Japanese games dont sell well on it, simply put. The only thing keeping Xbox afloat is the dudebro normies it caters to who only play COD and FIFA.

Microsoft has been trying to penetrate the Japanese game market for over a decade, and has had little success doing so. The Xbox division should be focusing on games that appeal to the west. Bring back the IPs that the Xbox user base has been wanting for years, instead of investing 100s of millions, into probable flops directed at the Japanese market.

Do we really know what happened between Platinum and Microsoft? Platinum pitched this game two other times and it failed to get anywhere. Microsoft bought into the idea the third time, but it could just be that they were unsatisfied with the projects duration. I read somewhere that Platinum had some issues with the engine.

Again, bunch of speculation with no clue on what really happened. Funny how all these drones take any opportunity to bash MS, but again they know nothing of what truly happened. The articles people are citing, again just speculation. The old adage of "it takes two to tangle" can easily apply and what did platinum do to bring this around? But to the drones it will be big bad MS that is the sole responsible party no matter what.

What relationship?

Again it is clear that no one here has any experience in software development and hasn't even bothered reading the troubled history of this project.

This game was one of the first big ideas Platinum Games came up with. They began expanding on the concept over time but shelved the project to get Bayonetta out and other projects for other publishers and partners.

It is also clear that Platinum had essentially been jerking MS around on this project, most likely viewing them as an infinite money source and that they could continue taking on other projects and releasing them in the meantime, diverting development focus from SB every time. Naturally, MS found this attitude to be galling and eventually unprofessional. If you have read Kamiya's tweets, it's obvious that he tends to fly off the handle a bit. Imagine having a working relationship with that man.

More to that, the team simply couldn't get things running smoothly on the vanilla XBO. Despite strenuous efforts to iron out the technical kinks, the team became exhausted with little to show. With Platinum apparently able to devote enough time and resources to get the likes of Nier finished on time, the relationship inevitably crumbled, and MS ceased funding the project. Due to Kamiya being placed on leave for mental health reasons, it's safe to assume he exploded on them and doomed the project.

This sounds a lot more like Platinum over exerting themselves (who didn't see this coming) and MS tired of pumping money into a project that was failing still 4 years into development.

No they don't and they tried to play nice with Xbox 360 all they got was lost Odyssey & Blue dragon from their be nice attempt. Then proceeded to get hostile crap from the field cause for some reason them pricks didn't like the companies way of running it self . So me personally leave them developers where they lay. No need to waste money on those studios especially since Thier no major consumer base out in Japan.

Microsoft actually should abandon original Japanese development. It's a waste of time and money honestly. If you couldn't wrangle in weebs with the fathers of Final Fantasy and Dragonball (Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey), then there is no getting them at that point. Lets be honest those are the guys that are upset, the weebs, the fucking guys who are so blinded by their love of Japanese developers that they would make Geoff Kieley blush. I think that for too long they have been trying to cater to an audience that will NEVER accept them and it has costed them way too much to this point. If you actually like the XBox brand you likely didnt buy it for fucking Japanese games. MS introduced console players to Bethesda and Bioware, to Mech Assualt and Crimson Skies...they need to bring THAT shit back...let Sony and Nintendo fight over the weeb vote. If they get a Final Fantasy here and there and maybe the occasional Capcom fighting game (a finished one hopefully) I think they will be fine.

Probably not,they just need more exclusives

Microsoft needs to do a LOT of things. The first thing they need to do is learn the definition of the word "exclusive".

Not seeing why Microsoft gets so much hate. Platinum knew the terms of the agreement and had no problem cashing those microsoft checks. To be honest Platinum hasn't impressed me in the past few years.

Granted this is an apples to oranges comparison but if I hire a contractor to build me a house and the terms were they would be finished in 6 months. After 6 months they're not done, and they say they need another month to finish. Then after 7 months they're not even close to being done and what is done looks terrible. Then on top of that they take a month vacation. Yeah I would probably stop building and fire them. Then look for a new contractor. So I can't fault microsoft for putting a stop to the project.

