was referring to the general opinion, if you feel like you don't like the Xbox as pride then that is up to you :p
I'm in Brazil, the 2nd biggest market of the Americas after the US. Xbox barely sells here, even with Microsoft efforts of localizing it's games to Portuguese and all the commercial push the company made since the 360. The Playstation is outselling the Xbox 9:1 on average, most stores also stock far more PS4 games then Xbox. Nintendo has been almost non-existent here since the WiiU era (no Official support), unless you buy their stuff on import shops or import yourself.
Harbinger Almost like what Sega had to make Sonic more edgy in the West. In this case, Microsoft would have to make Master Chief more anime like. (Master Chief’s Bizarre Adventure XD)
I'd like to give a recommendation,when you record your voice over tracks try to get some acoustic foam to cancel the reverb a bit also try using a pitch filter as well.It sounds very bouncy on this video,other than that great video man keep up the awesome work man.
PS1 1994 Japan ✅ PS2 2000 Japan ✅ vs Xbox 2001 ❌ 😢😭 PS3 2006 Japan ✅ vs Xbox 360 2005 ❌ 😢😭 PS4 2013 Japan ✅ vs Xbox One 2013 ❌ 😢😭 PS4 Pro 2016 Japan ✅ vs Xbox One X 2017 ❌ 😢😭
it's too big for American hands too according to all the memes from the time. Also old memes don't really count as edgy unless they are you know...edgy.
I get the feeling that Japanese devs focused on making a great product first, making money with that product came secondary. Then here comes Microsoft doing the complete opposite with the way it did its marketing. Props to Nintendo and Sony, I’ll always get their systems.
@@Rez090 I am confused. Have you actually played them? Your first sentence suggests YES, you have. Your second sentence suggests NO, you haven't. If you had, you would already know the answer.
@Ryan Dawson You've just summed up exactly why I have no interest in it, or Playstation for that matter. When PS3 was around I felt more tempted to get Playstation, but still not worth it to me being a typical European PC gamer. But nowadays the developers have less strict exclusivity deals and on PC we get every Playstation game one year later, which is good enough for me. Western PC games have a lot of very interesting stories, but the consoles seem mostly mindless shooting.
I moved to pc because I got more variety off that platform than ps4 or xbox… I have my shooters which I love, and soon im getting halo on pc so I wont even need the xbox one anymore. i'll just stick to pc
PS is Japanese and Xbox is American that is the reason. The only tech to break Japan has been Apple which is very popular in Japan. The Japanese value their own product above most others which is why you don't see Samsung or LG in Japan, they do sell there but are not branded as nobody would knowingly buy them and certainly not if there is a similar Japanese product. This whilst maybe not being the only reason was the main reason why Xbox didn't work in Japan.
Apple in general appeases to the Japanese. An Apple product doesn't look out of place in a pristine, high tech Japanese environment with its simplicity and design. That's why they work.
The reason the xbox failed in japan is solely because it wasn't a japanese console, also microsoft may have had some idiots in it's japanese team. But yeah, the Duke was a horribly uncomfortable controller.
if one does not understand the culture of a foreign country you cant business successfully in said country. a famous example: when Gerber baby food started to offer their goods in Africa they found out that illiteracy is high in Africa and its a custom to put a picture of the content of the jars or cans on the label. yeah..... no.... a jar of mashed white baby, lol.
Raun Carswell They really don't have PC I do not know anyone who buys games from the Microsoft Store. Everybody just buys their games from Steam, the only thing Microsoft really sells on pc is their os and their apps like word, excel, etc.
Nobody owns a PC other than the user, hence why it is called a "Personal Computer". Microsoft only owns the Microsoft software that is installed on the PC, which pretty much boils down to Windows, Office, and Edge/IE.
No they did not, but microsoft went ahead and sabottaged Sega in the US so they could get their cut of the market anyway, and mankind just lost. There's an alternate Universe where Sega is still in the console race because Bill Gates fell in his bathtub
Lmaoooo of course the remote is too big for their tiny japanese hands, my reason for hating that remote was mostly because of the akward button placements and the gross shape
I’ve watched some videos. And there’s definitely an section for the XBOX ONE at some Japanese Stores. You just have to look extremely hard to find some over there.
honestly, when they found out that X was seen in a bad way in Japan the first thing they should have done was try to find a new name for it there, research what appeals to the people of that region. I also think they had an opportunity since some Japanese companies were willing to negotiate with them to try to get a Japanese brand name on the console itself. perhaps a name like Dreamcast 2 would not have been a bad idea.
Despite The Simpsons and Xbox being icons in the US. Surprisingly, probably the 2nd biggest entertainment empire in the entire world aren't too interested in those things.
I feel like the black sheep. I loved the Duke (once my hands grew enough to hold it which is definitely a problem). I can't wait till I find one of those new Xbone dukes with the LCD display.
Great video! Regarding the meeting with Mikami, Microsoft should have offered a generous exclusivity bonus and a message of "we'll be here for you in your success and and failures" message by allowing him to create experimental concepts as well. A goodwill grassroots approach would have earned many Japanese allies and would have justified the costs and possible short-term losses.. For example, Kojima wants to create more than Metal Gear; he really wants to create more games that have a Snatcher sensibility. I wish companies would see that it's worth these risks.
I loved the duke it was an amazing controler. I remenber been a kid when i got my xbox and i was so disappointed because i got the newer smaller controller instead of the duke which my friend had. Also people forget that japanesse people are super racist, anyone who has travel to japan will tell just how racist they are. The weird thing is that they are very "nice" and "polite" with their racist vibe. They dont insult you to your face and are very nice but there is always this weird feeling of them been disgusted when talking to an american.
Yosuke is wrong. If domestic products produced more sales, than the XBoxOne would be winning over here in America!- it’s not. Neither did the 360 really. That other guy who said it was about the games is right.
Big thanks to Massdrop for sending me a really awesome headset and sponsoring the video! Here's the headset if you guys want to check it out! ► dro.ps/censoredgaming-pc37x
XBox also failed in the Philippines..
xbox is a dying brand. they don't have many games on their platform. while pc is raising in the number of games,xbox going the opposite.if you notice games traditionally only on PlayStation like Tekken, monster hunter,musou games...crawl themselve into pc while games in exclusive to Xbox are getting fewer and fewer.the rise of emulator also made an effect.while most game developers now focus on mobile game which make quick money return,mobile emulator like blue stack,OS player and droid4x....also help pc as a "platform"
Duc Tran Just look at steam a lot of Japan only Vita and Ps4 games make it overseas by being ported to PC the same rarely happens with Xbox.
Agreed, many on Steam are also on Vita or PS4, or the more particular ones that stay on Vita are only on Steam in the West because its convenient to do so and it usually works out for those customers.
Duc Tran point is that xbox globally lost the console wars this generation. The One series released late and had not a whole lot of super amazingly exclusives. By the time they did, PS4 dominated the living rooms. Kids would ask their parents for a PS4 because friends had it, and with the same platform they could play together. Which is probably why Sony is so against cross platform with the PS4, to keep their "I want to play with my friends who have PS4" selling value.
I live and work in Japan as a elementary school teacher, that focuses on teaching English. Just last week I told one of my students that a new Battletoads game was coming out, but that neither of us could play it, because it was only coming out on xbox (we both own switches) he replied "what's xbox?"
Green Djinn lol
Dang really goes to show how unpopular Xbox is in japan
@@bigboi9711 my japanese friend says back then it was the way the console looked like and game that made the Xbox flop but nowdays it's just the game. Xbox first party games just don't appeal to the Japanese.
It's so crazy to think that Minecraft is a big hit on Japan only because the game received a port on Switch.
@@LOL-gn5oh It was originally on PC for a while. Xbox 360 was the first console port.
When Nintendo brought the Famicom to the west, they rebranded it as the NES, as Famicom would be seen as childish by westerners. They also completely redesigned the box, making it look less child-like and more like an expensive piece of hardware (by entirely redesigning its shape and color scheme).
