According to Bloomberg, Microsoft has been sounding out several Japanese studios, looking to arrange support or acquisitions. One of them is Koei Tecmo, whose president said he would be willing to consider releasing more games on Xbox as long as Microsoft shows continued interest in the country. The funny thing about all this is that while Microsoft dreams of a bigger share in Japan and tries to get closer to Japanese studios, Sony, according to analysts, is drifting further and further from the Japanese market, prioritizing the American market. Analyst Hisashi Koinuma of Ace Research Institute said:
“Xbox has the chance to make Japan its second biggest market after the US if it takes the right steps over the coming years. Sony’s attention is drifting away and fans have started to notice it.”
“Microsoft won’t be able to take Sony’s position as number 2 [after Nintendo] in Japan anytime soon, but it has at least started making changes. A big tide always starts with a small change.”
“It’s the consensus among analysts that PlayStation no longer sees the Japanese market as important,” added Morningstar Research analyst Kazunori Ito. “If you want to know its opinion on the Japanese market, you need to ask about it, because otherwise Sony wouldn’t talk about it.”
The Japanese market is tricky for Microsoft. In the Xbox 360 days it invested heavily in Japanese games, even funding the development of two games made by Final Fantasy’s father Hironobu Sakaguchi, but the return wasn’t very big. I hope it manages to establish itself in the market, competition is ALWAYS good! Companies competing with each other always try their hardest to please the consumer.
Source: Eurogamer
SavePoint Team
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment.