Xbox Officially Announces Its Return To The Tokyo Game Show

I like the robot made of Xboxes. Anyway, if they would just announced open beta xCloud for Japan that would be the only thing on my predictions.

That's a shame.
If they want to be serious about Japan they need BIG Japanese games on Game Pass with xCloud support and ideally good touch controls.
New games like Tales of Arise, Demon Slayer etc.
Or even older games like Persona 5, Scarlet Nexus, Sakura Wars etc.
These are games that would help shift consoles and Game Pass subs.

"though no new global debuts should be expected"

Sigh. goes back to waiting

So ... when can we expect those 'new global debuts' ?

I've been thinking if Xbox is serious to re-enter Japan market and attract JRPG fans in general, Xbox needs to partner with big JP devs and develop 3 - 5 promising quality JRPG IPs. If all JRPGs on Xbox also available on any competing platforms then most JRPG fans don't have any reason to own Xbox (since they already have Playstation or Switch or both). If most JRPG fans don't own Xbox, then it's one BIG reason to less motivate JP devs particularly the smaller ones to develop titles on Xbox.

Also in this day and age we still had occurrence such as games from big JP devs not released ONLY on Xbox like NEO TWEWY and remaster of Mana series for idk, strange reasons.

@blinx01 to be fair TGS really isn’t where the big gaming news happens, I mean some new games might pop up but it tends to games that they don’t think need as much global attention.

That said they didn’t rule out “regional”Gamepass announcements just “Global” debuts.

@endlessleep I could see Xbox doing a digital equivalent to X0 in November and that shining some light on the 2022 lineup as well as being the next time we see the Halo Infinite campaign. Right now the only 2022 XGS games are Redfall and Starfield.

With what we have seen of starfield do you really think it will be coming out in 2022? Like i hope you're right but we have seen basically nothing.

@SithThanos we know that Forza is coming out, so is Halo. Next year will be an odd one, both PlayStation and Xbox have games coming out but none with confirmed dates set in stone. Gonna have to wait and see. I'm confident Starfield will be out, maybe sooner. Stalker should be out April. Horizon Dawn, I think is out Feburary? It's possible any game gets delayed and both companies have a habit of announcing their ways wayyyyy before any foreseeable release dates, and when they do, there are delays. I hope that this time next year I can come back to this comment and list down all the games that came out If you're fed up of waiting try playing some other games, get a PS5 or PC or Switch. It's frustrating having spent money on a new console and then having to wait but that seems to be the way it works with new generational consoles. I remember getting my first PS4 when it came out, that was a loooong wait haha. Lucky for Xbox there's gamepass with day one games like Aragami 2, Psychonaughts 2, Sable, Back 4 Blood, Forza, Halo and all the other interesting titles available. It's not bad at all. Not for me at least

I wasn't expecting anything to begin with. I just had 1 prediction and that maybe Judgment is added to Game Pass. It makes sense, it's a Japanese game, it's part of the Yakuza series and it'd sequel comes out in a few days.

Then why do this event if there's no announcements?

@Snake_V5 I think it's just for marketing purposes in Japan

I think the recent Tales of Arise sales may indicate why xbox isn't fully on board in Japan yet, 86% of its sales were on playstation consoles. To me it's seems that the majority of xbox players just aren't that interested in JRPG's and are more for shooters/what's on gamepass. Alsong as those sales on xbox consoles are low then most jrpgs will skip the console

Perfect time to announce stronger partnerships, securing more jrpgs, but no. Big mistake.

@Hellosmoothskin Horizon Forbidden West (February 18th) and Gran Turismo 7 (March 4th) have precise release dates. There's also a bunch of games with "early 2022" release windows which'll probably get release dates around the Game Awards.

Xbox definitely is a lot more unknown though the same can be said about the rest of 2021 with games like CrossfireX and As Dusk Falls still having "2021" release windows.

There is a solid schedule for the next 6 months (in almost all systems). I hope they can engage Japan audience with this content or maybe a little surprise.

@SplooshDmg @UltimateOtaku91 that was “boxed” UK copies only and NBA2K22 was only 23% on Xbox. A sports game. Also the actual amount of boxed copies is super low https://mobile.twitter.com/Chris_Dring/status/1437340021779058688

@mousieone ah I see, don't get whybthey can't just combine the physical and digital sales together

And glad to see tales had its best launch ever as so far its been a really good game with the best graphics for an anime game I've seen, so far it's my game of the year even ahead of ratchet and clank

@UltimateOtaku91 well they do combined the sales that report comes out tomorrow but people usually pick up the first one.