Sometimes you just have to adjust your product to suit local needs, especially when you are the underdog. Microsoft really failed to do this, which is one of the big reasons the console failed in Japan.
In truth it really showed how willing to adjust and prepare Nintendo was, especially at that time. It's a shame cause Microsoft has some great hardware but they're very rigid with their intellectual property
Very well said. Microsoft didn't market their product (Xbox) very well in Japan.
@@Walking-MY-Path They tried with the 360.
@@noneofyourbusiness1998 They did indeed but failed. However, 360 did a little better than the Original Xbox.
Yes and the designer of the NES officially stated it was designed to resemble a VCR Player to appeal to Americans and look less like a toy.
Most people in japan have never ever even heard of the “x box”. I only found out from my American friends
Nani?
Masaka O.O
I'm an American, and the Xbox has been slowly dying back home here in the States if you can believe it. Alot of my friends and acquaintances who used to game on Xbox back in the day have switched back to Nintendo, Sony, and PC gaming systems now! In fact, I don't hear anyone talking about Xbox in the States where I live.
Greetings and Respect from U.S.
@@G.L.999 ?
literally everyone has been contemplating to buy an xbox series x or a pc because xbox is actually starting to integrate pro and consumer friendly features such as backwards compatibility and more gamepass benefits and more content to be cared about on xbox compared to sony who havent implemented backwards compatibility, large amounts of Japanese games being censored, general censorship of other games while turning a blind eye on their own games, no games for the ps5, and general distaste of playstation attitude towards the domestic Japanese market who they abandoned for the american market and losing grip in the japanese market with xbox looking forward to replacing sony's void with more japanese oriented content
There missing out
Remember the E3 where XBOX ONE was showed? remember the huge emphasis they put on "eat doritos, drink mountain dew and watch American Football?" (yes American)
Because in south America we don't play that and people was like: they made a console only for USA market, not even Europe.
Now think... if in South America and Europe the console never appealed for being way too American... then for Japan was worse.
@Pharrell No its not compare to US, Xbox only sells good in USA
Pharrell a lot more people in Europe are PC gamers even back in the 80 the PS4 and switch I believe sell better in the U.K. Compared to America
I also remembered the terrible launch...
Take a look at the sale numbers. The Switch just reached 50 million sold units, surpassing Xbone, in less than half the time on market. One sells well in USA, and okay in Europe, but not anywhere else.
In south america there are people playing ps4 more than xbox because play station have been there for quite a while so it's well known and because xbox didn't bring anything new.
Kinect didn't help either. When you make motion controls that requires 6-10 feet away from the screen, and most Japanese citizens reside in small apartments, it's destined to fail. Then, when Microsoft announced the XBox One needed Kinect in the beginning, the XBox immediately went six feet under in Japan.
Japanese also believe in minimalism.
In summation, the Xbox's colossal failure in Japan has been the result of miscommunication with Japanese developers, a gross misunderstanding of Japanese gamers, and the console's several design flaws.
Brandon Roberts Sort of. They really messed up in that meeting with multiple game developers. Maybe that will teach others that first presentations are very important. Bill Gates just completely ruined that for the company.
I believe the fact that Japan is a commute culture means that most gamers would rather play something portable than a console hooked up to your TV. True, this wasn't always the case, but Japanese culture moved away from the home, which only became smaller & smaller, &onto mobile. Thus why the PSVita, for some reason, still sells there.
Guernicaman ps Vita was alright since then but until nintendo switch came out? ... Barely seen some Japanese playing vita nowadays...
It’s very interesting and seemed that the original Xbox may have succeeded well on the US but in Japan I was a failure and l can see why
We just proves my point that Japanese culture has moved away from home consoles & prefers gaming on the go.
Funny how Microsoft knew that they were playing in a whole different arena, yet every subsequent story here saw them making the same mistakes over and over and OVER again.
+florestin777 Easy if you use the current American narrative and mentality. "Wait, we can't be wrong. It shouldn't be us or our products or way of doing things... THAT'S IT! It must be them! It has to be them! They are the ones who are causing us to fail! They are the problem!"
I mean, this kind of mentality didn't spring out of nowhere for no reason...
American mentally is that the product will sell itself. I kinda like it to be honest. Whilst in Asia it comes with "services" or is sold to you in a nice way.
That said, XBOX is failing not just in Japan but also America. Its position is about as bad as Nintendo's...but at least in Nintendo's case they are trying to sell you toys.
Xbox is largely seen as mediocrity if not for Xbox Live.
The Xbox One is not failing in North America, it sells just fine.
Jacob Lau International sales for the Switch are just shy of the PS4's.
Wiseman And N64, Virtual Boy, Gamecube, and Wii U sold terribly. Nintendo is consistently in a bad situation.
I don't see these as Japan exclusive problems. I remember thinking "the controller is too big" and "the console is ugly / not elegant" and I'm not Japanese. I heard many other europeans complain about this. surprised it sold so well despite that.
Agreed. Pretty far from Japan, and I never liked the designs.
It's hideous and I'm american
Japanese native here. At the risk of veering off, one interesting point to note regarding the iPhone argument is that despite the iPhone being extremely successful in Japan -- hell, it's about the only country in the world where iPhone STILL has higher marketshare than Android -- the landscape of apps that are being commonly used can vary greatly depending on genre, sometimes looking very different than that of the west.
You will see a lot of familiar faces when it comes to productivity apps (Google's apps, Evernote, Slack) or media consumption (Kindle, Spotify, TH-cam, Netflix). But in commerce, while Amazon is popular, eBay, Craigslist, and Yelp are nowhere to be seen, those voids filled by local players like Rakuten, Mercari, and Tabelog instead. With social networking, Twitter is disproportionately popular (even moreso than Facebook), while Messenger and WhatsApp aren't used much, and pretty much everyone uses the Korean-developed LINE messenger.
Most importantly, the landscape is VERY different with games - hardly any of the western popular mobile games are performing at the top tier here. Puzzle & Dragons, Fate/GO, Monster Strike, etc... The games popular here are almost exclusively Japanese games. While we have been seeing a gradually rising number of non-JP games lately, eg Azur Lane, Houkai 3rd or Knives Out, but even then, many of these are still Asian. (Pokémon GO and Fortnite perhaps are the rare exceptions.) This tells me that, while JP users can and will accept American products if done right, they still seem to have domestic tastes when it comes to gaming.
Coming back to the Xbox, it looks to me like Microsoft DID try as hard as they could in the 360 era. They spent a whole lot of money and effort to create/attract exclusives or Xbox-first releases that cater to the the JP audience, eg. Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Ace Combat 6, The Idolmaster, Lost Planet, Eternal Sonata, Tales of Vesperia, etc. Passionate fans of the platform did exist, some of them doing their own evangelism like creating DIY promotional videos of favorite 360 games and putting them up on video sites. The JP voiceover for Gears of War was appreciated enough to have its own set of memes only circulating here. In fact, I was a happy Japanese owner of an X360 myself! However, combined with how the RRoD issue being handled in an American way went down very poorly here, much like the disc-scratching issue outlined in the video, I guess it still wasn't enough to overturn the overwhelmingly negative sentiment that built up in the previous generation.
It's not as if Microsoft was never succesful with gaming in Japan - I wasn't there to witness it, but like some noted in the comments, the MSX seems to have been popular here back in the 80s and even became the grounds for Metal Gear 1 and 2. But these days it seems Microsoft has stopped even trying. I just hope it doesn't become a lazy excuse for future companies to point fingers at to justify ignoring the Japanese market.
Was quite surprised to see how well Azur Lane fared in Japan, considering how heavily Kancolle was tailored to the Japanese market and its huge, relatively hardcore fanbase. Also how did such a hot mess of a clone of PUBG like knives out did so well in Japan?
I have a question, if you allow me: what you guys think about Doom and Halo/Master Chief?
