Microsofts 2008 RPG gambit - success or failure?

[ookaze]

IMHO, talking about a gambit for MS move on RPG with its XB360 is making them a disservice.
Is it a success for them? I hope so, and I'd be inclined to say it's a success. It better be, because it cost them lots of money.
And Ninja Gaiden is not a RPG.

So now, their "gambit" is a success, but unfortunately it's not effective :
- with WRPG, they were king already, as they secure all the PC devs, and most are western devs,
- with JRPG, well, they flop one after another, even a western-style one like LO ("2nd party").

Or I take that back, perhaps it's effective, we can't know yet though.
Sony made a very good move by saying (correct me if I'm wrong) that delayed ports to PS3 have to add content. So now, unless devs have a strong incentive to work more to release a PS3 version (like a flop, meaning they didn't or barely got their money back, or worse, their audience is shrinking), there won't be one if the XB360 gambit is a success.

ToS on GC didn't make enough with 300k sales in Japan, so they made a PS2 version in Japan. As ToS made 1M sales worldwide, I think they feared for their audience. But if 300k wasn't enough in Japan for a mothership, I doubt the ToV sales in Japan will be enough.
But for XB360 it was a success.
And they secured FFXIII, which is huge.

Though, if you take into account their initial goal which was to get relevant in Japan this gen, they completely failed.