Based on this line:

"though no new global debuts should be expected"

, sounds like there will be some Japan only games an ounce.

If they announced Persona 5 for Xbox, technically that would not be a "new global debut".

@SplooshDmg could be. Xbox had less shelf space everywhere. Like if you go to Walmart in the US (Best Market for the console) PS and Switch have 3 glass cases, Xbox has 2. To make matters worse EA/Activision/Ubisoft/2k take up 2 glass cases for both PS/Xbox; how would casual purchasers even know these kind of games are also on Xbox?

@Grumblevolcano is it the same Xbox event that announce Halo Infinite & Fable? Would love to see the same event but specifically focused on JP games. X0 is such a broad & general Xbox showcase event also not limited to just software afterall.

Fart bum boobs

@mousieone @SplooshDmg I think there's 4 tiers (in the US) of game sales.

There's Walmart/Target/Best Buy which is, honestly, a sales channel for people that buy FIFA, Madden, and CoD, and generally ultra-casuals that don't know much about games, don't play much about games, and 7/10 times are parent's buying things by name for kids, who don't understand what they're purchasing anyway. It might as well be a vending machine with the 10 most popular titles you've probably heard about from your kid.

There's Gamestop for a generally younger, but more dedicated gaming enthusiast. The problem with that sales channel is it's coerced so heavily into used games as its own marketplace, it's a badly distorted market. Customers are more interested in variety and try more games than the Walmart market, but they're mostly buying from the used pool because the store is structured such as to promote that as the main inventory of the store, with new releases generally not displayed in store with only one or two copies behind the counter unless you're an enthusiast that preordered, which already puts you into the "internet core enthusiast" camp to begin with. Games that sell in that channel are hidden from publisher/industry data. GameStop has "used" copies of a game....on release day....for more than full price. It's all tied into the rewards program so that even at launch if you're in their system you don't buy new.

Then there's the dotcoms. Amazon, Bestbuy, Gamestop, Walmart. This is basically "the internet core enthusiast" that still wants or needs to buy physical. This is the "real" channel for games in physical that aren't best sellers.

And finally there's the digital store for 50-80% of the customers, with a mix of lazy casuals and the ultra enthusiasts.

Naturally, the active player data is probably more useful to these companies than sales data, outside the accounting department. Active players tell them how many people are actually playing the game through all the channels, vs the weird, incomplete real sales data.

The Walmart/Target/Best Buy/Amazon channel is wholesaled at such a discount it probably generates very little profit to the publisher after the trade price and platform cuts are taken out. They're likely paying per-unit prices that match what we get on black friday digital sales 4 years after a game releases. If they stoppped physical copies entirely and sold every new game for $40 digitally without used, they'd probably net MORE profit than $70 through retail.

@SplooshDmg woah!

@SplooshDmg I was a physical die-hard until I finally got fiber. I left PC in part because Steam took over and replaced digital and I wanted no parts of it. A was mostly Nintendo because of the small downloads and physical-on-disc/cart in part. I ignored X1 completely because Matrick + online stuff was a no go.

X1X intrigued me, and when I got fiber I wanted to treat myself by either buying an X1X or building a gaming PC. I even bought Steam controller, Steamlink, and Quantum Break and Ori on Steam assuming I'd build the PC. X1X was co-advertising with my ISP, and my memory of how awful PC hardware messes were made me go with the X1X. My intention was to make it a 100% digital console, while Nintendo and PS4 remained 100% physical. I got started with the Gold freebies and bought a few exclusives I'd missed on sales. And got hooked. The platform just made digital so much more "PC-like." I started buying more of my games on X1X instead of PS4. Then started scouring the PSN sales to rebuy everything I had physically, digitally. Nintendo was to be my last bastion of physical, but indeed, even there, I've pretty much gone all digital. Game sharing on all 3 help encourage me to go digital as well. Buying 2 copies of half of what I buy sucked.

I feel dirty. I swore I'd do physical for life!

But, yeah, it was clear starting with Matrick that Xbox was reinventing itself as all about digital, all about Steam competition. He did it horribly, and the camera broke it, but technically Phil DID continue the original Matrick idea of being a truly digital console with physical as a weird afterthought. The fact that the budget console, XS, is digital-ONLY, says it all. Xbox is a digital platform, like PC, that also happens to support some amount of disc play, only on their most premium console, only for the bigger titles.