As a translator and gamer and having played many Japanese games, I can see where Microsoft failed to deliver in Japan.
Lots of games in America are hack and slash, action and are not translatable as they are very American.
Microsoft is also more on the American side of things too and do not understand Japan well at all.
Throw in a mix of poor communication, misunderstandings and assumptions and you have a recipe for disaster.
@@StarWritterSW Pardon me for the year-late reply.
Neither Doom nor Halo have much popularity in Japan, even among people who identify as fairly enthusiastic gamers. Doom Slayer and Master Chief are not the heroes of teenage boys, as they’re barely even known at all. Halo being an Xbox exclusive doesn’t do anything to boost the console’s popularity in Japan. Doom being bloody & gory is not considered ‘cool.’ They are only recognized among the fringe subset of hardcore gamers who specifically favor western style FPSs, which does exist but definitely isn’t a mainstream crowd.
That said, some shooters seem to be picking up popularity in recent years, as I hear a lot of more ‘mainstream’ gamers talking about Apex Legends and Dead by Daylight.
when the first xbox came out, I heard about other kids in my grade playing on it, I thought it was some illegal black market version of a playstation that lets you play games for free.
Lol.
I can kind of see why since you can hack the system into playing countless amounts of retro games.
The duke is easily one of the worst modern console controllers. It's not just a Japanese complaint.
akba666 I hated that controller
I hated the Duke, it was too big and the white n black buttons were in a dumb place.
It definitely was utter trash, and I don't mean just because of the unnecessary extra bulk. The thing felt more like a prototype.
akba666 yep everyone with tiny hands hated it.
And yet people liked it enough to get it re released.
This is super interesting, if you have any more topics like this on the back burner, please explore making videos on them, I love these more big picture, whole story things. Like a look at how and why a whole series fares in a particular region for one reason or another, always super fun to learn
DoodleManDrew
I agree wholeheartedly, learning more about the industry that one is part of is something inspiring, at least for me
I would love to hear what japanese people think of western games, in special shooters and all those who suffer from political correctness nowadays.
In Japanese culture, the X is also shorthand for "no". So, while X has no other cultural significance in the west, essentially, the Xbox is considered the "Nobox" in Japan. Highly unfortunate.
I see, so that's why the confirm and cancel buttons in the PS games (X and O) are reversed in Japanese exclusives.
Yup. It would be confusing as fuck.
Yep, also becomes annoying when you play both Nintendo, which keeps the same ABXY order everywhere and so does with confirm on A, cancel on B, and then play both Japanese and Western Playstation games.
A week of 3DS on a row and you'll be cancelling stuff on western PS games all the time.
Sony was wise by placing the circle key on the same place as the A and X on same place as Nintendo's B, no confusion for who plays both over there
Guernicaman hahahahhah am I the only person that finds this comment funny af
Come on, man. When you get a question wrong in the exam, won't you receive a cross('X') next to your answer? The Sony buttons layout in the west is absurd: you confirm something with 'X' and cancel something with 'O'. I didn't notice this when I was a kid (and now I feel like I was brainwashed), but ever since I knew the buttons layout in Japan were opposite, I immediately switched back to 'O' for confirming and 'X' for canceling.
Secondly, it makes more sense how the 'O' and 'X' button is positioned respectively. Assuming that the majority of people write with their right hand, you always write from left to right on a paper, and when you want to erase sth that you wrote previously, you'll go left to erase it. This daily life intuition/concept is applied to the positioning of the 'O' and 'X' button (you go left to press button 'X' to "erase" sth).
Western Gamers: Oooh, look at those cool Japanese games! Where can we get copies of them?
Japanese Gamers: Eww, western games...
I'm just going by what was said in the video.
Indeed, bias..
Jack M Well, The Last of Us is one of those games where the mechanics and story tie into each other to create actual immersion, and pretty much everything in the game is there for a reason. It's hard for games like that to not be well-received, especially because they take so much effort and therefore are incredibly rare.
Uh, Call of Duty and GTA seem to be the exception to this rule in Japan. I don't know why Xbox don't do so well. But when a western game get released on Playstation consoles in Japan, it does so well in Japan.
Now:
Western gamers: We only play western games at this point
Japanese gamers: We don't even make console games at this point
'X is the symbol of death'
*all advertisements show the X symbol appearing all over Japan*
Oops
X is also to cancel, incorrect and many ways for bad things.
O might have been better.
To be hounest im kind of glad japan hated the duke because the slim controler is my proffered controller.
Agreed. Even I found the massive controller just unnecessary and clunky. Same with the behemoth of a console. I'm so glad they took that lesson to heart and then proceeded to make the the 360 design. Much better. Hell, my friend got me the Xbox elite controller. And it's freaking awesome man. I may be a PS guy and almost always end up playing on PC, but since PC is Microsoft, the compatibility and customization is just awesome. Much better than that crappy POWER A FUS1ON Tournament Controller he originally got me....
Rdn Tv Could be autocorrect. Proffered is a real word.
Jamie Guy I like the S Controller as well, but the Dreamcast controller is just as big and quite comfortable.
Basement Dweller I dunno I like the 360 and Xbone controllers more than PS4, but maybe just because I'm used to them. I almost never use controllers though as a PC gamer.
Yeah, man...god forbid my bones are naturally structured bigger than you...
_The console's final designed was seen as bulky and inelegant in Japan_
Pretty sure it was seen that way everywhere else as well.
i liked the design.
Only an idiot cares what their console looks like sitting on a shelf.
I guess a lot of idiots own exclusive consoles then?
Nah in the west the bulky design made consumers feel like this console was more powerful
I'm in the west and I thought it made it look like a cheap vcr
Honestly Xbox has always been fighting an uphill battle in Japan. Sony and Nintendo always had a level of prestige or a reputation that Xbox was fighting against and (at least to me) it’s never really done anything to distinguish itself from PlayStation.
3 years later japanese market is turning sour towards sony who abandoned the japanese market for the us market where japanese gamers have shown alot of distaste to especially how playstation handles japanese games with censorship
Funny thing time is. It always brings change but not always for the better. At least from Sony’s perspective.
Shoulda marketed it as the Dreamcast 2 in Japan
Larry yes it should be.
Larry The Dreamcast flopped hard in Japan.
@davintheraven
Or Microsoft could just had bought the licence for Dreamcast 2.
@Evangelos Killer mike Sega produces great games under their wings (aside from 3d Sonic games), it just happened to be they had a string of failed consoles
@Evangelos Killer mike nice edge kid
Hearing that America's response to the Xbox'failing was to lay off a ton of Japanese staff got me. Japan has a strong work ethic and companies will do everything before laying off someone there. Nintendo's passed president Iwata gave himself a massive pay cut before even considering lay offs.
I can't help but feel for the staff who wouldn't have thought it could happen.
Companies will Fire you on a dime in Japan if they are lacking in sales. I lived in Japan for 16 years, the company comes first. Has nothing to do with work ethic but numbers
Basically, it's not that it wasn't made in japan, it's that it wasn't sold for japan (at least not properly), you can tell across the story you showed that they were never really as serious about japan as they claimed to be, the part at 6:31 strongly suggests that, they say they were serious about the japanese market, yet the guy they chose to represent them was so distanced from the rest of the team (or so inept) he couldn't even answer when asked about the company's philosophy.
Drakan R or he was like "philosophy? companies exist to make money you silly little tryhards"
"Rules that apply to you as an outsider don't necessarily apply to insider products."
*_BOOM_*
Japan: You can't paint it black
MS: Isn't the PS2 black?
Japan: shut up
King Of Sand all their condsoles tend to be other colors minus black. We get black, silver, and limited edition colors.
Pixie Panda Plush no. Japan has white, the us and everyone else got a standard black ps2. While in japan they had ps2 but it was white and it looked completely different than what we got, look it up on google if you want more info.
