Sunday, October 18, 2020
Microsoft has an anime mascot for Xbox in Japan, but she would have no idea whether a game on the Xbox Store actually supported Japanese.
Microsoft's push for global gaming is still set back by this utterly basic feature disparity.
Almost a year ago, I wrote an editorial about how Microsoft needs to start to take localization seriously, with heavy emphasis on the Xbox side of things. My faith in Microsoft to fix basic feature problems in Windows is already at rock bottom, but I generally expect better of Xbox, since they tend to ship polished hardware that actually works. I guess this is what happens when you're faced with actual competition, namely from Steam, PlayStation, and other popular gaming storefronts.
One thing Steam, Nintendo, and PlayStation all have in common is this utterly, utterly basic accessibility feature:
A list of supported languages on a game's store page.
Basic, simple, easy, right? Even the terribad Windows 10 Microsoft Store has this feature. So, um, why doesn't the Xbox Store have this? Why doesn't even the brand-new Xbox Microsoft Store designed for next-gen Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S have this? Why doesn't the Project xCloud Xbox Game Pass app have this?
As we move deeper into Microsoft's so-called push to move beyond console gaming, why do Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and other language regions have to curate their own fan-made lists of games that support their languages?
Related: Hey, Microsoft, it's time to take Xbox localization seriously
Stop asking fans do to YOUR work
The year is 2020, and as far as we can tell, there has been literally no movement, and no plan to rectify this very basic oversight that, once again, shows how Microsoft thinks of itself as a US-first, rest-of-the-world second company.
The Microsoft Store and Xbox Game Pass app for PC both list the supported languages each game has on their store pages. Which indicates to me that the information is there in the database for Microsoft to access, and for developers to set up. So then, why do we not have it?
The lack of language info makes it difficult to win the hearts of non-English speaking region gamers. Plz add language info for Xbox console games in Microsoft Store. pic.twitter.com/OgkYZ022y9
— Xbox News for Koreans 🇰🇷 - 네이버 Xbox 정보 카페 (@KoreaXboxnews) October 4, 2020
This goes beyond the simple anglo-centricity that Microsoft is long-known for, but it is also a basic accessibility feature for millions of gamers across the world. Microsoft has done a ton of great work to improve accessibility for gamers on Xbox Live, but unless you're English, you're still being given unnecessary hurdles to access a gaming experience that approaches that of English-speaking countries.
Microsoft is asking its non-English gamers to trawl through user-curated Google Docs spreadsheets to find what games support their language region. They're asking fans to do that heavy lifting to keep those lists up to date, too.
Two spreadsheet's from the Japanese Xbox community for localization info. Work that should be done by MS.
— Mono (@monogms) October 18, 2020
As long as MS doesn't support this bare-bones feature Gamepass will never ever become "the Netflix of gaming" imohttps://t.co/Y9hX2HoKydhttps://t.co/4MV9x7hrav
This is ridiculous for a company as large and cash-rich as Microsoft, who also claims to have aspirations of reaching a global gaming audience with its cloud-based Xbox Game Pass service (which, by the way, also doesn't display supported languages.)
Remember non-English gamers, Microsoft
Global gaming?
One central problem Xbox has long-held is the lack of support from strong gaming markets such as Japan. Developers in Japan and other regions overlook Xbox as a viable place to do business. And missing basic features like language support, something Sony has supported for years, leaves you wondering if Xbox is actually serious about regions outside of the U.S. and UK.
If I was Microsoft, I would be embarrassed to attempt to court gamers from Japan, South Korea, the Middle East, and beyond, without even the most basic localization features in place across its storefronts. Microsoft has dumped mountains of cash into marketing deals with the likes of Samsung to push xCloud in South Korea. They put in a ton of effort to appear at the 2020 Tokyo Game Show for the first time in years. Maybe they should've moved some of that money towards hiring developers to enable this basic, simple feature.
Getting Microsoft to listen to feedback on issues that don't affect U.S. and UK customers seems to be an uphill struggle, and after a year, we're starting to wonder if they're actually serious about regions outside of that tried-and-tested anglo-centric markets.
Are you affected by this? Drop a comment in your own language below if you'd like to see Microsoft support these features natively.
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