Dr. Wilkinson
Member
It's likely a combination of a lot of what you bring up. The Japanese market for many years now has continually shifted to the portable market, to the point where a fixed, box console is nearly a niche product over there. But also, Microsoft has been on a bent lately to reach agreements with Japanese publishers to port their catalogue to Xbox, in many cases for the first time ever. So where once Sony had that space on lockdown, they are receding and Xbox is chipping away at what little there remains in Japan of the non-Switch market.Is Japan gaming overall not caught up in 4K/60FPS/HDR graphics race? I mean the Switch success would imply that and the mobile gaming would also support that. From an outsider seems like a very different type of gaming. I imagine lower expensive games do fairly well, like recent Square switch RPGS etc. Is the Microsoft gamepass message reaching the audience there? is it something Japanese games care about?. Once again the Switch dominance makes it very difficult to read, unless it's just the perfect mobile gaming middle ground or something. Is it the hand held nature of the Switch?, because if so, Microsoft needs to make game pass Steam Deck or Series S (Series P-portable) and strike.