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Forums - Gaming Discussion - 11 US Congressmen ask Biden Admin to pressure Japan over allowing Sony to buy console exclusivity deals

The Americans must have misunderstood Japan as they misunderstood Iran and Vietnam.

They want to believe that there is some political coercion or cultural bias that keeps us from buying an Xbox.

Before the U.S. starts a stupid war

I suggest you visit the Japanese gaming media and internet gaming community.

Above all, the Japanese gaming media is far more impartial than the West.



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I see a lot of comments jumping the gun and expecting the worst. It's certainly MS fault for failing in Japan, especially last gen they were terrible. It's why I don't see much happening from this. There is some blame to be had on Sony for basically creating this "high end console market" definition as a way to oppose the deal. Unfortunately, Sony didn't think this through because MS is using this against them. Being an Opposer of a deal has its positives and negatives, and right now we are seeing some of the negatives. MS did some lobbying, but you're a fool if you don't think Sony has as well.



Bandorr said:
Azzanation said:

False.

How does one compete in Japan if they are unable to obtain Japanese games?

So few words,  Yet so very wrong.

Well step one would be.. making one. Or partnering with one. Or not turning them down.  There are reports saying MS turned down Genshin impact while it was in development. Oh and I'm simply going to laugh at FF14 some more.

If all of Japan refuses to partner with you - aren't you the bigger problem? You have billions on billions but every Japanese company doesn't want to work with you?

And that of course ignores that Xbox DOES get games.  They got the latest released FF game. They got star ocean.  They some how got Octopath.

edit:

I found an IGN article about Xbox relationship with Japan.  Talks about how they released the Xbox early in Japan. They did marketing and did a lot of reaching out. Then in the xbox 360 they did deals like with Lost Odyssey and Blue dragon etc.

And then made every possible mistake you can make with Xbox one. For example apparently they didn't release it in Japan until TEN MONTHS later.  They also did a poor job with releasing games in Japan (so much so that people started importing from the US). And apparently did poor translations etc.

They dropped off in a huge big way.

To be fair, you are making assumptions that your points were never done and 2 the cause of those not happening is the dominance of Sony in the market.  Not because Japanese's favor their home console but because fear of reprisal from Sony.  We really do not know if such things is a case until someone actually looks into it.  For all we know, MS has heard rumblings from Devs in Japan and decided this was the best time to act on it.

There really isn't enough information to make any real conclusions besides that MS probably would like more access to Japan and finding things tough.  Such pressure from US reps really doesn't do anything unless there is something to it.  I would wait until we see any real push to this subject because right now, there really isn't any real meat yet.



Oneeee-Chan!!! said:

The Americans must have misunderstood Japan as they misunderstood Iran and Vietnam.

They want to believe that there is some political coercion or cultural bias that keeps us from buying an Xbox.

Before the U.S. starts a stupid war

I suggest you visit the Japanese gaming media and internet gaming community.

Above all, the Japanese gaming media is far more impartial than the West.

The case isn't being made about Japanese people choosing which system to buy, its about developers option to choose MS or include MS and if their are some coercion done on Sony part to limit that.  Who knows if its true but it would be interesting to see if there is.  Not sure how evidence would be found unless a few studios throw out some anon.  Anyway, at the end of the day, it could be MS looking at a longer game who knows.

Last edited by Machiavellian - on 28 March 2023

American studios have been shunning Nintendo for the past 25+ years and some Japanese studios.  When was the last time EA consistently released sports games on Nintendo's hardware, the biggest game of all time Grand Theft Auto 5 has never been on a Nintendo console.  Do you hear Nintendo complaining or do they innovate and strive to succeed their own way?  120 million units sold, and 3rd parties are still ignoring the Switch.  In just over 2 years both the PS5 and Xbox Series already have more EA games than the Switch has gotten.



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Machiavellian said:
Oneeee-Chan!!! said:

The Americans must have misunderstood Japan as they misunderstood Iran and Vietnam.

