Was Blue Dragon What X360 Needed In Japan?

simoniker writes "Have major RPG Blue Dragon and other Microsoft efforts paved the way for Japanese Xbox 360 success? 8-4 Ltd's John Ricciardi and Kotaku's Japanese correspondent Brian Ashcraft have been talking about the issue, with Ricciardi commenting on Gears Of War's recent appearance in the Japanese Top 10 game chart, with 33,000 units sold in one week: 'I mean, granted, everything is relative — so yes, in a market where the average 360 game sells around 5,000 copies, 30,000 or so may seem like a big deal, but at the end of the day, their userbase is not expanding. The week Gears came out they only sold a little over 7,000 pieces of hardware. It's not enough.'"

the next Xbox 360

[User 956]

'I mean, granted, everything is relative -- so yes, in a market where the average 360 game sells around 5,000 copies, 30,000 or so may seem like a big deal, but at the end of the day, their userbase is not expanding. The week Gears came out they only sold a little over 7,000 pieces of hardware. It's not enough.'

Microsoft needs to get on the ball and release their Zephyr hardware revision, with HDMI, 120GB drive, and integrated HD-DVD. People know it's coming, and so they're probably waiting for it.

Re:

[SpryGuy]

That is, in fact, precisely what I'm waiting for. The moment they come out with something like that, I'm buying it. I've already decided. I'd get an XBox360 today, except I really want the integrated HD-DVD drive (not an add-on), with proper HDMI.

I'm presuming it's going to be released in time for the Holiday Season 2007. I hope I'm not wrong.

Re:

[sl3xd]

These supposed 'Upgrades' are laregly fanboy dreams. There is no *need* for HDMI -- at all, ever, period.

The Component video the 360 uses is quite capable of full 1080p @60 Hz. The Optical out can handle the 5.1 surround the 360 cranks out.

There simply is no reason that HDMI is a 'must-have'; those who believe otherwise have been drinking too much of Sony's HD kool-aid. Adding HDMI will add absolutely nothing to the consumer experience, but will add quite a bit to the cost of the unit.

The 120 GB drive is

Re:

[ookaze]

These supposed 'Upgrades' are laregly fanboy dreams. There is no *need* for HDMI -- at all, ever, period

That's BS, of course there's a need for that. Most HDTV sets, the true 1080 ones, comes with at least 2 HDMI ports, but only one component entry.
HDMI will give you the best quality at 1080p, unless you buy ungodly priced component cables with enough bandwidth from the connectors to the cable.

The Component video the 360 uses is quite capable of full 1080p @60 Hz. The Optical out can handle the 5.1 surround

Re:

[twistedsymphony]

That's BS, of course there's a need for that. Most HDTV sets, the true 1080 ones, comes with at least 2 HDMI ports, but only one component entry. HDMI will give you the best quality at 1080p, unless you buy ungodly priced component cables with enough bandwidth from the connectors to the cable.

HDMI delivering the best quality is debatable. Having delivered the Pepsi Challenge to close to 50 or so people who've visited my home theater over the last year I haven't found a single solitary person who could tell

Re:

[ookaze]

HDMI delivering the best quality is debatable

No it's not, especially with 1080p. You mean component can attain the same quality. It's sure at 720p, not at 1080p. I don't say it will make a huge difference, but it's noticeable.

besides DLPs are the only true digital display format available today (LCDs and Plasmas are still technically analog) and most scaler chips in TVs are analog as well meaning the whole keeping the signal digital is crap

Nonsense ! True HDTV use digital signals, and there are some among P

Yes I want HDMI, Bigger HD and HD-DVD

[bigdady92]

"Oh HDMI is overkill component is just fine!" Yes component is just fine for some people but I don't want 5 cables hooked into my reciever I want 1. I want everything centralized and instead of running tons of wires everywhere I want 1 cables that does 1 thing and can plug into all my devices and not require a bajillion cables to do it. Simplicity at it's finest. "120 GB is ridiculously big! Why do you need it?" HD shows which you can now download are peaking over 4GB each for 30-45min. Now that you ca

Re:

[bigdady92]

EDIT:NOW WITH EASY TO READ SECTIONS!

"Oh HDMI is overkill component is just fine!"
Yes component is just fine for some people but I don't want 5 cables hooked into my reciever I want 1. I want everything centralized and instead of running tons of wires everywhere I want 1 cables that does 1 thing and can plug into all my devices and not require a bajillion cables to do it. Simplicity at it's finest.

"120 GB is ridiculously big! Why do you need it?"
HD shows which you can now download are peaking over 4GB each f

Why would I want a Bigger HDD in my 360?

[trdrstv]

Simplicity at it's finest. "120 GB is ridiculously big! Why do you need it?" HD shows which you can now download are peaking over 4GB each for 30-45min. Now that you can download HD content right to your box AND use your xbox as a soon to be DVR you will be filling up that XBOX's meager HD in no time.

Ok, I will admit that once you add in HD video that free space magically disappears off the Drive. Hell Superman Returns is 7 gigs by itself in 720p. My Issue though is that for most things the 20 gig HDD i

Re:

[sl3xd]

However, for those who do need more space why not throw a bone to the 360 owners (Even Core System owners) and let us stream it from our PC?

They do. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/pcsetup/alldownloads.htm [xbox.com]

(Alternatively, if you have a 'Media Center PC', you don't need to download anything.)

And the 'core system' can have a Hard drive snapped into it; takes about as much time as changing the battery pack on the 360 controller (seconds). Since the drive is trivially replaceable, it's no big deal to swap disks, or

Re:

[trdrstv]

And the 'core system' can have a Hard drive snapped into it; takes about as much time as changing the battery pack on the 360 controller (seconds). Since the drive is trivially replaceable, it's no big deal to swap disks, or to offer a bigger replacement drive.

I understand how quick it is to replace the HDD on the 360, however I don't want to do it for a larger drive. I have plenty of space on my Home pc and would rather a solution that lets me utilize the vacant space there.

It was my impression that

Re:

[sl3xd]

Does it allow me to say 'Rent a movie' from Live marketplace, store it on my computer and stream it from there when I want to watch it? or download a game demo and store it there?

I don't really know for certain; I don't use Windows on a PC (I use Linux & Mac -- unix variants). Wintendo's only virtue is games, and that's what I have an Xbox for.

It would score points for MS to do let Windows users download & stream Live Marketplace content.

It would be bonus if they'd allow non-windows boxen to stre

Re:

[sl3xd]

That's BS, of course there's a need for that. Most HDTV sets, the true 1080 ones, comes with at least 2 HDMI ports, but only one component entry. HDMI will give you the best quality at 1080p, unless you buy ungodly priced component cables with enough bandwidth from the connectors to the cable.

Considering I have a true 1080p TV (brand new), I can look at it: 2 HDMI, 2 component. Do they look any different (even with the stock 360 cables)? Nope (I do have devices that can use both, and I connected both u

Re:

[ookaze]

I'm an electrical engineer; I'm not so easily swayed by advertising claims made by Monster and the like. Most of their 'independant tests' are of thin-gauge wire vs (their) thick-gauge wire. When you compare an el cheapo wire with the same gauge as Monster's cable, there is no difference. Quite a profitable marketing ploy on the "premium" cable makers, though

I agree, but still, you won't get enough bandwidth with an el-cheapo cable with thin wires, even at 720p.

Bandwidth is a red herring; until you're to th

Re:

[sl3xd]

Let's do some bandwidth calculations:

1080p60 works out to:
* 1080 Lines
* 60 Hz
* 1920 pixels/line

= 124.416 MHz, if you are using one clock tick per pixel. (At best you can get two pixels/clock, which would bump it down to ~62 MHz of bandwidth, but I'll be pessimistic and user the higher number) Bytes/second doesn't apply, because it's an analog signal; the amplitude of the signal on each cycle is what determines the color.

