Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Unlike the Xbox One, the Xbox Series X will launch in Japan at the same time as other major markets, meaning it’ll see release this November. Microsoft confirmed the news in response to an inquiry from Japanese site Game Watch.
The Xbox One came out in November 2013 in 13 countries, but Japan had to wait until September 2014 along with several other regions, despite its outsized importance to the games industry. Some countries saw their announced release dates slip with Microsoft citing localization issues; the Xbox One’s initial focus on Kinect and voice commands made it more complex to support a wide variety of languages.
The Xbox One has not performed well in Japan, to put it lightly. Sales…