Don't get me wrong, I'm not on the Europe doesn't buy JRPG's bandwagon at all, but I do understand where SaviorX is coming from. Europe is almost never taken as seriously as America when it comes to distrubution of these kinds of games, we almost always get these games far later than the rest of the world, stealth released on a number of occasions, with minimal shipments and exposure, this is provided we even get the games in the first place.

I honestly don't expect Xenoblade to get any kind of proper backing from NoE, at least not on the scale of more recent high profile releases like Wii Party, Donkey Kong Country Returns or even Kirby's Epic Yarn, though I'd love to be proven wrong and forced to eat crow on that one. Similarly, if The Last Story is released internationally, I expect a reasonable push for the game in American regions and absolutely sod all for Europe besides posters on the side of game specialist stores with a high review score and quote plastered on them.

Europe is most certainly a viable market for these games, just as much as America, and it's time publishers realized this. Dragon Quest IX's performance was amazing, it's selling trend is akin to that of Nintendo's other evergreen titles, though to a lesser extent, of course. The game is still nearly full price at all outlets and continues to make respectable positions in the DS only chart here in the UK, long after its release. I refuse to believe though, that those atrocious jedward commercials are what put the game out there, it was positive word of mouth that did justice for the game, no doubt helped by successful tag mode gatherings across multiple european regions.

Yeah, we don't tend to get much advertising over this side of the pond, apart from those obscure Nintendo commercials >.<

I still believe that the advertising wouldn't make that much of a difference though, a lot of games go unadvertised and still match the NA sales figures.

I honestly don't know what sells a game, it could be word of mouth or it could be advertising, it could be something as simple as the box art. Some games have the potential to sell, others don't.

Either way, you are right that titles like The Last Story tend to be pushed more in NA.

Fingers crossed for a Worldwide release anyway.

why can't they follow the advertising strategy they did for MH?  That seems to have worked.

Considering in TLS one can change their appearance via armour changes, I really hope they don't follow the precedent they set for DQIX (even though it resulted in very good sales and above NA's btw)

*Counter attack!*