To be fair, even if the Japanese PS2 was black (some of you are saying that it was white, but I found no confirmation of this on the internet), I think that it was a deliberate choice, in fact, the first PS3 (fat) looked just like a coffin.
rvbrexer I looked it up, it is indeed white.
It strikes me that a little deal-making to produce a Japanese variant of the XBox with a nod to Japanese designers and culture would go a long way to improving the situation for Microsoft in Japan.
One of my favorite clips from the old X-Play show was when they went to Japan and asked people if they would buy an Xbox 360. Everyone spoke Japanese but there was a translation in the subtitles. Everyone they asked said "No".
There was one guy who obviously says "Yes" in English but the subtitles still said "No."
I'm an American and I still hate that controller. The original XBox controller suuuuuuucks. I was a big fan of the XBox 360 and I still use a 360 controller for some games on my PC. However, that original controller was complete shit. How did they think it was a good idea to make their controller the size of a dinner plate?
Michael Hall TL;DR the company refused to give Microsoft smaller motherboards for the controllers so the duke exists.
3:14 "While Microsoft's domestic focused testing claimed that, testers loved the controller's size"
What?! I mean... maybe they meant that loved to crack jokes about its size... but I've only ever talked to literally one person who liked the old controller's size.
Me too! And he's a giant ginger man so... I'm wondering if these focus testers even knew what it was and how they were supposed to hold it.
Trust me during halo 1 most people preferred the duke.
I actually liked it. Controller S was obviously an improvement but I always kept a Duke handy even after getting Controller S.
I am a female with medium-sized Anglo hands (not small, Asian female-sized hands) and average-length fingers. I find the new XBox controller slightly too large and the off-set left stick is in an awkward position, so that it's difficult to use accurately. In fact I find it's harder to walk my character in a straight line even because the natural upward movement of my left thumb doesn't follow a straight line with the XBox controller, unlike with the PS4 Pro controller. I find the latest PS4 controller to be extremely comfortable and more easy to use and that it fits my hand and finger-length more comfortably. I also find that the rougher plastic and the position of the joins in the plastic and the flatter shape, make the XBox controller less comfortable. I also find that the DC vibrating motors in the XBox controller run hotter than the ones in the PS4 controller so my hands get hotter and my hands also sweat more when I'm using the XBox 1X controller in hot weather. I'm not sure if this is because of the motor type or power of the DC motors or because the motors are closer to the plastic. Either way, in summer it's very unpleasant to the point that I repeatedly have to put the controller down and wipe my hands, something I never have to do with the PS4. I always immediately feel more comfortable when I'm changing consoles to the PS4.
Idk I like the first xbox's controllers size
I also love the Wii U's gamepad as well
Leanbox was not really prefered in Japan. They prefer the Iowee and Lastation brands due to them being made in Japan.
Suite Life of Dio Brando got damn weaboo
djheroxt lol I do have weeb taste.
Is that fucking Neptunia
Sony has been a California run company sense the PS3. Sony is NOT Japan.
I think you spelled Lastation wrong tho, fellow Neptune fan~
(also, easily detected the reference to Vert's first appearance in Re;Birth3)
I still find it funny that people praise Microsoft for cross play and are mad that Sony doesn't allow it. If it wasn't for Microsoft, we would have cross play a fucking long time ago. They actually were the cock block for 2 whole generations.
exactly. PS3 was the first cross play console
@@HugoStiglitz88 hey you're from the future mate we have cross play
Facts
Btw, the cross play was from PC to Xbox. Not Xbox to PlayStation. Also, Sony didn’t want to cross play with Microsoft because of the competitiveness they had (so I’ve read and heard. Not saying it’s true). So it wasn’t Microsoft’s full fault.
*14:55** It's because it started bad. Once you start bad, it's very difficult to gain positive traction, even if the future products are good or even better than its competitions.*
@Fozzy W
Pretty much.
Seems like though Nintendo played the long game and built up trust by sticking with the Wii U instead of ditching it like Sony did with the Vita and Sega did with the 32x. Which led to ppl trusting ninty no not abandon the switch.
The only the reason to own a xbox was halo and gears of War until they decided to ruin both series
Gears of War was never good. Thats the problem. They ruining Forza was the final blow.
the other reason to buy xbox is ninja gaiden black and ninja gaiden 2
grumpy cat I totally forgot those were exclusives back in the day
How about Project Gotham Racing and the pre microtransaction days of Forza Motorsport? I played Forza 2 for a bit and man, that was the shit at the time...
Muammar Gibran project Gotham was great, too bad they decided to let it die too
I remember playing an xbox 360 when I was younger. Then I got a red ring and became a sony fanboy forever.
Come to PC. We have mods.
Denker Bosu skyrim mods made me a pc gamer.
Oh, I love pc gaming, I just feel more comfortable with consoles in general.
Pokemon Trainer Blue True.
Ten Years Later...
“Switch 2 has everything!”
The last console I bought was an xbox 360 wanted to buy a ps3 but bought a P.C instead and now that's all I use for gaming. Since I can play almost every game on it I have no need for a console. Sony has always made a good product from what I can remember and RPGs are why I would buy a ps4 now if I was to buy a console.
KillJoy not almost every game. 6th gen consoles is when emulation on PC gets really messy.
I like both, PC and my Playstation.
The Xbox doesn't really have games that appeal to the Japanese like the PlayStation. In my experience Japanese people really like deep stories in their games and they really like to grind if JRPGs are anything to go by. The Xbox is all about online games, FPS games racing games and so on. Where as the PlayStation always has the much better single player stories ie. God of War and the Last of us. If they Xbox expanded it's game libraries with exclusive story based games I bet that would help sales a lot.
Rorick Jager Nintendo is Also dominating in japan it’s doing way better then PS4 in Japan
True, when Halo 2 was released people admitted the story wasn't great.
I wonder how Western adventure games fare in Japan.
i feel like this isnt the case anymore now seeing the japanese market being incredibly sour towards sony now especially during the last of us 2 where sales were going up before stagnating and then falling after people mass sold their copies in reselling shops which to this day barely have been sold along with oversupplies like fallout 76 did in the us and europe
Awesome episode. This is actually a question my friends and I asked ourselves the other. Please continue doing more episodes like this!
When you have PlayStation and Nintendo to get all your gaming needs from regarding 1st to 3rd party games, there is no reason to get that unattractive 3rd console with inferior games that are also on other platforms. Xbox has no leverage. Period. You lose more by owning an Xbox than with a PS/Nintendo console.
Nonsense. The Xbox had plenty of exclusives, timed or otherwise. Halo didn't come out on PC until 2 years after its Xbox release. If anything the Gamecube was the unattractive 3rd console (there's a reason it came in dead last out of the 3 consoles in sales). It had plenty of good first-party titles, but was mostly isolated to those. That, and it was a generally boring console that smacked of lack of innovation. On the other hand, the original Xbox revolutionized multiplayer console gaming and the PS2, well, the PS2 may just have been the best console to have ever existed.
@@thejawgz6719 No, Halo was the only game ever worth having an Xbox for, and even then, PS2 was much better and even tho it flopped commercially, the GameCube is still loved by Nintendo fans to this day, some of Nintendo's best games came out on the GameCube, every game I liked on my Xbox I could get on PC/PS
Exactly. The state of Xbox's exclusives is frankly pathetic and there's nothing more important than games. Nothing. Why buy a games console if you don't care about the quality of games it has?? I don't get it. How can people just ignore the best games that come out each year???????? Last year 4 of the 5 GOTY nominees were strictly console exclusives to PS4 and Switch. And the other one was timed exclusive to PS4. So 5 out of 5 of 2017's GOTY nominees were not available on Xbox LOL
This year too. Definitely GOTY winner is God of War, Spiderman's a nominee for sure as well, Smash Bro's might be nominated too. That's at least 3 out of 5 even if Detroit don't get nominated.
Anyone who claims Halo was the only notable exclusive, has never owned a Xbox. You would be surprised how many good exclusives the original Xbox had, Microsoft definitely tried back then. Even 360 still has some good exclusives.
