While the Xbox One has been a sales success around the world - albeit selling in somewhat smaller numbers than the PS4 - there is one market in which Microsoft's console has been a sales disaster. In Japan, Microsoft sold just 100 (yes, one hundred) Xbox Ones in an entire week in June 2015; in another week in January 2016, only 99 Xbox Ones were sold, compared with 25,592 sales of the PlayStation 4.
Things haven't improved much since then; during the week of June 19 to 25, 2017, Japan's Media Create said that 265 Xbox Ones were purchased, compared with over 19,000 PS4s, and an additional 6,600 PS4 Pros. You might think that Microsoft would be ready to throw in the towel there, rather than continue trying to compete with Sony's console in its home market.
But Xbox supremo Phil Spencer has other ideas. In an interview with Japanese magazine Weekly Famitsu (via DualShockers), he confirmed that the new Xbox One X - which Microsoft unveiled earlier this month at E3, calling it the "most powerful console ever" - will go on sale there.
Spencer conceded that Japan isn't exactly the biggest market for Xbox, but insisted that it's still an important one for the gaming platform. He acknowledged the country's vibrant and passionate gaming community, and said that a resurgence in popularity of Japanese game developers means that it's more important than ever for Microsoft to maintain its gaming presence there, and to offer greater support to Japanese devs and fans alike.
But if the Xbox One X sells in similarly tiny numbers to those of its predecessors, could Microsoft finally abandon its gaming efforts there? Not while Microsoft's current gamer-in-chief is still in charge - Spencer promised that he will "never give up on Japan."
Source: DualShockers
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