124.416 MHz is well below the level where signal smearing becomes a problem, even with

Re:

[ookaze]

I agree with you entirely on this.
That's why I don't understand why there are differences. And I hoped you'd be able to tell me.
Because VGA cables, though expensive, are not so expensive (I know the marketing plays a role, my video equipment was always more expensive).
Actually, I know one of the differences is simply caused by the conversions. The conversions (analog-digital) induce a loss of quality, which should be unnoticeable at 720p, but that you can see at 1080p, even at my 1600x1200 resolution (perha

Re:

[sl3xd]

You're right about conversions-- at least where it applies. On paper, with perfect electronics (which don't exist), a CD is enough to satisfy the most sensitive ears. But because we don't have perfect electronics, we've moved to 96 kHz/24 bit audio -- able to reproduce frequencies dogs can't hear at volumes that virtually no audio equipment can reach (and certainly not with any level of fidelity) The same can apply to video.

Quantization error (technical jargon for conversion problems) can arise if you ha

Re:

[Mark Maughan]

I'm not buying an XBox360 'till there is a model with DVI/HDMI and HD-DVD built in.

Does the XBox need it? No, and they don't need my $500 either.

Re:

[sl3xd]

That's OK. I design products for customers. If a company can't make money in the end, it's better off not having your 'business.' I've seen multi-million dollar deals turned down because the customer more or less said "I'm not buying until you give me _____." We would have lost money on it, so we told the customer to take a flying leap.

Adding HDMI, HD DVD, and a bigger HD will raise 360's the price to $600 (the same as the PS3.) Sony's reputation in consumer electronics will carry it much farther than

Re:

[tbannist]

I always find it amusing when fan bois fight other fan bois. It's a win-win situation for everyone else...

As long as we don't have to listen to them.

Re:

[ookaze]

People know it's coming, and so they're probably waiting for it

You mean japanese gamers are waiting for these improvements since the XB360 launch in Japan ?
That doesn't make any sense.

Re:

[el_womble]

The reason I didn't buy a 360 at launch was because I didn't want one. It was too expensive, I thought it was going to fail, and there weren't any decent games for it.

The reason I didn't buy a 360 6 months ago was because it was too expensive, and I wanted a Wii (which I love).

Now I want a 360, but its too expensive. By the time I've added WiFi, an extra controller and games that I actually want it always looks to be £350 to £400 which is an astronomical amount of money, especially as I don't ow

Re:

[Archimagus]

The reason the Sony is so much more is just that, it's a "Sony". They think they are better than everyone else and that people will pay more just because it says Sony on the side.

Re:

[sl3xd]

You just nailed why Microsoft isn't going to add unnecessary fluff that will just make it cost more.

Price matters.

It's why the Wii is the top seller, and why the 360 is outselling the PS3.

Short answer No, long answer no with a but ...

[HappySqurriel]

The obvious answer is no, Blue-Dragon was not what the XBox 360 needed in japan being that the XBox 360 is still the worst selling videogame system in the country ...

At the same time it should be noted that there are more pieces of XBox 360 software being sold than PS3 software which implies the PS3 "aint doin so hot" ...

Re:

[Rycross]

One game isn't going to suddenly turn around a dying system. Blue Dragon did sell systems, just not enough. If they can deliver a good selection of Japanese style games, then they might still be able to turn things around, especially considering how poorly PS3 is doing.

Re:

[EvilIdler]

Dead Rising. Lost Planet. Japanese style, japanese developers. Dead Rising IS a system-seller :)

Re:

[Rycross]

They aren't jRPGs. jRPGs are what sell systems in Japan. Well, those and dating games.

Dead Rising and Lost Planet are much more American style than Japanese anyway. Just because they have Japanese developers, doesn't necessarily mean they cater to Japanese tastes. That being said, I am severely tempted to get a 360 for those two games, plus GoW and XNA, so I agree with you that they are system sellers.

