Phil Spencer says Xbox's Japanese popularity "isn't acceptable"

Xbox’s Japanese presence has always been a lost cause for many, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer hasn’t given up on the company’s Eastern audience.

With Xbox consoles often being the lowest selling games consoles in Japan, Spencer has stated that the company will do “a much better job” with the Xbox Series X.

Speaking to Gamertag Radio, Spencer declared that he wants Xbox to “to mean more than it does today” for Japanese audiences.

“Our market in Japan for Xbox is important to us,” Spencer told Gamertag. “Obviously, Sony and Nintendo are both strong Japanese companies who have done a great job. I don’t know if we’re winning in Japan any time soon, but the position that we have in Japan today from a platform isn’t acceptable to me.”

“We’re going to do a much better job with this next, upcoming launch of not waiting ten months to launch in Japan like we did last time. We’re going to make sure our services like Game Pass, xCloud and stuff are there so people will have access to it.”

Spencer also reiterated on his plans to either acquire or found a Japanese first-party studio for future Xbox games. With so many third-party Japanese games skipping Xbox releases – a fact that makes Spencer “cringe every time” – he believes Xbox needs more “homegrown” software from the region.

“I think what you’re asking about is, could we have more homegrown, first-party content that’s developed there, and I’ll just say that I think we can,” Spencer explained.

Thanks to VGC for the awesome transcription.