He couldnt say anything more obvious than this, could he? 360 had a good run in Japan, but it's time for Microsoft to quit this market as it is not worth it anymore, it's not the 2nd biggest videogames market it was in 2005 when 360 launched, and what is even worse - it keeps getting smaller.

English Student Says Nintendo DS Selling Very Well

That guy lol his "Wtf... -__-" look is amusing and i lol'd.

To the topic at hand though, with most of the 360's main JRPG's coming to PS3 with more content more characters and more gear... and most of them being japan exclusive first... this is no surprise... infact its only natural that this is the end result with such a big backstab to MS.

Even still for an American gaming Console MS has done well in Japan, they simply wont be a PS3 or a Wii.

Blue Dragon didn't meet expectations in the west (didn't sell like Lost Odyssey did and the reviews were somewhat mixed but still pretty good). But it was successful in Japan. Sakaguchi himself was pleased with sales in Japan (210,000) given the low install base. And Famitsu praised the game. 37 out of 40. That's really good. I don't know what the other Japanese reviewers gave it but I'd bet it would be rare that Famitsu scores would deviate too much from the general opinion of Japanese critics. Given that Famitsu has four different people review the games and they add up the scores.

In fact looking at vgchartz right now I see Blue Dragon and Star Ocean 4 are pretty much tied for #1 X360 sales. That is a very good sign for a new IP, especially since it's a first-party exclusive. Tying with Star Ocean and beating Tales. That's impressive and they did it at a time when the X360 install base was smaller than it was when Tales and SO4 came out. If they go ahead with Blue Dragon 2 it'll sell real well in Japan and it'll shift hardware.

The Blue Dragon game on the DS was definitely a bomb. But given that it is a departure from the original game (being a RTS hybrid spin-off), that isn't an indication that Blue Dragon 2 is going to bomb in Japan. It was also published by a small no-name company (unlike Microsoft) and was very low budget.

Yes the RPGs on the 360 are expected not to sell as well as the PS3 RPGs (what with more than 3x less the install base) but given the install base limitations, the sales have been impressive. ToV sold 190,000 on the 360 in Japan, 290,000 on the PS3 in Japan (and its dying out. Tales is so front-loaded). For a much, much smaller install base, those are some impressive numbers for the 360 version. Japanese 360 owners are hardcore (they have a higher attach rate than Japanese PS3 owners. Look at japan in vgchartz, look under tie ratio) and it shows. MS shouldn't leave that loyal fanbase high and dry. They're taking the consoles and games off the shelves but yet the Japanese 360 owner bought more games per console. That's dedication and MS shouldn't see that accomplishment as a failure.

As a multi-national corporation (like Sony and Nintendo), it is in their interest to expand their presence internationally. They haven't cracked the Japanese market (with the Xbox, Microsoft computer software is a different story) like Apple and other major western companies have but the fact that these western companies have succeeded show that the Japanese are not culturally-closed and appreciate western things. There are far more Japanese with westernized tastes than there are westerners with a taste for Japanese popular culture (which is considered geeky here). It's not about winning a console war in Japan. It's about setting a realistic goals and making progress. Selling 2-3x more than the original Xbox is progress. Didn't someone here mention the 360 makes up 8.5% of the console market in Japan? That market share would have been unheard of a generation ago. There's no point for them to only preach to the choir (the American 360 owners). They're already sold. Europe is a main priority and they mustn't forget their bread and butter (Americas) but Japan shouldn't be forgotten.

How does this make major news on the gaming sites? WTF...are that desperate for gaming news?

Major gaming sites (or news sites in general) never miss an oppertunity to report on controversy.  And right now, this is especially relevant as most gaming sites have a negative bias against the Wii and DS and view the 360 and PS3 as the better systems this gen.  While the Japanese public strongly opposes the 360 and isn't exactly jumping on PS3 either.

@lovestosplooge

Even if Sakaguchi said he was happy with the sales for Blue Dragon, it still didn't sell as well as expected or as well as its review scores were hyping it up to be (such as you cited from Famitsu).  But even more than this, there's just the fact that it had 2 major named behind it (Akira Toriyama and Sakaguchi), a huge marketing budget and even its own Anime/toy line in Japan.  Still, it only sold marginally well, due to the fact that it was on the 360.

Blue Dragon, more than anything, shows that Japan won't just buy a product simply because there's a couple major names and a lot of marketing behind it.  It also needs to be on a platform they want and feature content they are looking for.  And the chances that the sequel will sell more than the original are slim.

Highest selling 360 jrpg in Japan: Blue Dragon 0.21m in Japan (just under 20% X360 attach rate)
Highest selling PS3 jrpg in Japan: White Knight Chronicles 0.35m in Japan (just under 10% PS3 attach rate)

Blue Dragon sold 60% of what White Knight Chronicles sold on a console with 30% of the PS3's install base at best. Yep, that's a total commercial failure. Final Fantasy XIII will have like monster sales and attach rate but that's freakin Final Fantasy. Duh. After it was first released, Blue Dragon's attach rate was something like 45% btw. It did amazingly well. If 210,000 isn't good enough, then what is when the highest selling hd jrpg is only at 350,000? Final Fantasy excluded, hd jrpgs are clearly pretty niche in Japan. You can't measure the success of Blue Dragon to Final Fantasy. It's not fair to measure any other hd jrpg to that standard, White Knight Chronicles included.

That was what I was trying to get accross the whole time.  Blue Dragon isn't a overwhelming commercial success because none of the 'HD' JRPGs have been.  When you are striving to claim an HD RPG was a 'success' for only selling 200,000 copies (420,000 worldwide), yet a simple DS or Wii RPG could sell anywere from 1-5 million copies, and previous JRPGs in previous generations sold much higher, then that's not a 'commercial success'.  That's more like 'scraping by'.

And never once was I comparing Blue Dragon to White Knight Chronicles or Final Fantasy XIII.

ahave you seen some posts about vesperia coming to ps3 some japanese sold their 360 or set it on fire and bought a ps3 i am 80% sure that 60% of 360 owners feel very stupid in japan because the 905 of them bought 360 for vesperia and star ocean and now they are on ps3 with a bunch of new features

true