If there's one market that Microsoft has always struggled in, it's Japan. It's really not all that surprising: most of the system's titles are built with Western audiences in mind, and Japanese gamers are far more likely to gravitate toward a Japanese company (either Nintendo or Sony) before picking up one of Microsoft's consoles.
Microsoft has tried to crack the Japanese market for years, but it's just never worked - and last week's sales figures may be the final nail in the coffin.
During the week of June 8-14, Microsoft's Xbox One saw the worst Japanese sales numbers of its lifetime. While the company is starting to catch up to Sony in the states, in Japan, it's a much sadder story: the Xbox One only managed to sell 100 units during the second week of June.
While that may sound bad on its own, it gets worse: Microsoft not only lost out to Nintendo's and Sony's latest consoles, but the Xbox One was outsold by Sony's last-generation machine as well. Xbox One launched there last fall.
In fact, according to M-Create, Microsoft lost to just about every other piece of gaming tech on the market. Nintendo's portable handheld, the 3DS, took the month again; it was followed by the Wii U, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, Vita TV and finally the Xbox One.
The worst part about all of this is that Microsoft has been genuinely trying to cater to Japanese players for years: there was a huge push back during the days of the Xbox 360 for Japanese RPGs to launch first on Microsoft's console. While it did result in some temporary sales boosts, most gamers simply waited for the PlayStation 3 ports of the game - sadly, even Microsoft's best attempt failed relatively quickly.
Sales of the Xbox One have been failing even faster than its predecessor did - perhaps its time for Microsoft to start pushing toward emerging markets, like Russia. After all, it's pretty clear that Japan simply isn't interested in the Xbox One.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
