Just the simple question: what's the point of investing tons of money in Japan? wouldn't it be better for US and EU customers (and ultimately for MS itself) that Ms just concentrate its efforts in western markets?

 

i've already stated this in a several threads but to me, from the point of view of a western gamer, leadership in Japanese market is good only for statistics...and this for at least a couple of reasons:

1. western developers only care about the size of western userbase: their games usually only sell in western countries...and localization expenses (no japanese is gonna play a game localized just for US/UK) are often not justified by sales results. In other terms If you are a western developer and you are to produce a FPS, a RTS, a westernstyle RPG, a sport game, a driving game (and it's not called GT BTW), a MMORPG or whatever you just look at the userbase in western countries...adding to the equation Japan sales it's no more than pure statistics: you know that you won't sell almost anything in Japan . Think of it: PS3 may win the weekly charts on the back of Japanese markets but from the point of view of a western developer is still basically a 15.5 million userbase vs. 7million (PS3): an 8M+ gap that's actually widening (ok, apart from last week ;) )...it doesn't count anything that PS3 has 4 times the userbase in Japan or that's selling 6:1 in Japan.
2. western gamers are usually more interested in western-type games: western RPG (i.e. Oblivion, the Witcher), Sports (almost every sport you can dream of is covered by western publishers), Driving games (ok, japanese have -or will have- GT...but i don't think that considering only EU/US developers there's shortage in this genere), FPS (almost all western made), RTS (again almost all made in US/EU and made for the western market), casual like Guitar HEro/rockband...ok there are some exceptions:i think of JRPG*...but again: suppose you are a 3rd Party Japanese developer (like Square or Konami) and you know that a particular game (for example a JRPG) usually sells well in EU/US (*and for a moment just suppose that x360 hasn't more JRPG than PS3)...why in the world (apart from a big amount of money from a rival company that want that game to be an exclusive) should you leave out a console that has a big userbase in US+EU?

in conclusion to me as in Japan the situation can't be possibly recovered, Ms should concentrate on the markets that has at least a possibility to conquer...honestly i can't see a single reason for burning dollars upon dollars tryin' to convince japanese gamers to "jump in" with the "n^th-stupid-turn-based-full-of-prerendered-graphics-JRPG-that-sells-at-best-400k-worldwide" (considering x360's demographics)...why not use the same amunt of money to be more aggressive in western countries? buy exclusives, advertisements, drop the price etc etc....ANYTHING but stop throwing money out of the window!

what do you think?

It would be a bad sign at this point if they pulled back from japan

Because Japan is the reason the PS3 beat the 360 some weeks in the holidays.

Maybe M$ isn't gonna sell more consoles than Sony but they still have to try. And later it might pay-off big time.

""It would be a bad sign at this point if they pulled back from japan""

==> I agree, it is a question of credibility
and MS can afford to lose money since they have a lot

They're trying to build a respectable foundation from which to launch their next console. There is absolutely no doubt that they will come in last in Japan this gen, and probably even next gen. But if their efforts this gen lead to selling 7 million there next gen, it will be worth it. Think about it--they are holding their own while they basically only have 2 countries to Ninty and Sony's 3. Even if they came in third next gen in Japan, they will almost certainly at least double what they do this gen (I believe the 360 has already outdone the original 'box's total sales in Japan?)

Pulling out is no worse a loss of face than having historically horrid sales imo.

Avinash_Tyagi said: It would be a bad sign at this point if they pulled back from japan

probably...but nevertheless i still think that losing markets they still have a possibility of winning (EU) would be a worse sign.

 

In my opinion MS made a mistake tryin' to conquer japanese market before having secured US and EU ..they should have made japanese wanting the x360: wait 2 years, esatblish a powerful userbase in western markets and a big library of games and then, if you feel that japanese really want that "white-american-made-thing" ...well, just give it to them...

"they said he was crazy to build a castle in the middle of a swamp, but he did it anyway. That castle sank into the swamp.
so he tried again, that castle sank into the swamp.
but he tried a third time! that castle burned, toppled over and then sank into teh swamp.
but the fourth time, the castle stood!"

Theres money to be made, and they feel they can break into the Japanese market still. PS3 is crushing them but 90% of the games that have sold well on PS3 are multi platform. If this gen doesnt work for them they definitely should give up.

Because Japan is a major force when it comes to console games. If Microsoft is ever to completely dominate with a future console they need to have all the major (and many minor) Japanese developers onboard.