Japanese will hold a grudge on this too, that definitely was not the proper wording that he could have used. Microsoft did try in Japan, but the fact is they will never win or gain any significant leverage over there on Sony/Nintendo.

Expected really.

They need as much stock for the Western launch as possible.

Not the first one to say this but indeed, calling Japan a tier 2 country isn't exactly flattering. Oh well, from the guys that brought us, 'no internet-buy a 360' it isn't a really big surprise.
Come MS at least give people the IDEA that you care...

I hope the word "tier" translates well into Japanese because it sounds really disrespectful.

Do they have a tier 4? Japan is more like tier 4.

So it's possible neither next gen system will be hitting Japan this year? Interesting indeed.

Only MS would call Japan a "Tier 2 country", though. Try telling that to Nintendo or Sony, or countless of your 3rd party devs!

Since neither console is region locked- one could just import it.

Weird way to categorize countries.

Who cares

How disrespectful....I guess the Japanese see it as a Tier -10 console.