It looks like Microsoft are going to try and take another crack at the market. This time around, they will be bundling the Xbox One S with Minecraft. This is actually a surprisingly smart and relevant move, given that Minecraft remains perennially popular in Japan- it is the highest selling Vita game of all time in the country, and the Wii U version has been persistently charting ever since its launch there, too.
As a matter of fact, the Wii U version of Minecraft is now the highest selling Microsoft published game of all time in the country- maybe that’s what alerted Microsoft to the wisdom of doing this.
Regardless of the reasoning, Japanese gamers can now pick up an Xbox One S with Minecraft included, and 500 GB of on board storage, for ¥29,980- the same price as a PS4, with the latter not coming with any games included. It’s a good deal and value proposition- but with the Xbox One not getting just about any other game that Japanese gamers care about, I don’t know how many will actually bother biting.