Re:

[Mark Maughan]

Right now the PS3 console is outselling the XBox360 console at about a 3:1 ratio in Japan. Gears of War is not something to extrapolate from. Right before it, I don't think there was a single XBox360 game in the top 30 in Japan.

Re:

[HappySqurriel]

My point wasn't that "The XBox 360 is doing great" ... I just think that it is interesting that the sales for the systems (for 2007) are as follows ...

Wii 447,500 Systems and 1,070,000 pieces of software
PS3 144,250 Systems and 147,000 pieces of software
360 46,250 Systems and 100,250 pieces of software

Also for the past 2 weeks (according to vgcharts.org) the XBox 360 has sold more software than the PS3 ...

Re:

[Mark Maughan]

Also for the past 2 weeks (according to vgcharts.org) the XBox 360 has sold more software than the PS3 ...

You didn't finish reading my post.

::shrug::

[Pojut]

The first Xbox did horribly in Japan too...why should we have expected the 360 to be much different?

Re:

[Geek_3.3]

Well, the PS1 and PS2 did pretty good, so that means that the PS3 should be doing fantastic now.

OKOK, bad example. the jury's still out on the PS3....

The Sega Master System and Genesis did pretty good,so that means that the Sega CD and Dreamcast should.... oh right....

Re:

[Pojut]

lol oh come on you know what I meant...as others have said, the Xbox was a very western-oriented system...many of the games had a very "western" feel to them, hell even the interface of the dashboard felt like something right at home here in north america...granted while american culture has it's places in japan, it isn't going to overtake japan's own culture (just like although "americanized" chinese food is popular here, does not mean it will be MORE popular than our own food) If you compare the majority

Re:

[Geek_3.3]

I know, I know--just giving you a hard time. ;-) M$ *seems* to be trying a little harder to catch the Japanese market this time. Something of a good start--now if they can keep hammering it in, they can break the single digit marketshare in Japan... MAYBE.

And yeah--Sony is completely arsing it up pretty good somehow. Somehow, in all the rush to crank out a rather nice 10 yr console, they forgot to, I don't know, GET A FEW GAMES TO GO WITH IT THAT DIDN'T SUCK. I personally won't buy a PS3 unless it a) d

Re:

[Pojut]

See, even though I would say I liked the Xbox over the PS2 by a VERY large margin, in retrospect there were more PS2 exclusives that I enjoyed than Xbox exclusives....

God of War, Shadow of the Collossus, Ico, Okami, Final Fantasy Series...there really were some amazing games for the PS2.

The EXACT opposite is happening now. Final Fantasy and Lair aside, there is not one single PS3 exclusive title that has been announced that I am looking forward to...the 360 already has exclusives that are out and have more

Re:

[KDR_11k]

Funnily GTA San Andreas just topped the weekly charts in Japan by a fair margin.

Re:

[mgblst]

Because we are not all idiots.

Is Blue Dragon what they needed?

[Chris Burke]

Yes, a high-quality exclusive game that appeals to the Japanese market was what they needed, and desperately.

Was Blue Dragon sufficient?

No, obviously not. One game is never going to turn a console from an abject failure into a success all by itself. Few people will buy a console when only one game out of the entire library interests them, and so it is with the 360.

Blue dragon is what MS needed, past tense, to show they had a chance at all in Japan. What they need, present tense, is another Blue Dragon, and another, so that people will have multiple reasons to want one, and to hope that more games they'll like will come out. Even still MS being successfull in Japan is very iffy, but without this, failure is guaranteed. Sort of like when a paramedic needs a defribulator, even though it may not save the patient -- their other option is to sit by and note the time of death.

Re:

[Mark Maughan]

That's pretty much sums it up. Look at the 20 most anticipated games in Japan.

http://the-magicbox.com/topten3.htm [the-magicbox.com]

6 DS games
3 Wii games

6 PS3 games
3 PS2 games
1 PSP game

1 360 game

Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey simply aren't enough. They need 3-6 times this many Blue Dragon's and Lost Odyssey's.

Re:

[Rycross]

And even with Blue Dragon, you have a console chart that looks like this: http://the-magicbox.com/toptenlast.htm/ [the-magicbox.com]. You're not going to a lot of growth in Japan unless you have a sizable cache of jRPGs.

Re:

[Rycross]

On another note, do you know how the most-wanted list is generated? I can't seem to find info on that.

Re:

[Xymor]

It's taken from Famitsu. Not sure how they get the data.

Re:

[atomicstrawberry]

Famitsu's 'data' correlates directly to how much money they're paid by the publisher to promote it. You should always take anything in Famitsu with a significant grain of salt, they're not exactly a bastion of journalistic integrity.

Re:

[Rycross]

Probably because thats an accurate description of game journalism, if you can call it that, in America. Its sad, but in most game magazines, all a high score means is that the company that made it coughed up enough advertising dollars. /cynic

Re:

[AKAImBatman]

What they need, present tense, is another Blue Dragon, and another, so that people will have multiple reasons to want one, and to hope that more games they'll like will come out.

What they need is a Japanese development studio staffed by some of the hottest Japanese talent. Combine that with a free hand for the team to develop games that are appropriate to the culture, and the XBox 360 will do much better.

Re:

[Rycross]

That's pretty much what they have with Mistwalker, which is who put out Blue Dragon. They have Lost Odyssey comming too, but I think they need more than token support from Square, and some of the other RPG developing studios out there.

Re:Is Blue Dragon what they needed?

[Babbster]

You mean like Mistwalker [wikipedia.org]?

No, what Microsoft needs is for companies like Konami and Square to say something like this: "Yes, we are going to put [Metal Gear Solid 4|Final Fantasy XIII] on the Xbox 360 because so many people [outside Japan] own that console." There have already been indications from both those companies of interest in the 360 (and both companies already have titles available for the console), but if they made a real commitment to developing their top titles for the 360, then both other developers and the Japanese gamers would follow.

Re:

[PixelScuba]

Someone answer me, I'm not trolling here I want some sort of answer that makes sense to me... Why the fuck AREN'T these companies doing that?!? The Playstation 3 has been selling abysmally in the States and from the sound of other articles, not so well in Japan either. The 360 has positioned itself as a huge demographic outside Japan, and any company looking to make serious money on a product is going to have to release software for this platform. We know that Square has a raging hard on for the most sop

Re:Is Blue Dragon what they needed?

[ProppaT]

"One game is never going to turn a console from an abject failure into a success all by itself."

Halo. It saved the original X-Box from failure in the US.

Re:

[Blimey85]

We've been hearing this pretty much since Halo landed but has there been any stats to back up the claim? I bought my xbox not long before Halo 2 came out and Halo was one of the first games I bought, and Halo 2 the day it came out. Both are great games but they weren't the only games I liked on the xbox, just as Gears isn't the only game I play on my 360 but was the reason I bought a 360. That and knowing that Halo 3 is just around the corner. I'm not disputing the cliam that Halo made the xbox but I'm just

Re:

[The-Bus]

I'll have to mostly agree with you. When Halo and its sequel are the top two selling games on the console, it's hard to argue that they were central to the success. But: look a bit further. The rest of the Top 20 Xbox Games list shares a lot of entries with the Top 20 PS2 Games list: a racing game, Madden, some EA games, Tony Hawk, etc.

And here's where the differences appear. There's a lot more overlap in software in the US and Europe. Don't have a PS2? Don't worry, the Xbox has some stuff that might be as

Re:

[Chris Burke]

"I love my Xbox, Halo is sweet!"
"Cool. What other fun games are there?"
"Halo is totally awesome!"

Heh, so yeah, I'll grant that Halo saved the xbox *but* the main difference here is that there were other games that interest a north american audience, and certainly no lack of faith that more FPS would be coming out for Xbox. If Halo was truly the only game on the system for U.S. audiences, I'd say they'd have "succeeded" in the U.S. just as much as they have in Japan based solely on Blue Dragon.

Re:

[Rycross]

I was under the impression that, when Halo game out, XBox was just starting to get some worthwhile games. Now, I couldn't name them for you, since I didn't really pay attention to the first XBox, but I do remember hearing this from XBox fans.

XBox did have KOTOR, Jade Empire, and Panzer Dragoon Orta, amongst some other gems. None that I would buy a system for though.

Re:

[chill]

Actually, I purchased a PlayStation 2 just to play God of War. No, I never purchased another PS2 game. Yes, it was worth it. (And yes, I know I'm in the serios minority here.)

A comment and an OT

[BenEnglishAtHome]

And I bought a Dreamcast just to play Tetris on a big screen. Somehow, your purchase seems leet and mine seems more than a little tragic. :-)

OT - I notice that you've stuck by the decision to keep the occulus index page as low-key as possible. :-) I never took you up on your kind offer of an account for testing but I would be willing to buy access. I'll drop you an email requesting sign-up particulars.

MS and Japan

[Turn-X Alphonse]

MS just doesn't get that they just don't get Japan. The Xbox games are all very Western and Japan just doesn't enjoy them. I mean look at where 90% of FPS games come from, then look where 90% of RPGs come from, there is a very clear difference between the two markets and MS need to understand this.

Re:

[Kuukai]

I don't think it's really about them not understanding the market in Japan. The MSX [wikipedia.org] was a pretty big deal, and they really could have tapped into that if they had actually cared about gaming at the time. The Xbox line was pretty much created to tie into their whole "media center" idea, and so they came into the party at a pretty dumb time (when PS2 was at its peak), and made a sort of half-hearted effort to gather Japanese developers. The failure of the first system in Japan has made it extremely hard to

Re:MS and Japan

[Babbster]

Oh, get off it. It's not a question of MS "understanding" Japanese gamers, unless you really think that you're more capable of understanding the gaming business better than the professionals in the field. It's a question of getting Japanese developers to make their games for the 360, and right now the chicken is waiting for the egg: Developers want to make games for hardware accepted by gamers and gamers want hardware for which developers are making games. Believe me, if the companies developing the big franchises (such as MGS, FF and DQ) announced that they were making those franchises available on the 360, that console would get a lot more interest from both Japanese gamers and other Japanese game developers. Unfortunately for MS, the success of the PS2 made the PS3 look extremely desirable to game developers and some assumed that the PS3 would be a similar crazy success.

Re:

[brkello]

Uh...I think you are completely ignorant of what Blue Dragon is. If you did know what it is, you would know why what you wrote is 100% false. It never ceases to amaze me how a Slashdotter thinks they are more intelligent than the people at a billion dollar corporation.

MS DOES get what Japanese gamers want. Blue Dragon proves this. They have taken some of the biggest Japanese names in RPGs an anime and put them to the task of creating an exclusive Xbox360 JRPG title.

Your post is not insightful...it is

Re:

[EmperorKagato]

I believe they are trying to appeal more to developers by pushing XNA for the Xbox 360.

You may not see an impact soon, however this is how innovative games became popular on the PS1 (Parrapa the Rappa) because of the development kits being easier to get a hold of.

Re:

[AKAImBatman]

The 360 has about the same footprint as the PS3. Especially since the lastest craze is to flip the consoles on their sides.

Re:

[fistfullast33l]

PC's started out flat as well, now they're all effectively on their side. Only difference here is the disc drive on the PC's usually aren't flipped. Speaking of which, can you load a disk in the 360 sideways?

Re:

[Kelbear]

Yes, when placed on the side, the slot's edge has a cradle to hold the DVD upright and in place.

Re:

[dopaz]

It fits slightly better than a PS3.

Re:Proof that "free trade" is overrated

[HappySqurriel]

The Xbox 360 is a high quality game system at least on par with the PS3. The fact that the Japanese public won't buy it is basically proof in my eyes that they won't buy ANY American products. There's always some excuse about how the product isn't marketed right or built to their tastes, but the bottom line is they are biased against American products at the same time they are killing many of our industries.

