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Japanese gamers will be able to get their hands on a new Xbox One console for just 232 later this year.
The machine will, as confirmed last month, finally arrive in Japan on September 4th nearly 10 months after it debuted in other key markets.
Polygon reports that a Kinect-less SKU will be available for 39,980 (232) while a bundle including the camera will cost 49,980 (290). Note that’s significantly cheaper than the 350 and 399 (Formerly 429) RRPs the same bundles cost here in the UK.
The original Kinect faced an even greater struggle in Japan than it did elsewhere owing to the fact it imposed certain living space requirements on users (who need to be able to stand far back from the camera and have plenty of room to safely prance about) – and even by British standards, Japanese abodes are typically fairly compact.
Kinect 2.0 requires less space but faces a stiff challenge in the country, although admittedly this pales next to the challenge of getting enough locally popular content onto the console.
Xbox 360 never excelled in Japan but arguably did itself proud considering the traditional hostility non-Japanese machines face there. And while there was some patchy support from Japanese studios, such as shmup specialist Cave, it was the increasing popularity of Western gaming in the region that eventually served it best.
Can Xbox One improve upon its predecessor’s performance?
PS4 arrived in Japan on February 22nd, three months after the UK and US.
