Sarah Bond Interview: The Importance of Japan and Asia to Xbox

Tokyo Game Show opened its doors again this September from 21-24. During this time, Sarah Bond, Corporate Vice President at Xbox, visited Japan to take part in the country’s biggest annual gaming moment. During the visit, the Xbox Wire Japan team was able to talk to Sarah to hear more on how she perceives the Japanese and Asian Xbox markets, as well as the Xbox community within them – and their importance to Xbox overall. 

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Xbox Wire Japan – A variety of titles from Japan are featured in the Xbox Digital Broadcast Tokyo Game Show 202023. The best of all. Hotel BarcelonaThe collaboration between Swery & Suda51 definitely attracted the attention of many in the audience. What was the inspiration behind that particular piece in your show? 

Sarah: Swery and Suda have been friends for years, and we are dedicated to working closely with them to help realize their artistic vision on Xbox. The two men shared with us that they were interested in revealing their creative vision. Hotel Barcelona’s gameplay for the first time as part of the Xbox Digital Broadcast, we were honored to do so. We were happy that Swery-san and Suda-san themselves were also featured in the show, giving them an opportunity to speak to their fans, share their visions, and even highlight the game’s origins. Xbox is unique in that we love to honor the game creators as well. 

Xbox Wire Japan : Japanese fans are captivated by titles like It’s Like a Gaiden of Dragons: The Man who Erased his NameYou can also find out more about the following: Octopath Traveler 2Xbox Game Pass is soon to include these games. It seems that since last summer, more Japanese titles have made their way to Xbox and Xbox Game Pass. Does this reflect the dedication you and your staff have shown to the region? 

Sarah: Relationships in all businesses, especially in gaming – which is a creative art form – are very important. Phil, my team, and myself are all very important. [Spencer]’s team, have invested a lot of time in building a relationship with creators here in Japan and across Asia. The Game Pass allows creators to get their games in front of players that may not have known or had the money to purchase every game. Yakuza’s franchise makes a good example. Now that there are so many Yakuza-related games available in Game Pass for players to enjoy, they can experience the best of this series. Even if they weren’t familiar with the series, it’s easy to experience all of the games when they are together. The relationships that we create are important but so is the investment to ensure our partners can grow their franchises and reach new players. We also want to give them the option to choose how they play. It is a very important area in which my team and myself invest time. 

Xbox Wire Japan: Here’s a question about Tokyo Game Show. In the past you’ve had E3 in America and gamescom Germany. What is Xbox’s position at the Tokyo Game Show in comparison to these two events? 

Sarah:Tokyo Game Show has always been a special moment for us to honor and promote creators across Asia and Japan. Xbox Digital Broadcast featured 19 total games including 15 from Asia. This included the game creators, who spoke about the vision they had for their fans. In many ways, Japan is the source of so much of what makes gaming a beautiful and creative artform today, and Tokyo Game Show gives us a unique opportunity to celebrate the innovative style of games that are built by creators in this region, as well as to show all of what is happening in Japan and across Asia – not just to the fans who reside here, but to fans around the world. 

Xbox Wire Japan: Xbox hosted the “Xbox Digital Broadcast Watch Party” in Shibuya last week. Do you think the Xbox community is unique in Japan? 

Sarah:The Xbox fanatics in Japan who I met last night to watch the show and with whom we watched it are amazing. They have a great attitude. You can wear Xbox. They were all wearing Xbox-themed colors and jewelry. Many brought consoles or controllers as well as hats and tees. There’s so much passion and love, not just for games, but also for the brand and what it represents. 

Xbox Wire Japan: Fans have noted that you run an emoji-based quiz online almost every single day. When did you create these? 

Sarah: I love emojis. It was only recently that I began using them. posting online, people told me that young people don’t use emojis anymore. That’s when I realized that, if I kept using emojis, people may realize that I am a mother in my forties. But you see, I am a mom in my forties, and am quite proud of it; I think it’s cool that I can do what I do while being one. I want every mom in the world to know, or perhaps every woman in the world to know that you could do something like this, and don’t have to pretend to be something you’re not. And that’s when I decided to go all out and use a lot of emojis. In internal emails I often only use emojis to reply. That’s when I started to think “could I communicate just with emojis”?  

As I was thinking about this, as I boarded the plane I made game names using emojis. On that flight, I created 50 different combinations of emojis and games. The first one I made for was Clockwork RevolutionThe whole group went nuts. It was decided that we would do the Wordle quiz each day, to allow people to wake up every morning to try to solve it, as well as continue for as long I could. It’s been almost 3 months, and we’ll see how much longer I can continue. Still, there are many games to be played! 

Xbox Wire Japan: Lastly, could you send a message out to all the Xbox enthusiasts in Japan? 

Sarah: First I’d like to say thank you all for the Xbox fan support. They should all have a good time at the Tokyo Game Show and I urge them to get out and play. StarfieldPick up the game and start playing Forza MotorsportThis game will be released on October 10, 2010. As we invest more in Xbox across Asia and Japan, we hope that you will continue to provide us with your amazing feedback. Our fans are invaluable to us.