>> But what I really was trying to say is that Microsoft being a foreign brand with the relatively new foreign Xbox brand will obviously have much higher barrier of entry (and this applies to all markets in the world) than Sony or Nintendo due to brand loyalty and how long Sony and Nintendo has successfully delivered to the Japanese.

Indeed. It's is quite a challenge for Microsoft to reach the same level of brand recognition in Japan.

However, I have stated elsewhere in this forum that it is not impossible. Since the initial fiasco, the game division seems to have learned the market very well and began to implement better strategies, although it is too late for this generation.

One of their new plans that I've found quite interesting and perhaps effective to penetrate the market in the long run was to provide young students with free development kits and create a new generation of Japanese talents who are familiar with their development scheme.

It simply takes a lot of time and sophistication in their strategy and implementation to penetrate the market where Nintendo and Sony have saturated. Until the American Headquarter tells MS Japan that their time is up, there still is a chance to cultivate the market in preparation for the next generation, 2011 or 2012.

>> However, Final Fantasy and Metal Gear, both from Japanese developers can gain worldwide recognition and sell superbly outside Japan (in the millions). Its much harder for a Western game franchise to penetrate the Japanese gaming community and gain mainstream appeal in Japan

Yes. I see your point about the barriers of entry. As far as I see it, it seems to concern the issue of game design and genre, rather than consumer xenophobia.

Take Mass Effect, for example. I've played the game, and thought it's brilliant in many ways. To me, it was superior to most games developed by Japanese studios, if not all. But the character design of the protagonist, Shepard, doesn't belong to the Japanese market. Likewise teammates, villains, and stories -- they simply don't match with their tastes. You can call their preferences idiosyncratic, and I think indeed they are. But that's just how they are.

On the other hand, Japanese characters, such as Mario, Sonic, FF characters et al, seem to enjoy decent reception in the Western market. This is perhaps because these characters are inherently more universal (in the West-East dichotomy) than, say, Shepard is. Snake is an interesting character, for he is somewhat closer to American heroes in terms of his looks and his talk. But I think the success of the Metal Gear Series in Japan is less to do with how he looks, but more to do with the fact that the franchise has been there for over twenty years.

I think we've covered the genre issue. FPS or Third-Person Shooter won't do it.

>> but the crux of my point was regarding Japanese developers and talent. I think they will care way more if MS pulls the plug, especially Namco, Square Enix, Capcom, who are shooting for global mainstream sales, distribution and income (based on upcoming games and recent financial reports). This will only be better for Japanese gamers who will have more games at the end of the day.

Yes. Though, Japanese major studios are concerned about MS's platform mostly because the American and European markets constitute the significant portion of their revenue structure. It's not exactly because they expect to achieve incredible success with their XBOX releases in Japan, at least this generation. The presence of XBOX in Japan should help them build better business partnership with MS for their success in the West.

I'm going to tell you my personal preference. I love games developed by Western developers. I have enormous respect for many of them. That's why I bug a Japanese friend of mime who has XBOX360 (yes these people do exist) but plays THE IDOLM@STER all day to let me play American games.

I don't think the PS3 or 360 would have sold much better for Japan at this point if there wasn't a Wii.

The PS3 is IMO really far more geared towards the future (a radically new and daring design), it wasn't build to sell like a PS2 right out of the gates (just imagine the costs!). It's technical design is more geared towards providing consumers reasons to upgrade towards HDTV, adopt Blu-Ray technology, set a good fundamental for the platform to have a good basis for creating the most impressive games for many years to come, marginalize the PC gaming market even further, counter piracy issues, pave the way for future Playstation technology, etc.

A PS2.5 could have been placed within the market to compete with the Wii, but this would IMO go against all of Sony's long term goals and ambitions (and leave the PC/360 without high end competition). I don't think the Wii competes directly enough for Wii owners to not buy into PS3s eventually. I think the Japanese in general do care about technically impressive and beautiful looking RPG and other types of games and they will be well served on the PS3 for the long run.

