Xbox won’t have anything new to say about next-gen at Tokyo Games Show

Xbox will be making an appearance at this year’s online-only Tokyo Games Show in a few weeks, but it won’t be bringing with it any next-gen news.

That’s according to a recent tweet from the official Xbox account. Instead of trying to push the Series X—which is ostensibly launching in a couple of months yet still doesn’t have a price tag—Xbox will celebrate Japanese game creators and games, highlight the Japanese Minecraft community, and announce updates coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator. In other words, Microsoft knows what its market share is in Japan and it’s playing to the crowd.

While this might be disappointing for Xbox fans, it makes sense for Microsoft to not waste its biggest next-gen announcements, i.e. pricing and release date, on a market in which it has historically underperformed compared to Sony and Nintendo. Xbox has been making an effort to bring more Japanese games to its players, such as bringing the Yakuza series showing up on Game Pass as an example, so this seems like an opportunity for Microsoft to more or less solidify its commitment to working with more Japanese publishers and developers.

Considering Tokyo Games Show 2020 doesn’t kick off until September 23rd, it’s possible that Xbox has an announcement in store between now and then, especially since the Xbox Series S’s existence has leaked once again. Besides, it’s unclear what else Xbox has to announce. Halo Infinite has been delayed, and other console-selling first-party titles like Fable and Hellblade 2 seem to be years away.