Xbox Series S Price Cut in Japan Was Not Due to PS5, Says Phil Spencer - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 November 2020 / 2,377 Views
Microsoft first announced the Xbox Series X will launch in Japan at 49,980 yen, while the Xbox Series S was priced at 32,980 yen. The consoles were labeled as "estimated retail price" leaving room for a possible prince change, which did occur.
Microsoft ended up dropping the price of the Xbox Series S in Japan from 32,980 yen by 3,000 yen to 29,980 yen. The price of the Xbox Series X remained unchanged.
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer in an interview with Weekly Famitsu said the price drop was not in response to the price of the PlayStation 5. He says the price cut was due to the exchange rate and listening to feedback from Japanese users.
The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S will launch worldwide on November 10.
Thanks, Twinfinite.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I think the Series S can do well in Japan because its 1/8 the size at PS5. That really matters because the average Japanese living space is considerably smaller than a PS5.
Lol. That actually made me chuckle.
considering xbox 360 sold around 800k, xbox one sold around 100k, xbox sold around 500k, if xbox series s/x sell more than 1.5mil units it will be sucessful, by comparsion, ps3 sold around 10mil units, ps4 sold around 6 mil.
you are wondering why xbox 360 sold more than xbox one and xbox combined, there was a few japanese exclusives not on ps3, such as a lot of rare bullet hell shumps or shump such as radient silvergun and ikaruga and Otomedius Excellent, also blue dragon from final fantasy designer, none of these were on xbox or xbox one, hence why few jp people purchase xbox or xbox one
maybe you overestimate the series s too much. I can still pre order the series s in germany.
@imparanoic all that Japanese stuff sold pretty poorly even in Japan. Almost every company that threw in with the 360 in Japan ended up worse off for it, even Namco (Tales of Vesperia lost them a lot of money despite Microsoft moneyhatting it). So the end result was little meaningful gain for MS and big losses for the Japanese industry, Japanese devs would be smart to avoid any deals with Microsoft that keep their content away from Nintendo or Sony.
@SanAndreasX And yet Japanese publishers/developers haven't learned anything from it. Who remembers Scalebound. When the Series X is released, Yakuza Like a Dragon will get the upgrade before the PS 5.
OK, so prediction only 12 people in Japan will buy an Xbox are wrong, that is actually 15 people. ;-P
wait, what? 1/8???
Why is it so hard for companies to say something like "We reduced the price to better compete with PS. We think our product is a better value, and we wanted to make sure that was clear to consumers too."
They simply don't want to look like they're reactionary due to competitors. Everything they do is just a coincidence.
Feedback from which japanese costumers?
You know...the whole group of 6 lol
Well, MS has already dropped the price of the series X in the middle east to match the PS5. So it is clear they are agressively price matching in a lot of areas in the world to give the series X/S the best chance of success. It is nice to see as my feeling is that they have previously focused way too much on the US. Though I wonder if it is a bit too late to do this now?
OK, but I'm not sure if I'm convinced by the causation/motivation here... Seems like all of these adjustments could be due to currency exchange rates, with cost of units roughly comparable between the brands... PS5 absolutely having more expensive SSD and I/O as well as other features like controllers.
If the price change was only because of currency exchange rates then both models would have received price changes also haven't those places currency lost value against dollar?
I think if Microsoft puts a lot effort into Japan, this could be the best-selling Xbox in Japan. The Xbox 360 was the best so far, and couldn't even reach 2 million units.
Despite Minecraft being a multiplat, it is popular in Japan. That could be another thing to market to Japanese consumers.
And yes, some Japanese consumers will prefer a Series S over a PS5 due to the smaller size and lower cost.
Of course it wasn't because of the PS5, it was because the huge lack of interest for the Xbox in Japan in general. We all know this. Don't know why Phil has to lie about it just makes him look even more stupid.