This is irrelevant to the discussion at hand, but as far as Western developer's success in the Japanese market goes, there's a lot of hope.

This is unfortunately on Wii, but the World of Goo has been received very well by Nintendo's internal team, which, needless to say, is quite rare. Likewise, Little Big Planet has decent potential to succeed in Japan if it's marketed right by Sony.

Anyway, I have spent too much time on this forum. Maybe I should stop procrastinating and go back to work. :)

It's funny how the PS3 fanboys jump on the wagon of "b.bu.but the PS3 hasn't had any games!"
.

..

...But I thought PS3 domination in Japan was supposed to start with:

Ridge Racer 7 Exclusive
Armored Core 4 Exclusive
Gundam Mousou
Hot Shots Golf
DMC4
Dynasty Warriors 5/6
GT5p
Yakuza 3

Now, which of those games provided the PS3 some sort of miracle boost? Fact is, none of those games, by the numbers, had the impact on the PS3 nearly as much as Blue Dragon did.

But at any rate: If the 360 is braindead, the PS3 is on life support. The spoiled rich kid got his rear end handed to him by the old man from the country.

You can say the PS3 is future-geared all you want, but when do the Japanese have a mid-generation shift to another console?

LOL SONY fanboys trying to feel happy that just because 360 is dead in Japan a country they never expected to win. But if you look at the software attachments we can clearly see which console more ppl enjoy in Japan. And compared to the PS2 which still sell as much as the PS3 we can see how far PS3 has fallen. Its amazing how ppl think MGS4 will sell a million in Japan. If it doesn't SONY fanboys will claim than no other MGS ever sold a million but if it does they will claim it as amazing. Considering the fact that it is bundled it should sell as ppl wanting it or not get one regardless. Lets see if it can even outsell GeOW.

Wow someone wanted to inform me when they were trying haha. Nah just kidding but probably for the best. Focus their resources in markets that their product is noticed in. Japan is a lost cause for the Xbox brand.

So many fanboys running scared...
I see people that mix software attachment with sales (no, a big software attachment doesn't mean more people enjoy your console, it means LESS people enjoy your console, some people need their logic checked). Must be pretty hard on them.
MS can give up Japan or not, the fact is that they're dead in Japan, and the writing was on the wall since last year at least. I said so one year ago and some people realize this only now? Some are even still in denial. MS can bash open doors if they want, they can make an official announce if they want.
But the fact is that they can't give up Japan. That would send a very very bad signal about their console and how they treat their customers if they do that. Actually, if they were to announce sth like that, I would see it as a preparation to leave the videogame business.

The worst thing are the people trying to destroy gaming. I read people saying japanese devs need MS to sell their game in western markets, and abandon japanese market. But these devs need to sell to japanese customers first. If they do the huge mistake of forgetting their core market and making games only for western people, the western devs will just butcher them, and you will see them die one after the other. The Nintendo domination will finsih them off.
It's funny because most 3rd party devs just cornered themselves. These stupid devs now have zero mean of pressure against Nintendo to have any favor from Nintendo. Capcom was the only dev smart enough to do that, just in time, they barely missed their window of opportunity. All the others will have to beg and are no loonger in position to ask anything of Nintendo.

The downward spiral of the HD console has started already.

 WTF!?!!? Really? In that case PS3 FTW as it is clearly the most enjoyable console according to ookaze!!!!

There's no need to give up on Japan, if Microsoft wins the west at some point Japan will have to follow. I don't think it's possible anymore for a system to win the west and then bomb in Japan. There are too many big games in Japan that sell in the west, and thus japanese companies will be forced to put their big games on that system when the time comes.

Mistwalker isn't first party, but the games they made for MS were backed fully by MS moneyhats. They are sort of like David Jaffe's new company, receiving backing from a company, but not owned by it.

Microsoft has gotten plenty of Japanese-oriented content, but the Japanese market is moving more and more toward handhelds, save for the ace in the deck Wii. The HD consoles are slipping into oblivion, day-by-day. MGS4 has a lot of weight on it's shoulders in the coming weeks.