The Xbox One launched in Japan just a week ago. The writing was on the wall before it ever debuted, especially with the PS4 underperforming at its launch earlier in the year, but Microsoft tried anyway. The result wasn’t so surprising.
The Xbox One sold a total of 23,562 copies during its first week in Japan, making it the worst-selling gaming hardware to ever debut in the country. In contrast, the PS4 sold 322,083 in the same amount of time. Even the Xbox 360 sold 62,135 during its first week, nearly tripling what the Xbox One was capable of.
Software is limited in the country, so sales figures are only available for three games, which rank in the following order:
1) TitanFall : 22,416
2) Kinect Sport Rivals : 14919
3) Dead Rising 3: 7,330
Unless something changes, and that’s highly unlikely, the Xbox One might end up being a platform with an install base in Japan of under 100,000. If that’s the case, Microsoft might pull out sooner rather than later.
To be fair, Japan hasn’t shown interest in consoles for the past couple years. The PS3 has slowed down in sales, and all three next-gen consoles performed well below the standards set by their predecessors. Many areas of the country are dominated by an active lifestyle where most of the time of young adults is spent working and outside, where handhelds like the PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS serve them well.
[Via: Famitsu]
