BioShock and Mass Effect were released last fall in the West, and both games were critically acclaimed and easily sold over a million copies. Now, in a move to increase the library of Xbox360 games in Japan, Microsoft has opted to have both these western games fully localized for the Japanese market - a market where these games can be described as "niche games" at best.
Still, there have been a few, typical western games that haven't done horribly bad on the white Box in Japan, like Assassin's Creed and Oblivion (no doubt thanks to western students and such living there, lol). BioShock has, alledgedly, sold approximately 10.000 copies on day one - not bad for a shooter. Mass Effect has, to my knowledge, not recieved a release date yet, but my guess it will hit shelves late this spring/early summer.
So, what niche game will do best in the Japanese market? The shooter with RPG elements (BioShock), or the RPG with shooter elements (Mass Effect)? And how many copies will they each sell?
