MS Chooses Building Over Buying in Japan

Peter Moore discusses the best strategy to cozy up to Japanese publishers.

How is Microsoft going to make the Xbox brand work in Japan? It's a question many people inside (and outside) the company ask themselves. According to Peter Moore, the most important approach is to play nice with Japanese publishers rather than swallowing them whole.

In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, Moore, a vice president at Microsoft, said that the company would not buy a Japanese publisher as a way of getting a firmer foot in the sliding door.

"You may argue that purchasing a publisher would [allow Microsoft to make headway in Japan]. I'm not totally sure that would be the case, because if you purchase someone, that makes them a first party, and that actually dilutes the value of what you've just done, so there's a business reason why that becomes difficult," he said.

"I would rather focus on what I've done for many, many years, which is travel on a regular basis to Tokyo and build relationships with those publishers."

Moore points to Capcom as a company that has come around to Microsoft's way of thinking. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition and Dead Rising were big hits for both companies, particularly outside Japan.

But what about the Japanese themselves? Selling Xbox 360 games to the Japanese relies on selling hardware in the country first - something Microsoft has been struggling with for most of the last 16 months.

In Japan, the Xbox 360 is being outsold weekly by 5:1 by the PlayStation 3 and up to 15:1 by the DS.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo