Craziness. I thought this game would do at least Trusty Bell numbers plus 50%.
I think this is proof that by 2009, there will not be a single "blockbuster" game that caters to the Japanese audience. Everything will start moving toward Western gamers because we're the only ones buying those games anymore. It puts companies like Capcom in the driver's seat because they've spent the past 5+ years adapting to games that appeal to Western tastes.
Japan is quickly pushing itself toward irrelevency. When devs can pump out cheap puzzle games and sell them like hotcakes, they're going to start putting their highest quality people on their Western projects. There's no need to waste your top dev team on Cooking Mama 14 when you know it's going to sell 40 gajillion copies anyway.
The true test will be when SMG releases. If the Japanese thumb their nose at that like they have nearly every other conventional game over the past two years, we know that things have definitely changed in the Land of the Rising Sun.
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