In terms of 3rd Party games, the Xbox is known for having the superior version. They much higher quality textures, higher frame rates, and could support wider aspect ratios. It’s just that Nintendo and Sony were there first, and therefore had a more developed and loyal install base.
Japanese gaming habit is sooo different. I think the one thing Xbox could never really breach is portable play. Commuters playing on train is so popular, that is why even tho vita is a pretty bad idea sony still have to get it out. Much like how Switch is attracting indie, Xbox need to attract developers of Japanese exclusive indie like VN.
the vita was a good idea actually being cited as a good system that was killed off too early because lack of support from sony
Starts at 0:48
My God I'm American and even I know Japanese Society works different you can't just go American speech style their and except it to go well. Anyone with common sense need to learn how the market works we're your selling. And the Xbox is to bulky they need it to be visually appealing and slim they love that type of stuff it's why the switch boomed their
"Oh he doesn't like it; it's too big."
That'll be my fav quote for the week
Microsoft is too hard headed, they don't listen to obvious and reasonable facts, but instead they only listen to the loudest fanboys in the room. There's a reason why xbox always fails, just look at how they handled the development of Scalebound, that will give you all of the reasons why Microsoft is a terrible company when it comes to video games.
Xbox fanboys will constantly say "the xbox didn't need Scalebound" while not realizing many gamers were literally waiting for Scalebound in order to actually buy an xbox one, I know that was my plan and my brother's plan until microsoft fucked it up with their BS. Not everyone like playing Gears, Halo, and Forza, there is a reason why other genres exist outside of sports, cover shooters, fps, and multiplayer.
Different genres draw different people with different taste, the Japanese market understand this fact, too bad Microsoft and it's braindead fanboy white knights who attack everyone else refuse to learn this same fact.
malbhet hypocritical pony fuckboy.
Jose Gonzalez
You sound like the very butthurt xbox fanboys I mentioned, thanks for proving my point about you fanboys lol:D
"Xbox fanboys will constantly say the Xbox didn't need Scalebound" do you have citations for that statement because no Xbox fan has ever said that.
What is XBox's philosophy?
Xbox Live? Its to hopefully sell you more Windows and Office. Not games.
That's what I got out of it when I bought the first Xbox.
Microsoft has killed off every studio they ever owned even the one that makes AoE. They're here to do serious business and games are just a way to enjoy your down time. That's their philosophy.
It's boring. That why it doesn't sell.
malbhet he is right the stuff you said is hypocritical either you drink sony kool aid hard or your ignorant choose
Great video! My thoughts:
Look at the best selling game platforms since Xbox launched in Japan
MOBILES (NDS, 3DS, GBA, PSP, soon to be Switch)
Nintendo's latest flagship is a mobile, and the game market has shrunk to its lowest level since 1989 (1989-- when Japan went into national mourning after their emperor died, and they weren't buying anything. Yeah the modern gaming market is that bad).
Even though Sony and Nintendo have stronger relations with Japanese developers/companies, they actually faced many of the same problems the Xbox faced in Japan. Look at all the weird Nintendo consoles, look at the low sales of the PS3 and PS4, look at the substandard development from Japan during the PS3 gen while the West finally became the dominant development region, etc
There are many tales of woe from Microsoft surrounding Americans trying to enter Japan's market and culture, but there's a lot more to blame for Xbox's failure than solely anti-American sentiment
I lived in Japan during the 3 Xbox launches, and I have to agree with Rob Fahey. A lot of "premium" and "luxury" local department stores and products and etc have a Spanish/French/German/Greek/English branding to them.
Japan plays games on Apple iPhones, and they're the largest market in the world for app sales. They still use Windows OS on their PCs over anything else
Some (not all) of Microsoft's complaints sound like bellyaching and making excuses for not having enough inexperience working in that market. The lesson from Xbox's failure is definitely not "if you're foreign, don't try to carve a niche in Japan's territory"
David Curry the Switch is not a stand alone portable...
Mario Adventure 2 lol what? It absolutely is, you can take it with you and play it without an internet connection or the main console like the wiiu which you may be thinking of
Not only mobiles, but note the companies who made them and where they're located.
Mario Adventure 2 how, it does not require any doc or extra accessory to do anything, last I checked that is the definition of a stand alone anything
Many American companies not only succeed in Japan, they dominate the market. Look at Coca-Cola, by far the best-selling drink company in Japan. Foreign luxury cars, clothing, computing, etc etc... suggesting that Japan prefers Japanese products over foreign is absurd, they like a mix of everything in their own weird way
MS faced some xenophobia from the JP game industry (at first-- since the 360 had exclusive/multi JP support), but I think the evidence shows that Xbox debuted when gaming at home declined in popularity, once handhelds could produce any game experience reasonably well. Dedicated consoles in Japan dropped in sales after the PS2 gen ended, while handheld/mobile sales exploded. MS just didn't understand where the market was headed in that country
Xbox is also unpopular in the middle east. Not even during the Xbox 360 Era did I see that much people own an Xbox as much I saw people buying PS3's. The main reason is because ever since the PS1 release, the Playstation exploded in popularity among gamers over here so much that Nintendo and Sega consoles became forgotten. You barely hear about someone talking about N64 or Gamecube but everyone will talk about the PS2 as if it was the only console available on the market. Everywhere seems to be a loyal of Sony. As an owner of a PS4, Xbox One and soon to get a gaming build PC, I barely see anyone own a Nintendo Switch or Xbox One. Casual games just go for a PS4. Nintendo didn't have any official support in the Gulf States until recently and Xbox Support for our small market are a joke. Sony n the other hand added the Arabic language as an option to use on the PS4 since 2.0 update.
ToyGTone could it be also because a lot of Xbox shooters are set in the Middle East and you people are usually the bad guys?
Joshua Berry The PS4 has also other games and generes, Xbox exclusives are yet more shooters.
ToyGTone what games are popular in Middle East?
@@masteroogway3816 Nowadays? That would be games like GTA, COD, Fifa, Tekken, Fortnite, Battlefield, PUBG, Crash Bandicoot remaster and such. There's also fans of series like the TLOU, MGS, The Witcher, Uncharted, Tomb Raider and various anime fighting games like DBZ, One piece...etc
@@rvbrexer Nothing to do with that. Nintendo are far more family friendly yet it's no where near as popular as the Playstation.
it's the games. definitely the games.
Not Turkey tough. Seriously every fucking one plays FPS games in Turkey
@@yasarmsn2187 He's talking about Japan, not Turkey
irfanburningowl this comment aged like spoiled milk
Your right, it's all about about games.
In all likelihood, it may just be possible that the reason for negativity isnt solely squared on xbox, but that microsoft's awful PR could be because of their shitty marketing team. We've seen before when they produced windows Vista, and how they branched away from that name by choosing to call their new product windows 7, then push out 8 and have the nerve to say that in the discussion room: "removing the start menu and shifting a desktop layout into a more mobile platform is the best direction to go in." Go look up comments on those inside teaser videos. They even have PR for their surface pro tablet, where they try to compete with apple tablets; they give out free tablets to news casters and football league to encourage more brand recognition, and even either shits on it, or just outright refuses to use it. There are so many examples of their failures... Does any one still remember or talk about Microsoft's Zune? What else can we point out, their mobile phones?
Microsoft should just stick to their brand name and focus more on Software. They have the potential to support so many different platforms, but they try to take capitalism too far by over-reaching in fields they just aren't cut out for. They say companies that try to do too much, usually tend to not succeed. Does anyone even use bing?
Great video first of all.
And this is just reinforced what I already know, which is that Microsoft just doesn't get japan.
Let's start with the designes. Japanese consoles are trying to be smaller and more slick while Western consoles are big and bulky. The controller for the OG Xbox WAS an issue since japanese people have smaller hands to begine with.
.
Than comes theire way of speach..... It's very American so to speak.
