Video Game Market Analysis Thread

The S outselling the PS5 digital edition (yeah I know it’s relative to stock shortage etc. but still) and over 1/10th of Switch and 1/4th of PS5 sales for the week. All that without proper investments over there.

The crazy thing is what would happen if MS actually went all in on Japan the way they went all in on Xbox (100%). Imagine if they have a few studios in Japan and they get the big 3P Japanese titles on gamepass day 1 pfff…so much growth possible there and everywhere else as well. Japan clearly isn’t against Xbox and if you give them the content the way Nintendo/PS do Xbox can be very big there as well…imo. I hope this motivates MS to invest as hard over there as they’ve done over here.

I mean they don’t bother much in Europe either, where the PS4 sold 50 million units… Better than Japan for sure, but not in relation to the sales potential.

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Nah, 360 sales were way more than that, closer to double I believe

I dont know if xbox will ever reach those heights again, especially now that Japan is even more Nintendo dominated than ever but they could definitely do over a million if they actually invested in Japanese games like they did in the 360 days

They’ve sold 100k because of gamepass, you start adding japanese exclusives on top of that and they’d be golden but im not convinced they are ever going to do that sadly

The idea that japan hates xbox was always silly

Xbox did well for a brand new entry into the market and a foreign one at that

360 did very well due to the investments into Japanese exclusives

XB1 was a disaster before it even launched, why would they buy a system that didnt offer them anything they wanted

and as we can see X/S is doing well and pretty much selling out every week because xbox is offering a compelling product like they did in the 360 days

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They are doing more in Japan than in Europe as of now and it’s mind boggling imo, EU has much more room of improvement than Asia for Xbox, for simple cultural reasons.

I think Japan exclusive games are coming for Xbox, in 2023 and 2024. Not big titles but for me they’re will be exclusive games.

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Please lets not compare weekly sales as we know things are supply constrained and saying ‘but still’ doesn’t help.

The Xbox is doing brilliantly in Japan considering the last gen and I’m not sure anyone really knows why. Gamepass is mentioned but it would be a good idea for MS to really understand what is driving the sales there in that market.

As for marketing and whatever that keeps coming up MS and Xbox in particular have absolutely shifted to a different model of marketing - they are working with influencers and streaming services etc…and I think that’s a smart thing to do but it leaves them with a more difficult situation in territories they aren’t strong in already. I don’t think we’ll see major TV ad campaigns from them outside of that absolute massive releases like Halo. And they will continue to work with relevant communities. All their FH5 stuff for example was targeted through relevant channels that cover that sort of thing.

MS marketing effort is cheap compared to Sony and Nintendo and it isn’t even debatable.

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I think they’ve decided that they don’t see a return from the big traditional ad campaigns. I’m not sure that building teams to work with influencers, streamers and content creators is cheaper though. It’s just a different approach.

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Part of it could be that I think Xbox is seen as an affordable gaming PC to some people who are new to Xbox. It plays Flight Sim and Forza Horizon. These are games that have universal appeal to people of all countries. PC gamer types will always be attracted to the more powerful console as well. Xbox is the more powerful console. Also I think Microsoft should embrace the unique pc games and release Age of Empires 4 on Xbox ASAP. There should be a whole publishing team dedicated to bringing over PC centric games.

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No wonder they’re not coming to Xbox then. NISA hate xbox with a passion. Shame.

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There’s cultural reasons in Europe too. It’s Sony land in Europe. More so In Japan where Nintendo dominates.

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360 gen is the proof they can do much much better than what they are doing now here in EU. Imo it’s costs related: “America first and then we’ll see” it’s the battle plan. Remember at the time Peter Moore was the boss, a non american guy.

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If so, that is not going great… Compare 7 likes on a tweet to Champion’s League, which is everywhere, whether you watch football or not.

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Traditional marketing out of anglosphere countries is needed. Cant all be wors of mouth.

Champions League biggest sporting event in the world year round and its plastered with Playstation ads. Stuff like that does a LOT.

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Yes, that single campaign is more presence than Xbox has total. It’s not just ads around the event, it for every spot promoting a match, it’s during matches etc. It’s insane.

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They measure return per $ of advertising. So they’ll know what’s effective.

Remember that advertising to the wrong people isn’t effective even if its ever present.

The problem MS always have is they don’t really and haven’t ever really had strong consumer brands and therefore I always think they’re trying to hack their way in. But their way in hasn’t really been under their own control.

You seem to believe everything MS does is right, while we know for a fact they are bad at marketing overall since forever. XD

The 360 era was the exception they never captured back.

It could be argued that with a limited console supply no advertising is cost efficient atm… What PS does is cementing the notion that console=PlayStation. People are ready to sell a kidney for a PS5 whenever they can find one, well not really but kind of.

Thing is during the 360-era, Xbox did great here so Xbox does know how to do it. The Xbox One killed Xbox here, and they need to put in a lot of work just to get back, it’s a question of if they want to or not.

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IDK if it’s his situation, but most american people can’t grasp this notion because there Xbox marketing is on par or at least relatable to PS and Nintendo, “tier 2” countries don’t have the same treatment. XD

I would say we are tier 3…lol. Tier 1: 'Murica F*** yeah! Tier 2: Anglosphere. Tier 3: Europe, certain markets in SA. Tier 4: Rest of the world.

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