Phil Spencer says there’s nothing behind the scenes when it comes to expanding the Xbox Game Studios with Japanese acquisitions (and with that, he contradicts himself).

Via Bloomberg, we also wrote about a recent rumour of Microsoft planning to buy some studios or companies in Japan, and we also quoted Spencer saying that it would be a good idea to expand in Asia, especially in Japan. Now, here’s an interview with GameSpot, claiming the polar opposite.

„I’m not in every meeting that every team has, but I’ll say not from me. Most of the opportunities that we’ve had to date have been a long-lasting relationship, and so, I don’t think we’re out there with our business card, throwing them out on the corner, trying to find people. I’ve talked about my affinity for Japanese studios and thinking back in the day when we had more games that were created in Japan as part of our first party, I’m excited when the deal closes to get to spend more time with Tango Gameworks and the work that they’re doing. So it’s an area that I’m interested in, but no, I don’t think it’s… I think that’s not accurate,” Spencer said, shooting down the rumours in the process.

He also added that he doesn’t want to compete with Sony and Nintendo in Japan: „I will say I don’t think I’m going to go into Japan and outsell the Japanese console makers with Xbox. I would hope to, I would like to, but it’s not in the plan that I’ve written down, but we’re going to work hard to have the best generation that we’ve ever had in Japan and the same thing in Korea and China. I feel good about our opportunity there. And especially when I think about fans of our platform, outside of those markets, who want to play games that come from those countries. That’s a commitment I want to make as well.

[…] Our preorder in Japan sold out almost instantly. Our preorder numbers exceeded our Xbox One sales for the previous year. That was our preorder on that one day, so when you just think about the volume and the interest that’s there, and that’s specific to Japan. […] even in the console space we have Xbox Series S, which I think has a design and form factor and the price point that we believe can do well. It’s going to be about the games, which is why we continue to spend time in Japan with our partners there and getting games like Phantasy Star, Yakuza, and other games coming to the platform,” he added.

So Spencer is planning in long-term, and for a good reason: Microsoft’s console sales in Japan were quite bad recently, but the two Xbox Series models might change things a bit.

Source: WCCFTech

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