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Japan has bought 2.3+ million Xbox consoles in the last 20 years, new Famitsu report reveals.

TheRealTalker

TheRealTalker

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Oct 25, 2017
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Lock if old.


That's according to a new report in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu magazine, which celebrates the 20th anniversary of Xbox in Japan.
Around 2.3 million Xbox consoles have been sold in Japan across all generations since the original console came to the country 20 years ago.
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According to the report, a total of 2,345,975 Xbox consoles have been sold in Japan as of February 6, 2022.

The vast majority of these were Xbox 360 sales, of which there were 1,616,128.

The report also confirms that the Xbox Series X/S has already overtaken the Xbox One's lifetime total sales in the country.

The total sales for each console in Japan are:

  • Xbox – 472,992
  • Xbox 360 – 1,616,128
  • Xbox One – 114,831
  • Xbox Series X/S – 142,024

The best-selling Xbox games in Japan in the last 20 years were:

  1. Dead or Alive 3 (Xbox) – 271,149
  2. Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope (Xbox 360) – 208,521
  3. Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360) – 204,305
  4. Blue Dragon (Xbox 360) – 203,740
  5. The Last Remnant (Xbox 360) – 154,493
This meant 46% of Xbox owners in Japan owned a copy of Dead or Alive 3.

Microsoft has made renewed efforts in Japan with its most recent console launch. Xbox Series X and S launched day-and-date with other territories last November (compared to a year later with its previous console) and Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said it intends to better cater to Japanese players this console generation.
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More Here:
www.videogameschronicle.com

Japan has bought 2.3 million Xbox consoles in the last 20 years, new report reveals | VGC

The vast majority of these were Xbox 360 sales…
www.videogameschronicle.com www.videogameschronicle.com
 
PRrambo_

PRrambo_

PlayStation.jif
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Oct 25, 2017
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The lack of Scalebound effect


Its a joke folks, it cant hurt you
 
Dale Copper

Dale Copper

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Apr 12, 2018
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87d.gif
 
KamenSenshi

KamenSenshi

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Nov 27, 2017
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I mean, a million a decade is something. Shows they have some tenacity towards growing that market. I still dont see it happening but nice to see them try.
 
Gavalanche

Gavalanche

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Oct 21, 2021
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It is an uphill struggle for them for sure. They need to keep trying, however.
 
vixolus

vixolus

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Sep 22, 2020
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2/3 of that being a single console (360) is nuts, but also it's Japan so yeah
 
big_z

big_z

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Nov 2, 2017
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The series consoles have potential to take the crown from the 360 providing stock issues don't drag on forever.
 
Jaypah

Jaypah

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Oct 27, 2017
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This seems wildly unsurprising considering how often they were mocked and laughed at for their sales (or lack of) in Japan. Gifs, memes, pics of empty lines and bored employees, etc. Nice to see the Series doing good, relatively speaking.
 
DoradoWinston

DoradoWinston

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Apr 9, 2019
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glad the Series S|X are picking up steam, they already sold more than Xbox One did its entire lifespan
I would not be shocked if they become the best selling Xbox system(s) once its all set and done, but its for sure a marathon for them over there

Hopefully getting more JP devs on board and releasing titles like Atlus' Souls Hackers 2 as well as acquiring JP talent like like Tango Gameworks prove to be driving forces. I am curious though how Xbox Gamepass Ultimate is doing tho, JP doesnt really fuck with large home consoles anymore but an Xbox service with hundreds of games ready to go on your phone, tablet or laptop? that I think is still the best shot at finding success in Asia.
 
Cheesecakebobby

Cheesecakebobby

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Oct 28, 2017
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In responsible for two of those!

Still get a feeling a lot of those series consoles are going to wealthy people in other, not officially supported Asian countries.
 

Ashhong

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Oct 26, 2017
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KamenSenshi said:
R.5678b399f6d5cbc83759dbab02137918


But seriously, it is nice to see them actually not just give up when they very easily could have. Maybe even should have. Thing is, I dont feel like they actually have tried as hard as during the 360 years.
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Off the top of my head I don't feel like theyve tried at all in quite a long time other than ship some consoles over. Probably wrong though
 
KamenSenshi

KamenSenshi

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Nov 27, 2017
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Ashhong said:
Off the top of my head I don't feel like theyve tried at all in quite a long time other than ship some consoles over. Probably wrong though
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99% certain you're right, which is why that recent Xbox Wire news stood out. They dont seem to try to do any cross promotions or really any promotions. There's definitely no visible push to create software that would appeal to the market at all. They could have made Blue Dragoon "their" series at least. It could have built up a respectable audience worldwide by now. Come to think of it, they really only "tried" 2 of their 4 systems so far.
 
Virtua Sanus

Virtua Sanus

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Honestly I am a little surprised, but mostly in that the Xbox 360 fanbase there was healthier than many assume, even if it was specifically very niche interests (shmups, visual novels, etc).

During the Xbox 360 era all of my Japanese acquaintances that were into the console were some of the absolute most die-hard gamers I have ever met anywhere in my life. Reminds me a bit of lifelong Mega Drive fans there actually.