In America the discussions and deals are done fast. YOu go in get to the point quck and make up your mind on the spot. In Japan this isn't how it gose. You have to spend time with the business partner and NOT mention work or deal before he asks it. And that can take DAYS. Being blunt and haisty can be seen as disrespectfull and rude.
.
Than comes the over all massige. "We want our games to be like films". Japanese devs don't realy give a shit about that(-Kojima).They more often than not wanna make FUN games. That is why Sony and Nintendo has such a big hold on them.
.
And since they were unable to won over Japanese devs they didn't had many Japanese games. Which is basicly suicide there since Most Japanese player aren't realy into the things that makes western games popular.
The PS3 was bigger and bulkier than the Xbox 360.
That does make me wonder now - What made Elder Scrolls popular in Japan?
I can't realy answer that since I don't know much about that.
Most Japanese player prefeares story driven games with dialoge(Not cinematic tough)
dricsi07 BS. Sony is just making playable movies now, 85% cinematics, 15% gameplay.
And how many 3rd party JRPG games do they have? A lot I belive.
A little trivia that might interest you, Xbox’s design looks like the Chinese character “凶” which means misfortune and to some extent even means death. Considering its less successful sell number in Japan, the nickname of misfortune box is created and still exists as a running meme around all Chinese character using regions.
Many seem to forget the Xbox was not Microsoft's first video game console but that honor goes to the MSX which was quite popular in Japan as well as some European countries and the middle east.
The Japanese know garbage when they see it.
I find it interesting how M$ still hasn't answered Mikami's question: "What is your philosophy?" It definitely isn't art, and it clearly isn't games either.
Bean counting...
Oh yeah? Did You know japanese are alies with the nazis? Their philosfy is nazist
Xbox never had that Japanese
a e s t h e t i c
not just in Japan, but whole Asia.
Srry for late reply. As a Singaporean, it's true. I don't see single people own Xbox One here. Most people own Playstation and Nintendo consoles.
@@LightBluly same situation in my country as well
Same here in the Philippines. There are console community groups here and for some reason all of them have PS4s and no XBOX Ones in plain sight.
Although XBOX 360/One controllers are more preferred in the PC enthusiasts/gaming community due to ease of setup (on either USB type or wireless with USB dongle), especially on Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10.
I do saw someone buying an XBOX One console one time on our local DataBlitz store (philippines version of GameStop), but that's about it.
Indonesian here. Despite I play consoles games since 2006, I never any single Xbox here. Everyone prefer Sony or Nintendo products.
@@LightBluly same here on Malaysia too. Can't find a single friends who have/prefers Xbox
Xbox just doesn’t appeal to Japan. They’re more into anime and RPGs, something Xbox doesn’t really offer. They’re more about FPS, which is an American thing.
They'll prefer Mario over Halo. Nintendo is a Japanese company. Xbox is an American company.
@@GeneralGorillaSonicOC japanese would prefer weird anime games over anything xbox has to offer
@@starleaf-luna thank god we don't have shitty anime games with weird bunny girls as playable character
In other words Xbox keeps failing in Japan because their upper management was dense
Japanese people are faithful to Japanese brands.
@@GeneralGorillaSonicOC but why is iphone so successful in Japan?
@@aolanikainoa552 because xbox just didn’t market their console well, its got nothing to do with Japanese loyalty, probably for a few but if a product appeals to them, it doesn’t matter, there gonna buy it. Bill Gates and their marketing team just left a sour taste in their mouths
@@rolan5948 Microsoft never truly cared about Xbox in the first place let alone market it heavily in Japan. I think it's because iphone is the flagship product of Apple since day one whereas Xbox was just the side project for Microsoft until game pass happened.
The Xbox had a lot of really good Japanese games, Otogi 1, 2 , Shenmue , Metal wolf Chaos and every Team Ninja game. I am looking to get an OG xbox again, I loved it when I was a teen. Dead Or Alive 3 and Ninja Gaiden Black were my favorite games on it
anythingnew DoA was the first game I got on the reason I bought an XBox. They had awesome games but with 360's push for more shooters and online play along with the One just downplaying gaming in general, it was enough to cement me further in Sony's camp.
i hate xbox.. they rip open my wallet. i lost so much money buying there broken ass consoles. 2 Xbox OG, 3 Xbox 360 n thats enough for me.
base on your favourites.. good for you.. might as well dig yourself and bury yourself along with xbox
asifur rahman my 360 still works..
Bruh shenmue 2 was a Xbox hidden gem!
Nintendo: *GET. OFF. OUR. TURF*
The mention of foreign companies becoming successful transplants in Japanese market seems intentionally stated to misguide the viewers.
There are numerous vanity aspects of many cultures, including those in Japan.
The luxury brands allow for people to show off their family, friends, neighbors, competitors, etc.
The luxury brands are successful in many markets, as their brand carries the weight of appeal.
Problem about comparing existing luxury brands (Mercedes, BMW, etc) are that they are established in their market.
Mercedes did not introduce a new video game system, but just vehicles that they are known for.
Apple did not introduce a new car, but phones/tablets/computers that they are known for and have built a brand (that reflect wealth, etc).
The Japanese market will need to be catered to, as the market seems very reactionary and sensitive.
The Asian systems are generally much more compact, especially Japan (living space tends to be very restricted/limited and expensive.
The Asian (particularly Japanese) games tend to be designed differently, including difficulty that are dramatically harder supposedly.
Domestic companies are favored by domestic consumers.
Some people intentionally check for location of production etc, including Americans seeking "Made in America" labels.
Seems to be more amp'ed up in Japan market.
Microsoft needs to be vastly superior to Sony in hardware and software for them to gain significantly.
They can be offer better things than Sony and still fail.
Even as an American consumer tho, I don't really care about the Xbox when compared to PlayStation, Nintendo and PC hardware.
My big reason for this is because they don't have a lot in terms of exclusives besides Halo. A large majority of the games on Xbox systems that peek my interest wether they'd be American games or Japanese games are also available on PlayStation, Nintendo and Steam. Their controllers make good PC controller I suppose but that's really about all there is to Xbox imo.
TFW I've spent more time using my xbox360 controller on my pc than I ever did on my xbox360
Pique*, and the lack of exclusives is actually a good thing for consumers; if only we had more of that in the current gen, things would be awesome.
@@LepidoliteMica exclusives create competition which makes every company try harder,which is why Microsoft is buying studios,it's a response to Sony.
@@MedIevalCyrax Exclusives actually discourage competition in the one space where it matters most to consumers. Without exclusivity, companies would need to make their systems stand on their own merits, and actually be better for gaming than the competition. With exclusivity, they're free to fall back on "nyeh, I have this title and you don't," which does nothing to benefit the consumer.
@@LepidoliteMica I'm not talking about consumers,I'm talking about business,is that too hard to comprehend?
I guess they shouldn't name the new product "Xbox Somethingsomething" and have some kind of big marketing campaign push that feels entirely different compared to what they've tried before with a message of what it's approach towards gamers is and why it's unique.
That's my best guess how they could make it work, maybe barely even have Microsoft's name attached at all. Maybe it can still be named "Xbox Somethingsomething" in the west while in Japan, it'd be called something entirely different (similar to "Mega Drive" and "Genesis") with a more compact/simpler design.
But those are only guesses that come from someone in Europe and who's never been to Japan. Just seems to make more sense to me.
Basically the Xbox is all about KABOOM, piu piu piu, tah tah tah tah tah. But what Japanese want is some heavy moe moe kyuun action.
Mecha Tengu lmao
you have both on ps4 though
@@Solaxe Nope, the PS4 is all about resting your controller somewhere while watching a movie disguised as a game.
Lol
naw, Microsoft is just falling into the corporatism pitfall inside the gaming industry, US gamers are migrating to steam.
Speaking as someone who is part Japanese & lived in Japan, land & livable space is precious & expensive. A lot of Japan is mountainous & the areas that aren't are dense with a high population.
