Wasnt Sony paying for GTA timed exclusivity on the PS2?

The conspiracy theories present in this thread as usual, as if no other companies within the gaming industry throws the money around in an attempt to "buy" loyalty. Yes Sony is a saint. Despite the actual mention of similar strategy in that same article.. People need to learn to read the OP let alone the article itself.

Well that don't count because his Lord Sony did it!

The issue with Microsoft jumping in right away expecting things to work just like Sony is a big issue to the Japanese. I'm not sure all of you realize what kind of statement or how they might have approached the royalty issue. Given how American business works if Microsoft went to publishers and made such an offer at the beginning or even long after first approaching them it would come off exactly like they are buying loyalty. For a Japanese business it takes time, subtlety, and a very indirect approach to such an offer. The cultures are so different that it really isn't a surprise than an American company would have difficulty penetrating the market. We are highly likely to offend them in business encounters unless calculated efforts are made.

So it isn't unfair or favoritism in the way we might see it. It was most likely abrasive and too disrespectful. Japanese business is something you need to court and it takes a long time to prove yourself.

Well it's just rumours, but gta was meant to be an exclusive for ps3, but microsft caught sony of gaurd and offered rockstar a deal they couldn't refuse, just one of the many mistakes sony did this gen.

To be fair though  a lot of foreign companies like Apple, BMW, Coca Cola, Harley Davidson, Louis Vouitton etc.   have been very sucessful on Japan. Yes you need a very specific and precise handling of the business market to succeed in Japan... as you need basically everywhere else in the world but WE and NA. 

Some comments on the article were very insightful on mentioning how the Xbox brand was tainted by the perception of something drawing on the worst possible american imagery you could convey out of the english world and that's very worring since so far MS hasn't done much to combat or prevent it. Right now the US and the UK consist of about 28% of the world's economy; when the Xbox franchise launched, it was 38%. And yet another MS console will end up last throughout most of the world bar those countries, even on a lower pricepoint and with a one year headstart. How is it going to be for Microsoft a decade from now, when the US and the UK become less than 20% of the world's economy? 

I blame the people. MS really did put a lot of effort into Japan this gen.

That's only a reason why it would be somewhat more difficult to break into the Japanese market, but it could still be done with Japanese developers, Japanese companies doing marketing for Xbox, etc.  

Microsoft just doesn't think that the effort is worth it, so they simply aren't expending any effort for Japanese business.   End of story.

ms' xbox achilles heel: an inability to understand non english markets.
This article was like a beginner's guide to globalization. First lesson, tailer your product to the culture to which you will be selling.This is really really basic international business.
Lots of American companies fo well in japan because they understand the market.
It's not surprising xbox does horribly over there.

The thing I find amusing about your statements is that GTA actually sold better on X360 and had a lot of exclusive content this generation.  Under the logics that you are using then every first party company is bribed with money because someone else owns them.......And this is the case.  This is hw businesses work, money.....So the claims you made sounded a little weird because every company does it.  Then the GTA rumor is just a rumor.  Most games went multiplat this gen because they make more money that way and frankly the 360 sells more software for many games.