Sony doesn't try to differentiate themselves in Japan either. They just let 3rd parties do that for them. Sony's primary focus is creating games western audiences want.

MS could pay Japanese developers for exclusives. But the Japanese audience simply isn't worth the money to do that.

If MS paid Japanese developers to simply port games on their platforms that would otherwise be Playstation exclusives, it would still boost the sales of MS hardware in Japan. But once again, not a worthwhile endeavor.

Sonys goal for the gaming industry outside of getting back at Nintendo was to create a wider brand of games than Nintendo had the aspiration to create but by primarily focusing on the element of popular culture which was 3D movies getting over with kids. They wanted it to be taken seriously as a form of electronics and multimedia (since thats what they were good at). Nintendo was ok with being a toy company and still making good games for their product. Microsoft joined up once Sony had expanded the market and done this. In America and the west people can look over major similarities and differentiate an outside brand by the smallest of subtle differences, but in Japan if they are too similar they stick with the home brand. Japan has their own commoner vehicles and luxury cars, but you would be crazy not to see a BMW or Mercedes over there. Why? Because those are cars that are just in a class of their own.They have the Acura and the Lexus, but its just not the BMW or Mercedes. They have Starbucks and McDonalds....companies with very little competition. Apple products are also pretty popular.

Sonys goal for the gaming industry outside of getting back at Nintendo was to create a wider brand of games than Nintendo had the aspiration to create but by primarily focusing on the element of popular culture which was 3D movies getting over with kids. They wanted it to be taken seriously as a form of electronics and multimedia (since thats what they were good at). Nintendo was ok with being a toy company and still making good games for their product. Microsoft joined up once Sony had expanded the market and done this. In America and the west people can look over major similarities and differentiate an outside brand by the smallest of subtle differences, but in Japan if they are too similar they stick with the home brand. Japan has their own commoner vehicles and luxury cars, but you would be crazy not to see a BMW or Mercedes over there. Why? Because those are cars that are just in a class of their own.They have the Acura and the Lexus, but its just not the BMW or Mercedes. They have Starbucks and McDonalds....companies with very little competition. Apple products are also pretty popular.

Mmmmhmmm...

You say lots of words but I'm not sure what you're arguing.

My point is Sony doesn't really care about Japanese consumers. Based on the games they develop they clearly want a bigger western audience. Sony hopes and relies on 3rd parties to cater to their Japanese userbase.

You said Sony doesn't try to differentiate themselves. Technically they did and I just made that point.

Sony cares about Japanese gamers and so does Square Enix. Its their home turf but the Japanese are not really reacting so hot to the products and this have everything to do with Sonys lack of Japanese first party and second party support unlike their first gen or even their second gen where they brought third parties in by the boatload. Legend of Dragoon is one of my favorite JRPG's of all time and its Sony first party. If they made another I would blow up out of sheer childhood joy. The fact is that westerners spend more money and the Japanese pay more attention to what they spend money on, but to the corporations money talks. If Sony first party started focusing on Japan again Sony would be the company to bring Japanese style games back into the forefront. They did it with the PS and PS2 and never before and after have I seen a reception to games as such, even as third party. Sony had it all back then...they need to mix it up and stop focusing 100% on the westerners.

Sony doesn't really do much to differentiate themselves. They primarily just cater to what western audiences seem to care about. Shooting guns and watching cinematics.

Westerners have shown they're tired of Japanese style games. So Sony gave up on Japan and now they bring us cinematic experiences.