Xbox Series X and Series S seem to be the main topic of conversation in the realm of gaming this week. Between Microsoft’s landmark acquisition of Bethesda and pre-orders for the Xbox Series X being just as chaotic as the PS5’s last week, the news cycle seems to be focused on Microsoft’s next generation plans. And now it seems Xbox has managed to find itself another major victory in an unexpected location: Japan.
Xbox Series X and Series S pre-orders went live in Japan at midnight and sold out within 20 minutes on Amazon Japan, and were completely sold out across other retailers within hours. This is surprising, considering that the game company has traditionally had a hard time in the Japanese market, with many players preferring PlayStation.
However, given Xbox’s track record in Japan, it’s also highly likely that the company didn’t allocate nearly as many Series X or Series S units as it did in other parts of the world. And considering that US retailers like GameStop had such a limited stock when it came time for Xbox pre-orders, it might be fair to assume that Japanese retailers had even fewer for players to reserve.
Despite these caveats, Xbox will likely take these fast sale numbers as a sign of encouragement in its efforts to expand within the Japanese market. Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, has often lamented that he doesn’t feel like Xbox has done a great job of catering to Japanese players, and has vowed to do better in this next generation. This has led to many unexpected moves from Xbox such as having a presence at the Tokyo Game Show, or TGS.
Xbox hasn’t stopped there with catering towards its potential audience. The console company recently announced that players in Japan could pick up an Xbox Series S for ¥29,980, which is about $15 cheaper than its normal $300 USD price tag. While its unclear as to why exactly the Series S is $15 cheaper in Japan, this does seem to give Xbox a further advantage over the PS5 Digital Edition, making the console about $96 less overall.
Some players have speculated that Xbox could likely attempt to take this a step farther by acquiring a Japanese studio, such as SEGA. And while the two companies have recently partnered up to bring Yakuza: Like a Dragon as a Xbox Series X launch title, Xbox has squashed the rumor of the SEGA acquisition for now. It seems that Xbox has a great start towards reaching more players in Japan, but fans will just have to see if it can follow through.
Xbox Series X launches on November 10, 2020.
Source: Video Games Chronicle
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