Yeah. It's hard to even understand it because as an American I interested in stuff from many different cultures. I love very Japanese games,, French, Fench Canadian, Western European, American, and so on and so forth. I often don't even know where games were developed when I'm browseing them in a store. I mean I can usualy tell if it has Anime girls in tight school outfits, but I don't actualy care where a game comes from. I think as an American I can't really grasp the concept that the Japanese willfully ignore the greatness of Halo for not reason other than it's not Japanese. If Japanese games were so important to the rest of the world MS would do well to ignore the market. But thankfully MS has given it's all to hang on in Japan so we can get Japanese games too.

Always that Halo blabla
Not everyone likes that franchise - Its at best medicore and a casual FPS.
Its not their favored Franchise and Genre and they don't even like the superior Killzone(yes it is!),Battlefield(Genre King) or anything else.
Hell they buy CoD for one reason > SquareEnix is publishing it.
They even don't care for other well running western franchises like Uncharted aka the Nr1 IP from their beloved Console.

That has nothing to do with hating - Its just those games don't hit their taste.

BUT MICROSOFT GOT ALL THE J-RPGS!!!
Yeah it probably did really help to force people buying a console they don't want and need at all.
It didn't help even less after people discovered 95% of the J-RPGs were planned for the PS3 the whole time but developers didn't have the money to do it.
They needed Microsoft to finance them cause Microsoft wanted badly to conquer Japan.
They could have done better if they wouldn't have done it that aggressive but you probably have to take your chance as long as Sony isn't around.
Studios like Mistwalker said they only needed Microsoft to finance their studio and never want to work with them as long as they don't have to(money wise probably) - They had a 2 game contract and that was the whole affair with them.
Tales of Vesperia showed signs a PS3 Version was planned all the time - The 360 Version already had the "preperations" and missing stuff.It was a Beta.
Something like that of course is running wild in the Japanese Gaming Community and even i noticed that stuff while playing the 360 Version.
The beloved FF13 turned out to be garbage and everyone is giving Microsoft the fault cause their system can't keep up with the PS3.SquareEnix tried to say with that much graphical improvements things from older FF Games aren't possible...But SUDDENLY they were with the PS3 Exclusive Versus13.

Microsoft was far to aggressive with their strategy but they only had one shot.You can't say it was completely their fault..It was now or never.
Europeans and Japanese People are far more loyal than others.And at the end they were right - They get the stuff they want on the PS3 and Japanese Developers  favor that console too.

And Yes - Halo is at best medicore.Don't know what you see in that.Singleplayer is boring and Multiplayer is far to much aimed at casuals(lol@MLG Pro)
If they should play a FPS then it has to be Battlefield - It is by far the best FPS Franchise of the last 10 years.
But they don't like that Genre anyway.

"Halo is at best medicore"

Wrong, Japanese love KFC, they love lady Gaga, they love Johnny Depp. The problem is westen companies failing to adapt to Japanese culture. I think there was a documentry on how the first KFC was a complete failure.. they tried to use American menu, American floor plans.. failing to realize Japanese enjoy smaller portion with greater variety of food over the staple Super size burger and fries. Japanese like tighter knit space over spread out seating.

If Microsoft want to do well next gen in Japan, they need to cater to Japanese desire for high-end niche technology, limited edition xbox, furturist form factors and exclusive partnership with otaku pop culture (AKB48, Miku, Gundam, Dating sims)

does anyone know where that list is that show profits and losses of the 3 companies for the last 20 years or so. Ive seen it floating around a few times.

1) Google

2) Google Scholar

3) Ask your library. Especially for sites that have journals and whatnot.

Here's a couple I quickly grabbed from Google. You neeed to do your own research though, that's the point of school. Learning how to get and use information on your own.

http://www.mediajournal.org/ojs/index.php/jmm/article/viewfile/216/104

Only read the abstract, but it sounds interesting at least. I might take a read once I have time:

The following paper is a case study analysis of the Sony Corporation; a leading transnational media corporation in the production and sale of consumer electronics, music and film entertainment and videogame technology. There are two main parts to this study. Part I. examines the history and development of the Sony Corporation. This paper argues that the business strategies and corporate culture of a company are often a direct reflection of the person (or persons) who were responsible for developing the organization and its business mission. Part II. examines the Sony Corporation from the standpoint of business strategy. Special attention is given to the subject of organizational culture and strategic decision-making. A second argument of this paper is that while Sony is a transnational media corporation, the organization is decidedly Japanese in its business values. The significance of this research lies in its revelations concerning the complex changes facing a company that was once historically Japanese in its origins but is becoming increasingly transnational in scope and operations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/technology/how-sony-fell-behind-in-the-tech-parade.html?_r=1&ref=business

Does your school have access to ThomsonONE?

No Ive never heard of that. I came across both of those articles. im pretty much done just that ive seen someone post a chart in text format of profits and losses for sony microsoft and nintendo since they entered the business. its all in one place and just what i need every other source just has limited periods of time.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Akier6EZHQH1dEtWVGhscFJ6SldwV0ZSZ3hhSzZPaWc&usp=sharing

thats amazing but do you have the chart for just the games divisions becuase my essay in on SCE specifically