Xbox Series S is a more than sensible platform for Japanese markets and Game Pass with xCloud is clearly a good opportunity for them to grow, but they simply do not have enough games that appeal to that market. They need to be way more aggressive if they hope to get anywhere. Getting titles like Soul Hackers 2 and most of Bandai Namco's offerings are nowhere near enough and western Xbox fans have made it super clear original Japanese games are some of their most wanted.

Shunning MistWalker like they did is beyond unfortunate, they really had something there and IMO all of their 'big' games have been pretty wonderful. Fantasian proves they still have incredible talent too.
 
Antrax

Antrax

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Oct 25, 2017
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KamenSenshi said:
But seriously, it is nice to see them actually not just give up when they very easily could have. Maybe even should have. Thing is, I dont feel like they actually have tried as hard as during the 360 years.
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Not exactly that surprising. I don't know their exact budget of course during the 360 era, but whatever it was, it ultimately amounted to about 2% of total Xbox 360 sales worldwide.

Obviously a pullback from the region has hurt on software made there that gets sold worldwide, but from a pure console standpoint, I'd be very surprised if their efforts in Japan were viewed as anything other than a failure.
 
neoak

neoak

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Oct 25, 2017
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Virtua Sanus said:
Shunning MistWalker like they did is beyond unfortunate, they really had something there and IMO all of their 'big' games have been pretty wonderful. Fantasian proves they still have incredible talent too.
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Sakaguchi wanted to move away from big console titles though

kotaku.com

Things Are Very Different For The Creator Of Final Fantasy

When you create one of the most treasured franchises in video game history, what do you do next? When you work on that franchise for 20 years, can you ever really move on?
kotaku.com kotaku.com
 
Virtua Sanus

Virtua Sanus

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Nov 24, 2017
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neoak said:
Sakaguchi wanted to move away from big console titles though

kotaku.com

Things Are Very Different For The Creator Of Final Fantasy

When you create one of the most treasured franchises in video game history, what do you do next? When you work on that franchise for 20 years, can you ever really move on?
kotaku.com kotaku.com
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Yeah I know about this, and it makes sense. Even The Last Story was quite massive.

Something of the scale like Fantasian absolutely has a place on consoles. They do not need to compete with Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest to be successful.
 
Ninferno

Ninferno

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Nov 6, 2017
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Just want to add that a significant portion of that 2.3m might not have ended up in Japan.
 
Nessus

Nessus

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Oct 28, 2017
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They should have called it the MSXbox in Japan and paid Konami whatever it took to get them to make exclusives for it.

They also probably shouldn't have given it the codename "Project Midway".
 
Scottoest

Scottoest

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Feb 4, 2020
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Yeah, about what you'd expect lol. The two data points I found interesting:

1) The OG Xbox sold almost half a million there...? I figured that would've been the worst selling one by a mile.

2) Blue Dragon was the third best selling game in Japan, and Lost Odyssey didn't even make the top 5?
 
Laver

Laver

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Mar 30, 2018
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Scottoest said:
Yeah, about what you'd expect lol. The two data points I found interesting:

1) The OG Xbox sold almost half a million there...? I figured that would've been the worst selling one by a mile.

2) Blue Dragon was the third best selling game in Japan, and Lost Odyssey didn't even make the top 5?
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OG Xbox had a ton of (niche) exclusive Japanese games, I can imagine hardcore game enthusiasts had to get it.
 
Kinketsu

Kinketsu

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Nov 17, 2017
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HitMissYeah said:
as in 2.3M travellers to Japan picked up an XBOX in the last 20 years.
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That is what I was thinking too. Just from personal experience which I realise is worth nothing, I have never met a Japanese person who owned an Xbox over the past 15 years. Anyone I have met who had one was a foreigner and within that, usually an American. And within that, someone who is no longer still here!
 
Baoben

Baoben

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Oct 10, 2021
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Kinketsu said:
That is what I was thinking too. Just from personal experience which I realise is worth nothing, I have never met a Japanese person who owned an Xbox over the past 15 years. Anyone I have met who had one was a foreigner and within that, usually an American. And within that, someone who is no longer still here!
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Same, but only 5 years for me. Never met anyone with an Xbox and the only ones that mentioned it were British/North American. I think a Japanese friends brother had the OG because he was a huge Otaku as a teenager.
 
W.S.

W.S.

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Oct 28, 2017
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While the 360 sales weren't great in the grand scheme of things is was still their most successful console, especially when you look at the amount of support it got from JP publishers/devs.

Xseed, Arc Systems Works, Aksys, the Gundam, Tales, Eternal Sonata games from Bandai Namco, Atlus, *Cave, all of whom supported the Xbox platform more before the XBO gen. Asterisk on Cave since they've since faded away & Bandai Namco has increased their output on Xbox again with IP's that haven't been on there in a while like newer Gundam/Tales games.

Now that Microsoft cleared XBO total sales with their Series consoles the next milestone is total OG Xbox sales. If MS get to 360 numbers and continue to invest in Japan through 3rd party deals & GP I'd consider that a big success.

At that point they would get a lot more JP publishers back on board.
 

MrExpired

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Feb 26, 2022
15
It's a shame that the Japanese market hasn't welcomed the Xbox, but I don't think that'll change to be honest.
 
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