Microsoft hasn"t had much luck with selling its Xbox consoles in Japan over the past couple of decades. However, that isn"t keeping the company from having a presence in the Japanese gaming market. This week, it announced some of its plans for the 2023 Tokyo Game Show, which runs from September 21-24.
In a blog post, Microsoft announced it will hold a live-streaming event from the show on September 21 starting at 6 pm JST. If you live in North America and want to watch the live stream, you will either have to stay up late or get up early. It will happen at 2 a.m. Pacific time or 5 a.m. Eastern time.
Microsoft stated what we can expect to be shown from the Tokyo Game Show live stream:
Players can expect to hear progress updates from Xbox and Bethesda Softworks and see a creatively diverse collection of games from creators predominantly located in Japan and across Asia. We’ll also share exciting new games coming to Xbox Game Pass, which continues to grow with great content from teams all around Asia.
The live stream will be live streamed on the official Tokyo Game Show YouTube channel. Microsoft will also show the live stream on many of its official social network accounts, with sign language in Japanese and Australian, and audio descriptions in Japanese and English.
Microsoft will also host a fan event at the show on September 23, where Xbox gamers can meet with Xbox head Phil Spencer and Xbox Corporate Vice President Sarah Bond.
A couple of weeks ago, it was revealed that Mena Sato Kato, who previously worked as the VP of Sony"s PlayStation mobile game business, has been hired by Microsoft to be its new Director for Partnerships Japan at Xbox. In a LinkedIn post, Kato stated she will be "leading partnership efforts to support our Japanese partners globally."
She will almost certainly will be at the Tokyo Game Show to see if she can get more Japanese developers to make Xbox console games.