Is Japan really essential?

[Pristine20]

madskillz said:

Pristine20 said:
Japan is essential for some 3rd party support. The Japanese gaming companies may have lost lots of footing but they still make a lot of games people love to play. It's best to have a console with an international audience to gain their favor. It would be odd for them to make games that their own people (who can probably appreciate their games best) can't play.

But, here's my point. The Western world enjoys RPGs and that's fine. Having some Japanese-based devs is cool too. I know if folks want a console that's not sold in their region, they'll just import it. (Onna76 comes to mind) I don't see with such a low return, instead of wasting money there, why not use the funds to lower the price in areas where the comp is close between MS and Sony?

@ NJ5: I'm talking about leaving consoles only - end all marketing schemes, staff and the like and just leave. To sell 8,000 consoles in a month in that country is just a waste. It costs $$$$$ for folks to market products, to promote them, and to have a base of operations in Japan. Why court an unwilling victim? How is getting a bigger marketshare in Japan so necessary? Eliminate Japan and the 360 would still be outselling the PS3 or about even.

Onna76 may be a special case. I'm play games more that the vast majority of people on the planet and I've never imported a single game in my life. One of the reasons some JP gamers are buying the 360 at all is because of its price, others bought it because it has games in their language. I'll have to say that the 360 would have next to nothing imports from Japanese gamers if it was unavailable in stores.

It may just be a culture thing but I seriously think that M$ pulling out of Japan would put them out of favor of most JP devs and the 360 would become the original xbox again: shooters, WRPGs and sports would clog the library and it would lose it's status in the eyes of many western games as well.