Which is also a big part of how they can "give away everything for free and ruin the industry" vs Sony. They're making more on their sales by being all direct-digital, and casually did what Matrick tried to do - got rid of used game sales. Not via Matrick's heavy handed approach of actually charging people for used games, but by offering so much value to not buy used games, that it seems like you're saving money by not having access to them. In a way, we still have Matrick's vision of Xbox, we just got it delivered by offering it in a way that makes us want it rather than one that feels like we're being extorted by a conman.

I don't imagine there's much of the Xbox market at all that's physical. And now, it's only the premium, not the casual buyers that will be. Which is another problem for the Walmart crowd. If that's where ultra-casuals buy FIFA, and ultra-casuals are going to buy Series S and therefore not buy FIFA at Walmart, why would they have a big Xbox section that only sells casual games to casual players who buy premium consoles?

It's too easy to monday morning quarterback based on unit sales numbers on the internet without thinking through the financials of how the money is really being made, and why unit sales between platforms are not a comparison of profits between platforms. When talking about Game pass and sub money, nobody EVER talks about the ability to invest the guaranteed recurring revenue, in big numbers, and give it a big fat multiplier. Can't do that with unpredictable box office sales. The revenue off the sub money can be higher than the actual sales numbers. Sure' it's laundering shuffleboard, the legal way, but that's what megacorps do. Sony knows this. They're a fudging insurance company. Nobody knows how to legally launder money like a guffarging insurance company.

It's true. Sony's model is old fashioned ad kind of behind the internet era. It works due to momentum, and they're doing great, but I think that will unravel at some point. Their sales model just doesn't work in the modern entertainment space, and while the masses still don't know better and the fans will embrace it, I don't think in the long haul it'll work. They're basically charging more so the first buyer subsidizes the used market and doesn't net a loss. Whales and coasters. Like mobile, but with a cap on return, and it holds back their digital market, which is becoming their main market. The market will start eroding as they push the limits. Will it happen today? No. Will it happen tomorrow? No. Will it happen someday? I believe that.

@SplooshDmg With X1X the downloads were limited by the HDD with bandwidth. I'd have 2 X1X's and a PS4 Pro all downloading at once, and they were only limited by the HDD, and none of my other stuff even slowed down. It was hilarious. Especially since I was stuck with dialup prior and the idea of a 200mb patch was "impossible" Heck even now the SSD and MS's server throttling is the only limit! I groan, like aww man, 12 minutes, I don't have time for this, because I'm an immature toddler with no attention span.

But, yeah, they really want you digital. And it's easy to do with the main platform selling point is Game Pass. You're digital by definition if you're considering the console, in most cases, because the sub is the main differentiator that draws eyes to the platform. Many other reasons to like XB, but that sub is the carnival barker. And most of the OS features end up meaningless if not using digital, as well.

Yeah, that's really a good summary of Don. He was fighting Wii too directly, for too long. He was fighting the industry with used games and DRM, he was trying to push digital to the front before the market developed for it, and trying to do it with a kudgel by force because he was too impatient to play the long game and wanted the "future" now. He probably had Ballmer prodding him from behind, in retrospect. That sounds totally Ballmer, but the bad attitude (#dealwithit/We have a console for them) cemented the deal, and the offering itself was undesirable on top of it. But his vision really WAS the industry future. He tried to force people to just accept fate and give in to the oppression of the future. Phil threw candy out the window and told us we'll lose a few perks if we want endless candy thrown at us. Same desination but very different routes.

Plus if you listen to a lot of physical buyers, the whole used cycle is gamestop trained. People buy the game at $70, flip it for $30+ so they see themselves paying $40 for games or less. It's part of their budgeting. It basically ends up that the player has to act as a distributor, and engage in sales to bring cashflow to equilibrium. Vs. just paying less to begin with. The whole Game Pass idea just cuts out the need to take on an active sales role to manage expenses just to play video games. Doesn't work for everyone with a curated limited timed list, but it adds a ton of value for a lot of scenarios.

MS had good ideas with Gamestop though. Rip the rug out on used, but cut them in on the digital deal and manage their digital systems......that's so smart. They just killed their double dealing middle man, aand then kept the middle man as part of their advertising network but cutting them in on the earnings that undercut them. Business genius.

"The Jim singers never get old"
Unlike Jim.....

No 'new global debuts:...but 'locally relevent updates' ... How many Japanese games have already been announced for Xbox to make a show presence worth doing? ...something doesn't add up