Never happen because MS doesn't think about Japanese gamers.

It seems like they are done in Japan , the culture of Xbox is already established , its a western only shooter racer console with limited games. It will take a massive effort to change that MS board and shareholders aren't willing to take that risk financially or to take another image hit, they will become a service like they always wanted to be

MS destroyes everything they touch like cancer, they are bad for gamers and devs. This is not the first time they have done this look at phantom dust. Phil and co with their damn Xbone div needs to go.

Microsoft burned that bridge long ago. Japanese developers don't want to work with them because nobody buys their console in japan. Why build a game and put it on a console that nobody is going to play on said console..

I think they should just forget about Japan and only stick with the top companies with an international presence like. They always seem like they half ass it on the xbox versions of these games. They are always poorly optimized ports. Remedy, Insomniac, Crystal Dynamics, Crytek, Capcom Vancouver, and other 3rd party studios had no problems delivering their games on time and finished. You don't hear horror stories from them. Just the studios that couldn't cut it. Instead of focusing on finishing one or two games at a time and putting a real polish on them. They haphazardly took on more projects then they could handle for a studio of their size. 4 years and no product in fact a product deemed so unworthy they canceled it altogether. If they canceled the game something was wrong. seriously wrong. Platinum's story seems pretty clear just by looking back at what they have done in the last year and a half. Instead of blaming the MS boogeyman just because. Take a hard look at what this studio has been producing and see how they are favoring quantity over quality.

That's like saying USA needs to improve their relations with China lOl... DUHH will it happen probably not.. Microsoft is the USA to computer software. Oh wait it is an American corp. explains it.

If MS really is smart they'd buy Konami. Because that company has been doing poorly, recently and MS would gain a huge amount of IPs too. Another plus is Konami owns the rights to Hudson Soft and lots of those games would be perfect Xbox Live arcade games. So in the end, this is a win, win.

Why invest in something that doesn't give you good returns? The Japanese aren't even buying ps4s. They are all mobile mostly and Microsoft doesn't have a mobile platform. As a business decision it makes sense as to why Microsoft withholds support.
We are the ones who would benefit mostly because we know of all the untapped potential the Japanese have.

How dumb can you all be? You know Microsoft would be paying for the development for these games and if they paid them a lump some and then decided they didn't like what they made or the progress they may have put. They would just stop their funding for the game and what they do with the license is between them. At this point it doesn't break there company but Microsoft may lose out in cash and that is there choice.

They need to skip Japan, and focus on the West. The Japanese will not like Xbox, no matter what they do. They probably don't even use Microsoft Office.

Japanese games .. I rather not play them

So a developer continually misses milestones to the point where they stop paying them, and some how it is Microsoft not getting along with Japanese developers?

Tell me again how the multiplatform strategy was supposed to fix everything. Look at your results and compare them to Nintendo, which keeps thriving with exclusives. Your loyal fans are gone. And let’s not forget the pile of IPs you purchased only to let them rot.

The worst thing is this is down from last years numbers/expectations which was down from the previous years numbers/expectations. You think about how long “down” has been a consistent part of the communication and you realize those subscriptions are what’s holding that boat together. The price cut of gamespass is still a price raise in a string of price raises. They are trying to use players to offset the missing revenue. Now call of duty is out of gamespass, which is literally WHY they bought the company. To draw people to the subscription. They realized they missed a boatload of money and that wasn’t sustainable. Now you pay for it like you would have if they never bought the company… so why buy the company? Mind you those billions still need to be paid back. Yeah it gives you a chance to say we make the biggest FPS… but the internal conversations must be brutal at high level on topics that really matter. Like revenue. Profitability. And ROI for the shopping spree.

Is this like the 10th quarter in a row they're down 33% on hardware how is that even mathematically possible. You would think their mediocrity would Plateau