Bloomberg: while Microsoft is expanding its presence in Japan, Sony is betting on the United States

A drama is unfolding in the Japanese market. Sony is unhappy with PS4 sales in Japan and is focusing on the American market. At the same time, Microsoft is interested in local development studios and plans to make Xbox the second console in the market of the “land of the rising sun”.

Bloomberg journalist Takashi Mochizuki wrote about the new “alignment of console forces” in the third largest video game market. Below is the main part of the material.

Microsoft’s position

• The American corporation has repeatedly tried to take a strong position in the Japanese market, but it could not do it in any way. By the beginning of November 2020, Xbox One accounted for only 0.1% of all console sales in the Japanese market. For comparison, the share of PS4 on it was 10.1%, and the share of Nintendo Switch was 89.8%.
• But now Microsoft is seriously going to gain a foothold in the Asian country. The company has already announced that the launch of the Xbox Series X/S in Japan will take place on the same day as in the rest of the world. Note that the Xbox One release took place there almost a year after the launch in the USA.
• The smallest Xbox in history, the Xbox Series S, should help turn the situation around. Such a console may appeal to the Japanese, who mostly live in small apartments. Moreover, the previous Xbox was criticized for being too large.
• According to Sarah Bond, who deals with partnership issues, Microsoft has also begun to negotiate with Japanese developers about the release of their games on the Xbox platform. So far, the name of only one of these companies is known — Koei Tecmo Games.
• Several other studios anonymously told Bloomberg that the Americans offered to buy their business. However, the developers refused to share details.
• Another Microsoft assistant can be Game Pass Ultimate, said the head of the Asian division of Xbox Jeremy Hinton (Jeremy Hinton). He pointed out that the subscription is designed not only for console gamers, but also for mobile ones — it makes it possible to launch games on smartphones via streaming.

Sony’s position

• Meanwhile, the Japanese Sony is increasingly moving away from the eastern market. Back in 2016, the company moved its headquarters to California and now decided to pay more attention to the USA.
• The main reason for the change of focus is the disappointing regional sales of the PS4, which turned out to be even lower than that of the PS3. According to analysts, Japan accounts for only 10% of the console’s revenue, despite the fact that in the States this share is 35%.
• A senior Sony employee pointed out that the California office blamed the marketing department from Japan for the poor results. At the same time, Japanese marketers said they received instructions directly from the United States.
• Sony has already cut local support teams by a third. Also, one of the oldest internal studios of the company — Japan Studio — did not renew contracts with many employees. According to the American office, the platform does not need games that sell well only in Japan.
• Representatives of Japanese retail said that they received about the same number of PS5 consoles as the PS3. But it was sold in a limited edition.
• Against this background, Sony has made another small but important change. She changed the purpose of the X and O buttons on the controller. Now Japanese players, like everyone else, have to click on X to confirm the action, and on O to cancel it. This is contrary to a 26-year tradition in Japan.
• In addition, Sony recently held two PS5 presentations at 5:00 Tokyo time. European and American players were grateful for this — it makes it easier for them to follow the events. What can not be said about the inhabitants of Japan itself. Moreover, in some places the broadcasts lacked a Japanese translation.
• However, Sony spokeswoman Natsumi Atarashi stressed that the company is not going to leave the “home market”. She called it paramount and pointed out that the PS5 starts in Japan first of all.

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• Is there any news?