Japan has always been a sticking point for Xbox. I’ve heard some people at games publishers describe the brand’s fortunes in the country as ‘cursed’. That seems a bit dramatic, but let’s roll with it. Some argue that it all started with the name.
The DirectX box – the Xbox – was always a sort of unfortunate name in the territory. An X is a ‘batsu’ – a cross used to indicate you’ve gotten an answer wrong in a test or somesuch. You’ll often see Japanese cross their forearms in an X shape at oblivious tourists doing something they shouldn’t – a non-verbal way of saying ‘don’t do that’. This is why on earlier PlayStation consoles, X and O were reversed in Japan – O for ‘OK’, and X for ‘Cancel’, the opposite of the West. In the West, X marks the spot. At the electoral ballot box, you place an X next to the person you want to represent you. In Japan, a lot of the time, X means ‘no’. The No-Box.
Even if you don’t buy that cultural element, it’s undeniable that Xbox has had its struggles in Japan. Even its best-selling generation, the Xbox 360, trailed all rivals by millions of units. Since then, it’s only gotten worse. But this has never just been about Japan as a market to sell consoles.
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