America has vast expanses of land to build structures horizontally whereas Japan had/has to resort to building vertically mostly. Living space is extremely small by American standards & Japan favors indoor things to be as compact & efficient as possible to save space.
The XBOX was the size of 1980s VCRs! It would have been fine back then when most everything was big but not in 2002 since people were starting to get used to things becoming smaller & more sleek.
*Que the boxing announcer*
In this conah, weighing in at ovah 8.5 pounds, The DirectX monstah! (excluding the external power adapter the size of a house brick!)
Japanese liked to pull out the console from it's little space & have it sit next to them for easy access to change out games, hit restart, swap memory card, power up/down, etc.
Most Americans liked to sit away from their consoles & only have the controller near them. (Remember the break-away chords?)
In summery; the XBOX was too massive a device for the average Japanese gamer to keep around & it mostly had shooters & not enough RPGs. Automatic turn-off. Maybe laptop sized hard drives & disc drives could have helped the system slim down instead of desktop sized ones.
Would have sold at a higher loss as with all consoles at the time but would gain profit once gamer has bought their 5th game. Not to mention 1st-party accessories.
3wATroCon sorry but the first ps2 is ugly AF I like the slim because its so light an smaller than a laptop and yea.
3wATroCon first ps2 look like one of those stone blocks from the fifth element
3wATroCon WEEB
THEY CANT STOP ME crazy good movie!
I think they should just give up on Xbox there and try to get Windows games to catch on more in Japan.
As far as I know Windows never caught on in Japan. They pretty much bought Macintosh instead of Windows back in the 90s.
In resume:
Japanese public: "What do i get?"
Nintendo: "Cute and entertaining games for the whole family"
Sony: "Cool and hardcore games"
Sega: "A bit of both"
Xbox: "Shooters, lots of FPS shooters"
Japanese public: "hmmm ok i made my mind"
Sony Now: We’re gonna censor Ecchi Japanese Games on our PlayStation Platforms
Japanese Public Now: TIME TO GO WITH NINTENDO, PC, AND MOBILE!!!!!!!!!
FPS are good when they are on VR because it’s easier to move your neck that fidgeting with the controllers.
I get why most Japanese gamers aren't into Xbox counsoles and Western games, but what I don't get is that how is it that Japanese counsoles and games that were meant for Japan but still popular in the US and other Western countries??
Sure, I admit that these days I exclusively play Japanese games on Japanese counsoles, but I figured it was just a preference of the types of games I liked (aside that I like anime, manga and kawaii culture) and that they just so happened to not be American or from anywhere else.
When the first Xbox counsole came out in the early 2000s, I tried to play a game using an Xbox controller at a nearby Wiz (anyone remember that store?). It problably was at least in part because I wasn't used to the controls since I didn't have an Xbox, but I didn't like how the controller felt at all and where the buttons were placed. I don't remember which game I was trying out, but I wasn't impressed with my experience.
Even before I ever heard of Japan, every counsole I've ever owned and played on were Japanese. They were either from Sega, Nintendo, or PlayStation from Sony. Most Western games I've played/owned were mainly based on an animated show or movie (with the exception of a couple of Harry Potter games since they were based on the books and live action movies) with only a few that were actually originated by game developers like Spyro the Dragon or Kya: Dark Lineage. Everything else were Japanese games, which makes up my entire collection since my childhood.
So in this case, it may be sort of why I in particular play only Nintendo and Playstation games? I'm really not 100% sure about it, and I can't speak for every Western gamer that have similar preferences, but that's how I see it.
"A chance to shine in the Land of the Rising Sun"
nice.
See the cover art for Megaman 1 in Japan and the same cover for US: that explains everything.
American Kirby is Hardcore.
It's actually a pretty good article :)
It didn't sell for the same reason reason I didn't buy it. Not enough vibrant jRPGs and too many dreary ugly FPS games. It's a Western gamers machine.
also, Xbox games tend to be versus/PvP... probably doesn't got over that well in a culture that emphasizes community, getting along, and avoiding confrontation.
@@Yahriel What? Fighting Games are a staple in Japanese gaming.
weeb
I love jrpgs too.
SkyWolfAlpha yea also the culture that invented martial arts lol
And to think that microsoft refused a deal with the dying sega to allow the xbox to run dreamcast games, sega wanted to stay in the market after the failure of the dreamcast and they offered all of they catalog to microsoft, microsoft was interested but refused to allow the dreamcast games any online funcionality white sega wanted full support and the deal fall apart. Practically microsoft himself close the only door that was open to the asian market that sega offered.
if only PS support backward compatibility like xbox, that would be OP for PS 😎
Moncheero Elliene True that. I’m really pissed that Sony hasn’t established an actual backwards compatibility for the PS4. They’ve done it with the PS3 so why couldn’t they have done the same the PS4? Instead we have PS Now which isn’t all that perfect.
PS3 was hardly backwards compatible in reality.
@@snetmotnosrorb3946 It was, well the first edition of the PS3 which basically had an inbuilt PS2 inside it
What killed the Xbox One was the very first press release when they announced you had to be on a friends list to share your games. PS4 even trolled them by doing a 3 step process of sharing. Buy game, give game to anyone, enjoy game. They did fix this before release but when the Japanese gaming companies got that ammo it sunk the One and it was DOA in Japan. If scratches that had zero effect on playability made them hate old Xbox then no resales allowed at all would 100% sink the newest one.
Damn americans attitudes during the Squarenix pitch deal.......
yeah, how dare those Americans who have the world's strongest economy and strongest military, and who saved both Europe and Asia during World War II, how dare they have an attitude!
(note - I am not American)
William Hetherington what the hell does any of that have to do with there meeting with Square Enix? It's not even ironic or funny.
Lowell Lucas Jr. *their
William Hetherington Ignore him, he's trying to cause unnecessary debates and doesn't know what he's talking about.
William Hetherington
So you're saying, that because of the biased/special view on history that puts us Americans on gold pedestals, we should be treated like royalty and people should just kiss our feet because we're the most special country to ever exist?
Even if some of our companies make business mistakes and suffer for it? Even if our country has also made horrible, immoral decisions in the last and present?
Okay.
As an Asian myself I can assure you the issue with the Xbox boils down to the marketing and its exclusive titles, it's just too western and that doesn't appeal much to our easterns taste.
Why are you grouping all Asians in the same category?
yasashii89 not once did I use the word "all" I was referring to the general opinion, if you feel like you don't like the Xbox as pride then that is up to you :p
TBH, the Xbox has only been successful in America (And by that, I mean the whole continent, not only the US).
I'm in Brazil, the 2nd biggest market of the Americas after the US. Xbox barely sells here, even with Microsoft efforts of localizing it's games to Portuguese and all the commercial push the company made since the 360.
The Playstation is outselling the Xbox 9:1 on average, most stores also stock far more PS4 games then Xbox. Nintendo has been almost non-existent here since the WiiU era (no Official support), unless you buy their stuff on import shops or import yourself.
You mean North America... There is North America, and South America.
nobody cares about south america lmaooo
and the UK
They need a cute mascot character featured in an exclusive...
Harbinger Almost like what Sega had to make Sonic more edgy in the West. In this case, Microsoft would have to make Master Chief more anime like. (Master Chief’s Bizarre Adventure XD)
They did and made Blinx the cat but he failed
@@retrozaid1600 We don't talk about that "thing".
They could use blinx.
What about clippy?
I'd like to give a recommendation,when you record your voice over tracks try to get some acoustic foam to cancel the reverb a bit also try using a pitch filter as well.It sounds very bouncy on this video,other than that great video man keep up the awesome work man.
And most of those sells were due to having an exclusivity deal with Idolm@ster.
