Xbox has revealed its newest mascot - a very Japanese anime girl - at this year's Tokyo Game Show. In the past, Xbox has notoriously struggled to penetrate the Japanese consumer tech market due to stiff competition from Japan-based Sony and Nintendo and lack of an established userbase. Recognizing that weakness, the company decided to go for a more aggressive approach by trying to reach Japanese consumers with a more localized approach, though it's not clear if it'll pay off.
With Xbox hardware prices on the rise, Microsoft has found itself in a tough spot. Being criticized for its expensive prices (which are even higher in the international import market), it's made the move to appeal to the Japanese market by cutting the Xbox Series S's price in Japan. Sony and Nintendo dominate the Japanese market not only with their domestic prices, but also with their strong connection to Japanese media and audience. Now, Xbox is pulling out all the stops to beat its competitors at their own game.
In a recent tweet from Xbox_JP, the console manufacturer revealed its new anime-inspired Tokyo Game Show mascot, a popular and effective marketing tool in Japanese and other East Asian markets. This yet-unnamed Xbox girl is decked out with a futuristic costume bearing Xbox logos and Series X/S iconography, and she's even holding an Xbox Series S in one hand and a controller in the other. The mascot only appeared on the Japanese Xbox account for TGS 2020, pointing to this being a very directed, region-minded appeal to a Japanese audience. The mascot is also now set as the Twitter account's banner, but hasn't made any meaningful appearances since her debut.
This appeal to a Japanese audience could well prove effective, with the Xbox Series X/S having instantly sold out in Japan. Because anime is even more mainstream in Japan than in the West, Microsoft could take its new approach one step further by continuing to use anime-inspired advertisements in the region. Animated advertisements utilizing this new Xbox mascot could be a huge selling point in Japanese media, as it's not common for Western companies to so fully embrace Japan pop culture and media trends when doing business there. While this might not ultimately prove necessary, with Xbox having demonstrated its willingness and ability to purchase massive publishers like ZeniMax Media (and fan calls for a subsequent Sega purchase growing louder), it still seems worth probing further. Approaching Japan when its console market is rapidly growing is a smart move by Microsoft, giving it the opportunity to cater to a wider global audience while there's still room for further expansion.
In the long run, if Microsoft can finally secure a foothold in the console market in Japan, it could ultimately pay dividends. It could perhaps even lead to success in China when or if the tensions between the Japanese gaming industry and the Chinese government begin to cool, a lucrative prospect of which the Xbox brand is likely all too aware.
Source: Xbox_JP