Microsoft has just announced that its Xbox gaming brand will not be making an appearance at this year's Tokyo Game Show, which is set to take place from September 17 to September 20 at the Makuhari Messe Convention Center in the Chiba Prefecture of Tokyo.
Japanese gaming outlet Famitsu secured an official statement from Microsoft Japan's Xbox category group member: Masashi Inoue. Here's what it says:
2015 will provide an attractive game lineup for Xbox, including exclusive titles. This year, Microsoft will not exhibit at Tokyo Game Show, but we are making various preparations to convey the latest Xbox information to fans and the press. We will make an announcement as soon as preparations are in order.
Forbes Magazine's Ollie Barder speculates that Microsoft's absence from Asia's biggest games expo is no doubt due to the Xbox brands poor sales performance in the Japanese market. Barder's piece notes that Xbox hardware has never been big in a region regularly dominated by home grown companies like Sony and Nintendo, and mentions that Microsoft's latest game console the Xbox One, is the worst performing of their efforts to date.
In a sales report from September 2014, Forbes notes that the Xbox One managed to move a paltry 24,562 units during its launch week in Japan. This is in sharp contrast to Sony's Playstation 4, which sold a whopping 300,000 units just two days after its Japanese Launch.
Microsoft's decision will no doubt be a cause for celebration for their chief rivals Sony. Xbox bowing out means that the Japanese gaming giant's Playstation brand will now be the only major console on show at the event as Nintendo have historically chosen to forego TGS as well.
