It's about time Microsoft has some good news from Japan. Normally the company hasn't done historically well there. Finally, as of November 17th, according to sales data from Famitsu, the first Microsoft published game has broken one million sales in Japan.
What is that game? Well, it's Minecraft. Specifically, it's the Nintendo Switch version of Minecraft. It isn't much of a surprise that the top Microsoft game would be a Switch game, considering both Microsoft's attempts to bring more of their games to the platform and the Switch's general popularity in Japan. On the other hand, it is hilarious that it took a game around ten years old combined with a console made by Nintendo to finally give Microsoft a game that sold in the millions. You win some, you lose some.
So how close has Microsoft come to this in the past? Well, their second best selling game in Japan is also Minecraft. Specifically, it's the Nintendo Wii U version of the game. So in a way, it was fate that the Nintendo Switch version would go on to sell a million. The Wii U version sold about 340k units. Following that is the 2006 Xbox 360 JRPG Blue Dragon, at a little over 200k units. Their fourth best selling game is the 2010 Xbox 360 sports game Kinect Adventures! at around 154k. Finally, 2007 Xbox 360 JRPG Lost Odyssey pulls in at number 5 with 109k sold.
While the situation certainly is funny, it's nice to see Microsoft making some headway in Japan once in a while. Here's hoping they can do it again soon.
How do you feel about this news? Surprised Microsoft hasn't made the goal before? Think it's funny it took both Minecraft and the Nintendo Switch to do it? Let us know in the comments below!