How many Americans spend a lot of money buying Japaneese Music, Movies, or Books?

There are some, but they are a pretty small minority of the population. Do most American's ignore it because these Music, Movies and Books are poor quality? No! American culture is drastically different than Japaneese culture and they have completely different views on what makes good entertainment and what doesn't.

The XBox has never taken off largely because it lacks the type of games Japaneese gamers like ...

Re:

[Guppy06]

"There are some, but they are a pretty small minority of the population."

Never underestimate the spending power of fourteen-year-old girls.

Re:

[Rycross]

Of course, your conjecture is bullshit. Above and beyond the Levis and IPods, there are plenty of American products they consume. Music and movies were especially popular. The women liked french fashion. Yeah, the Japanese are somewhat isolationist, but they'll still buy it if you market it to them appropriately.

In case you hadn't noticed, XBox360, while a good system, has jack and shit in the way of Japanese RPGs. These are the types of games that are most popular over there. No, there isn't some gra

Re:

[Erwos]

"In case you hadn't noticed, XBox360, while a good system, has jack and shit in the way of Japanese RPGs. These are the types of games that are most popular over there. No, there isn't some grand conspiricy to lock Microsoft out of the market."

Except that this isn't true. They've got Phantasy Star Universe. They've got Blue Dragon. They've got Enchanted Arms. And there's more. Right now, the Xbox 360 apparently has _more_ JRPGs than the PS3 or the Wii. That's what makes this so baffling. Microsoft really is

Re:

[Erwos]

PSU is popular in Japan, and did MUCH better in terms of reviews.

Enchanted Arms is good, not mediocre. It didn't advance the genre, but do you really think all those JRPGs that made the PS2 popular did?

Re:

[Rycross]

PSU is mainly an online game, its not traditional style, and as the ac said, its also available on PC and PS2, which means that there's no incentive to buy a 360 for the game.

As far as mediocre rpgs go, yes PS2 had a ton, but those weren't the ones that sold systems. FFX, FFXII, Dragon Quest VIII... those were the ones that sold systems.

You need more than 3, one of which is mediocre, and one of which is available on much more widespread platforms. Lets also not forget that the XBox360 has to overcome the

Re:

[Shadow99_1]

What they really lack is Bishojou games (or Ero games depending on what name you choose to use to describe them), such things are common in japan on consoles (even the 'family friendly' wii), but no japanese console maker allows those games to be brought out in other countries... Those games however make up a very large market in Japan (with good Bishojou games making the top 10 games list and even being the number one game at times). I can't see MS gaining any marketshare in that market however...

Is it possible to merge the two mentalities?

[7Prime]

Gaming culture has expanded drastically, that is for certain, in fact, once it left its base of nerds fiddling around in the basement, it's become fragmented into a number of very opposing sub units. Maybe Microsoft's thinking is that they're doing really well with the whole frat-boy image. If they were to start also catering to the jRock crowd, you might get a lot of 15 year olds and frat boys starting to say, "The XBox360 is for faggots!" So they've been picking and chosing their games carefully in which

Re:

[realityfighter]

Japan's population is roughly equal to half that of the United States. Last year, Japanese consumers bought almost twice as many DS units (the best-selling handheld on the market) as American consumers did. And when I say American consumers, I mean the US and Canada. So your answer would be, no.

Re:

[SSCGWLB]

Yes, Japan does love their handhelds. However, lets consider the PS2 sales numbers [scei.co.jp].

Cumulative Production Shipments of Hardware / PlayStation®2
...
2006/12/31 115.36 million units (Japan: 24.76 million/ USA: 46.53 million/ Europe: 44.07 million)

So, the US purchased ~2x PS2s as Japan, US and Europe accounted for ~79% of all PS2s sold. So, the answer is neither yes or no. No market is small enough to be easily ignored, however Japan is far from the big tuna in this particular pond.