- A Japanese game developer has said that it is difficult for smaller studios to justify Xbox ports of games
- They revealed that Xbox consoles are “not even in stock” in major stores there
- Microsoft’s gaming brand has consistently struggled to gain a foothold in the region
A developer who worked on farming action role-playing games (RPG) Sakuna: Of rice and ruin has said that some smaller companies “cannot afford” to spend their precious resources creating Xbox versions of titles when there is limited demand.
The remarks come after y-koichi (who is credited for working on character and environment modeling in addition to plotting assistance and writing) teased a potential Sakuna: Of rice and ruin successor. In an X post that we have machine translated, they said that “Sakuna 2 will come out one day.”
This prompted one fan to ask about the possibility of an Xbox port for any potential sequel. The original game is only released for PlayStation 4, PC and Nintendo Switch.
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“Xbox, yeah… Personally, it’s a console I have a strong sentimental attachment to,” y_koichi replied. “But honestly, with our company’s manpower, we just can’t afford to spread ourselves across multiple platforms like that. In Japan, it’s not even stocked in major retail stores.”
The comments reflect Microsoft’s struggle to gain a foothold in the region’s console market, evidenced by poor sales of both the Xbox Series X and Series S in recent years. Japanese outlet Famitsu reported that overall Xbox Series sales were down about 75% year-on-year in 2025, with just over 31,000 units moved in 12 months.
In contrast, more than 1,500,000 Nintendo Switch and 879,000 PlayStation 5 consoles were sold during the same period.
This recent drop is easily attributable to a series of price increases, with both systems becoming significantly more expensive in both 2023 and 2024, but Xbox consoles have been unpopular there long before these came into effect.
As detailed in 2019 by CNBC, the original Xbox was disliked by local consumers thanks to its bulky design. The same report outlined that Microsoft struggled to convince developers to create games for the platform, a problem that apparently continues today.
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