Med undantag för de första åren för Xbox 360, har Xbox-konsolerna aldrig varit något att räkna med i Japan. Det avspeglas också i utbudet där japanska spel i princip lyser med sin frånvaro, jämfört med konkurrenterna. Microsoft tycks just nu satsa mer på den här biten, men chefen för NIS America, Takuro Yamashita, menar att det fortfarande finns massor att göra på den här biten.
"Honestly speaking, Microsoft's approach to Japanese games hasn't been very supportive," Yamashita said in an interview with . "Microsoft, you know, for Japanese games, there's still a very niche element to them, no matter what it might be.
Microsoft also has a minimum order quantity for their games, and their whole structure isn't really geared toward niche games or smaller games like Japanese titles, so they're not really supportive of Japanese games or developers."
Till viss del handlar det om att det inte finns någon publik till Xbox One för japanska spel, enligt senior associate producer Alan Costa:
"We always try and pay attention to demand and see where our fan base is. We're obviously not opposed to trying new things. Disgaea 5 on Switch was one of those and it paid off, which is why we're definitely moving forward with that. I think that if the right game presented itself - a game that already had a certain level of awareness for people - we'd definitely be interested in giving it a chance, but it's a chicken and egg problem."
Nihon Falcom-chefen Toshihiro Kondo håller med NIS America och slår fast att han har liknande synpunkter:
"Falcom is obviously a Japan-focused developer and looking at the situation in Japan, the Xbox has had a difficult time. Because the market isn't there, we have to take a 'if things improve' attitude and just pay close attention to what's happening. However, I want to point that out we're always paying attention to the market particularly in terms of the foreign market, so if the Xbox was to have a sudden rise in the west, we'd obviously be open to considering it in that situation. I'd really like that to be the case."
Tycker du Microsoft borde satsa mer på japanska spel, eller räcker det med det västerländska fokus de har nu?
