Microsoft announced during yesterday's Inside Xbox show that Xbox Game Pass (including console, PC and Ultimate) is coming to Japan on April 14th, while South Korea will also be getting Xbox Game Pass for PC on the same date. In a separate video, Phil Spencer talked more about Xbox Game Pass with Japanese audiences via a YouTube message.
"The gaming market in Japan, fans in Japan are incredibly important to me and to team Xbox," he stated. "This is an announcement that I know you've been waiting for, and I really appreciate your patience as we've been working through all the details to make this happen."
This is a notable move for Microsoft, with Asia having traditionally been a weak market for Xbox. Spencer commented about the brand's Japanese appeal back in February, stating that Xbox's position in the country "isn't acceptable", and that it will do a "much better job" with the launch of Xbox Series X (thanks VGC).
What do you think of this Xbox Game Pass news? Let us know in the comments.
[source youtu.be, via videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 8
I think that although only 100 Japanese have an Xbox One and they might be not interested in Series X, Game Pass and xCloud will be popular there on whatever devices they use for gaming considering how many Japanese games are joining Game Pass because well, they love Japanese games and they love their phone gaming.
You know bringing Gamepass in both Console/PC form to Japan at the moment is a pretty smart move. I can only imagine the subscription increase before...
What does Xbox control 1% of the market in Japan? I'm not entirely sure why they continue to bother with that country to be honest. I'm not trying to be a dick or anything. That country is ruled by Nintendo. Sony gets the scraps that are left and Microsoft have little to no presence in the stores there. It just seems that Microsoft is beating a dead horse here.
@Link41x Not with Game Pass and xCloud since most Japanese gamers are mainly smartphone players.
@BlueOcean
Precisely.
You have to give it to them, despite nearly 20 years of being completely rejected by Japan they still give it a go.
@Link41x
I used to be of this mindset myself but it's the wrong one to take. MS has the money to keep trying to crack that market, and thankfully Phil Spencer is more in the Peter Moore, Shane Kim type mindset that Japanese games are very important to the Xbox echosystem because despite narratives certain insane, overly political left-wing 'game journalists' try to spin, the Japanese still make some of the best games. Hell, this gen I think the Japanese games, especially since 2017, have crushed most of the absolute garbage coming out of the West (with a few exceptions here and there like what id Software, Play Ground Games and some of Sony's first party teams make). Fortunately for all of us who enjoy Xbox, Spencer, eventhough he is a businessman, has also proven he's a gamer at heart and he knows you need to have a well-balanced library to have any form of success.
A presence in Japan, even if it's only 1 mil to 1.5 mil Series X owners, is better than nothing and means there's always a chance of lesser known games, besides just the RE's and FF's, showing up. RE, FF, DMC, Monster Hunter, Kingdom Hearts, Soul Calibur, Tekken, the Souls games, it's great to get all those. Even better when you can sprinkle in games like Phantasy Star Online 2, NieR Automata and the Yakuza series. I'm sure there's more on the way as it's pretty obvious from the video that Spencer has a passion for games from that region like many of us who grew up in the glory days of the 16-bit era still do. It's also funny seeing the American company courting the Japanese devs, while Sony puts in idiotic censorship policies not limited to but clearly aimed at Japanese games.
@BlueOcean Hey now. At least 112 people in Japan have an Xbox One. Let's not be overly harsh.
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