They want to believe that there is some political coercion or cultural bias that keeps us from buying an Xbox.

Before the U.S. starts a stupid war

I suggest you visit the Japanese gaming media and internet gaming community.

Above all, the Japanese gaming media is far more impartial than the West.

The case isn't being made about Japanese people choosing which system to buy, its about developers option to choose MS or include MS and if their are some coercion done on Sony part to limit that.  Who knows if its true but it would be interesting to see if there is.  Not sure how evidence would be found unless a few studios throw out some anon.  Anyway, at the end of the day, it could be MS looking at a longer game who knows.

If they want to send human rights groups and inspectors to find evidence of persecution of Xbox and foreign games in Japan, so be it.

They won't find it like they found WMDs in Iraq.

On the other hand, why are most western gaming media always negative about Japanese games?

It seems that throwing stones at Japanese games has become a daily pastime and a means of making money for the average westerner!

And those who question them seem to be completely non-existent.

Lack of diversity they are supposed to hate.



Some of you really need to step outside and breath some fresh air.

First we have an attempted witch-hunt against a politician based on a complete lie that Microsoft gave them $500k. Now we have GAMING ISSUES being compared to WARS.

Dear God. Take a step back from your keyboard. It ain't that serious.

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 28 March 2023

Some folks should probably just go back to being focused on their favorite pastime, gaming.



Oneeee-Chan!!! said:
Machiavellian said:

The case isn't being made about Japanese people choosing which system to buy, its about developers option to choose MS or include MS and if their are some coercion done on Sony part to limit that.  Who knows if its true but it would be interesting to see if there is.  Not sure how evidence would be found unless a few studios throw out some anon.  Anyway, at the end of the day, it could be MS looking at a longer game who knows.

If they want to send human rights groups and inspectors to find evidence of persecution of Xbox and foreign games in Japan, so be it.

They won't find it like they found WMDs in Iraq.

On the other hand, why are most western gaming media always negative about Japanese games?

It seems that throwing stones at Japanese games has become a daily pastime and a means of making money for the average westerner!

And those who question them seem to be completely non-existent.

Lack of diversity they are supposed to hate.

Why you have so much space in your post.  Anyway, I believe you are missing the point of this.  When I look at this I look at what benefit it has for MS as a business.  It could be anything but not exactly what gamers are expecting.  Maybe MS want to acquire a dev or publisher in Japan, they may be trying to build an argument to support that effort.  Maybe MS want Sony to slow down on 3rd party exclusive deals in Japan and other regions so they put a spotlight on Sony and then when Sony makes a few more of those deals cry foul and try to use it against them.  All of these are just business tactics to gain any possible edge just like Sony creating the whole "High End Console" category to exclude Nintendo.  Really, no one knows what the direction MS is going or if anywhere.  Hell they could just lobbied this to see if there is any meat to it.

I do not believe this has anything to do with what you just posted.  This isn't about western gamers or media bad mouthing Japanese games, hell not even sure that whole point is relevant.



Machiavellian said:
Oneeee-Chan!!! said:

The Americans must have misunderstood Japan as they misunderstood Iran and Vietnam.

They want to believe that there is some political coercion or cultural bias that keeps us from buying an Xbox.

Before the U.S. starts a stupid war

I suggest you visit the Japanese gaming media and internet gaming community.

Above all, the Japanese gaming media is far more impartial than the West.

The case isn't being made about Japanese people choosing which system to buy, its about developers option to choose MS or include MS and if their are some coercion done on Sony part to limit that.  Who knows if its true but it would be interesting to see if there is.  Not sure how evidence would be found unless a few studios throw out some anon.  Anyway, at the end of the day, it could be MS looking at a longer game who knows.

Microsoft already claimed at one point to regulators during the ABK battle that they have evidence that Sony paid to keep FF7 Remake off of Xbox. The game was originally supposed to be a 1 year timed exclusive according to advertising for the game, but 1 year came and went and still no Xbox port, and now it has almost been 2 years since the original timed exclusive period would have expired and still no Xbox port.