PS1 1994 Japan ✅
PS2 2000 Japan ✅ vs Xbox 2001 ❌ 😢😭
PS3 2006 Japan ✅ vs Xbox 360 2005 ❌ 😢😭
PS4 2013 Japan ✅ vs Xbox One 2013 ❌ 😢😭
PS4 Pro 2016 Japan ✅ vs Xbox One X 2017 ❌ 😢😭
Tresloucada
PS1 ❌
PS2 Brazil ✅ vs XBOX ❌
PS3 Brazil ✅ vs XBOX 360 Brazil ✅
PS4 Brazil ✅ vs XBOX ONE Brazil ✅
PS4 PRO Brazil ✅ vs XBOX ONE X Brazil ✅
Might wanna correct your date, Xbox 360 came out in 2005
it's because the controller was too big for their tiny hands.
EDIT: Oh shit I guess my edgy joke was actually accurate LOOOOLLLL.......
says the guy with tiny hands..I like your warhammer videos... They really look big in your hands...
"Edgy joke"? Are you fucking serious? You said their hands were small, big whoop.
If that's what you consider edgy, you have only scratched the surface of the internet
it's too big for American hands too according to all the memes from the time. Also old memes don't really count as edgy unless they are you know...edgy.
freedustin "Asians have small hands" isn't the meme "hueg" is the meme.
I get the feeling that Japanese devs focused on making a great product first, making money with that product came secondary. Then here comes Microsoft doing the complete opposite with the way it did its marketing. Props to Nintendo and Sony, I’ll always get their systems.
Zack Smith SMT > persona. Fight me lol. But yeah, Japanese games, especially jrpg’s, will always hold a special place to me
Zack Smith whoops...lol. I meant to say mainline over persona, but that works too 😅
*weebs*
Final Fantasy games get boring. How do they even connect with each other? Does each game have their own little universe?
@@Rez090 I am confused. Have you actually played them? Your first sentence suggests YES, you have. Your second sentence suggests NO, you haven't. If you had, you would already know the answer.
As a PlayStation fan, it sounds like the Japanese were just really petty and whiney about the whole thing
Nah i think it failed worldwide not just Japan.
xboxが失敗した理由は、単にやりたい独占タイトルがなかったからじゃない？haloがアメリカでは人気なんだと思うけど、日本のFPSゲーマーに知ってるFPSを聞いたらCoDやBFより絶対認知度低いよ。あとxboxは基本的に大人向けのゲームしかない（かわいいキャラクターがいない）。みんなが集まってニンテンドーDSでポケモン交換をやってる時に隣で友達がガチガチのFPSやTPSなんてやってたらドン引きするでしょ。あとSONYは初代xboxが出た時にはps2でサルゲッチュ(ape escape)やラチェットみたいな、どの年齢層にもウケるゲームを出してた。今だとスプラトゥーンが子供に流行ってるけど理由は同じ。
でもxbox360コントローラーは今まで使った中で最高だった。
XBOXブランドが日本で一瞬輝いたのはJRPGの有名タイトルを複数確保した時だけだったから、失敗の理由はやはり日本向けゲームが少なかったからだろうね
@Ryan Dawson You've just summed up exactly why I have no interest in it, or Playstation for that matter. When PS3 was around I felt more tempted to get Playstation, but still not worth it to me being a typical European PC gamer. But nowadays the developers have less strict exclusivity deals and on PC we get every Playstation game one year later, which is good enough for me. Western PC games have a lot of very interesting stories, but the consoles seem mostly mindless shooting.
I moved to pc because I got more variety off that platform than ps4 or xbox… I have my shooters which I love, and soon im getting halo on pc so I wont even need the xbox one anymore. i'll just stick to pc
PS is Japanese and Xbox is American that is the reason. The only tech to break Japan has been Apple which is very popular in Japan. The Japanese value their own product above most others which is why you don't see Samsung or LG in Japan, they do sell there but are not branded as nobody would knowingly buy them and certainly not if there is a similar Japanese product. This whilst maybe not being the only reason was the main reason why Xbox didn't work in Japan.
Apple in general appeases to the Japanese.
An Apple product doesn't look out of place in a pristine, high tech Japanese environment with its simplicity and design. That's why they work.
Anthony Ellison why use ps instead of Nintendo for the example
The reason the xbox failed in japan is solely because it wasn't a japanese console, also microsoft may have had some idiots in it's japanese team. But yeah, the Duke was a horribly uncomfortable controller.
if one does not understand the culture of a foreign country you cant business successfully in said country. a famous example: when Gerber baby food started to offer their goods in Africa they found out that illiteracy is high in Africa and its a custom to put a picture of the content of the jars or cans on the label. yeah..... no.... a jar of mashed white baby, lol.
Also, Walmart in Germany: www.quora.com/Why-did-Walmart-fail-in-Germany
Ah, so that's why My Hero One's Justice isn't getting released for XBox One there
Eric Luev yep
I STILL stand by my words when I say "The XBOX didn't even need to exist".
Microsoft already had the PC which many call the BEST platform.
Raun Carswell They really don't have PC I do not know anyone who buys games from the Microsoft Store. Everybody just buys their games from Steam, the only thing Microsoft really sells on pc is their os and their apps like word, excel, etc.
Nobody owns a PC other than the user, hence why it is called a "Personal Computer". Microsoft only owns the Microsoft software that is installed on the PC, which pretty much boils down to Windows, Office, and Edge/IE.
MS thinks the same thing
No they did not, but microsoft went ahead and sabottaged Sega in the US so they could get their cut of the market anyway, and mankind just lost. There's an alternate Universe where Sega is still in the console race because Bill Gates fell in his bathtub
PC Master race??
Lmaoooo of course the remote is too big for their tiny japanese hands, my reason for hating that remote was mostly because of the akward button placements and the gross shape
I moved to japan 6 months ago and I literally haven’t seen a single Xbox one for sale here
I’ve watched some videos. And there’s definitely an section for the XBOX ONE at some Japanese Stores. You just have to look extremely hard to find some over there.
honestly, when they found out that X was seen in a bad way in Japan the first thing they should have done was try to find a new name for it there, research what appeals to the people of that region. I also think they had an opportunity since some Japanese companies were willing to negotiate with them to try to get a Japanese brand name on the console itself. perhaps a name like Dreamcast 2 would not have been a bad idea.
quick answer : because all xbox buyers are american dads who were halo players back in the day
Lmao
Despite The Simpsons and Xbox being icons in the US. Surprisingly, probably the 2nd biggest entertainment empire in the entire world aren't too interested in those things.
USA is a big enough market on it's own.
I... would have thought they would care more about the games and not what the console looks like, but each to their own I suppose.
I feel like the black sheep. I loved the Duke (once my hands grew enough to hold it which is definitely a problem). I can't wait till I find one of those new Xbone dukes with the LCD display.
Great video! Regarding the meeting with Mikami, Microsoft should have offered a generous exclusivity bonus and a message of "we'll be here for you in your success and and failures" message by allowing him to create experimental concepts as well. A goodwill grassroots approach would have earned many Japanese allies and would have justified the costs and possible short-term losses.. For example, Kojima wants to create more than Metal Gear; he really wants to create more games that have a Snatcher sensibility. I wish companies would see that it's worth these risks.
I loved the duke it was an amazing controler.
I remenber been a kid when i got my xbox and i was so disappointed because i got the newer smaller controller instead of the duke which my friend had.
Also people forget that japanesse people are super racist, anyone who has travel to japan will tell just how racist they are.
The weird thing is that they are very "nice" and "polite" with their racist vibe.
They dont insult you to your face and are very nice but there is always this weird feeling of them been disgusted when talking to an american.
@@starleaf-luna
Wow a reply to a 2 year old comment.
Plus I think you reply to the wrong comment
Name of the game at 5:01?
Phantom Dust.
Thanks!
You're welcome.
Yosuke is wrong. If domestic products produced more sales, than the XBoxOne would be winning over here in America!- it’s not. Neither did the 360 really. That other guy who said it was about the games is right.
That Mikami meeting sounds extremely frustrating.
Where something about Japan saying that outsiders have to follow Japanese rules but companies that are made in Japan dont seems kind of fucked up.