I'm going to paste something i posted on a different site. It's pretty much about the exact same topic.
"I blame Microsoft and the 360. The 360 was heavily marketed in NA and became popular due to the year head start and cheaper price tag. Then factor in that a lot of the AAA titles were strictly western i.e Halo and Gears of War. Not to mention the fact that the original Xbox was always focused on delivering PC games (western rpgs) on a console. This gen has made gaming less of a cliche hobby and more of a mainstream activity. So with there being more People in NA than Japan, Most people found themselves with the "popular" choice. Xbox 360.
Now that a bunch of new people have entered the market, and most of those people are used to/expect Western games, Japanese developers decided to try to capture a piece of this new market by trying to make their games appeal to Westerners more. But by doing this they make bastardized versions of certain games which ultimately fail to impress Western audiences while at the same time disappointing fans of Japanese games.
Basically more people have entered the market, and unfortunately they only want what they think is "cool" i.e Cod/Halo/Gears (because i could argue that most people who play Xbox are casual gamers, at least that's what my experiences in real life had led me to believe). Which at the moment are Western developed games.
If it sounds like i have a bias against Microsoft. Mabey I do, because it's my belief that they add nothing of importance or value to the gaming industry while at the same time they are changing the market and taking away focus on the games that I like (Japanese ones).
Just my opinion though, I don't think my opinion is stronger or better than anyone else's and I don't mean to offend anybody, feel free to disagree.
EDIT: Let me just say that while I do like fps/tps games, (I do like Gears too, so i'm not hating on it :p) the amount of attention on them this gen is ridiculous. Also, Western rpgs are the most dull,uncreative,and boring games I have ever played. "
I just want to add that I have friends who have 360's and they are definitely not casual gamers. I'm not saying the 360 is for casuals or everyone who plays it must only be playing it to be "cool". There are a lot of people who prefer the 360 for various reason and i respect their opinion. However, at least in my experiences, a TON of people who play 360 are the type of people i described. The "huh? oh is that game cool? Is everyone else playing it? Then I must get it and play the game too!" type of people.
