I posted this on another thread but I think it deserves its own. This explains, imo, from a bussiness standpoint why MS is seemingly throwing away money in japan.

Yes. It does benifit MS and really thats the only winner here. I said in another thread though, this makes perfect sense for microsoft. And....its a winning strategy.

But MS is dead in Japan!

Yup, it is. And this is not going to save it. So why is MS shelling out all this cash? The same reason that it got in the console market in the first place. To prevent Sony from having a multimedia hub in the living room with little competition.

"But, they are loosing so much money!"

Yes, they are in the short term (and don't forget how much they have in other divisions). But to them, this is a win in the long term. They see Sony's big botch this generation and are on it like a shark that smells blood in the water. This is the generation that MS feels it can kill PS...or at least SEVERELY weaken it.

"How are they weakening it?"No one is buying xbox in Japan."

Well, they are doing this by preventing the popular games in Japan from being on the Sony system. Thus, Japanese owners have no interest in buying the PS3, especially when DS is so strong. And since many gaming trends begin in Japan, this may also trickle over to the other terretories as well. HD is strong here atm (compared to japan) but how long will that last? The fact is, MS considers anything that hurts the ps3 a win. If the PS3 died and the xbox died as well while the wii rose to the heavens MS would be ok with it. Thier goal for entering the console market would have been met. Of course, thier best case scenario is Xbox360 domination, but that is not the only "win" for them. So, no matter how it sells, MS sees buying major JRPGs for the 360 as a win by preventing Sony from having them, thereby leading to lower PS3 sales and thus preventing the PS brand from becoming a major living room multimedia hub. The End.

P.S. I'm the final cylon :P 

Or maybe they know that the 360s game library need to be diversified

i doubt microsoft feel they will sell lots of them games, they are just trying to raise thier profile in japan with jrpg`s, i think they will fail

Which they do. Diversifying the user base means increasing the user base which will take from Sony's share. But i don't believe they really think that they can make a comeback in japan.

And I agree they wont sell alot of the games in Japan. But, they still win from keeping Sony from getting them. 

People seem to forget that both MS and Sony do a lot more than video games and thus have plenty of ulterior with getting a box under your TV. They also seem to forget that Sony sells computers with Windows, and MS sells music by Sony artists on its Zune store.

Now when it comes down to the battle for the living room, I'd say MS has the advantage. Most of this has to do with the software and user interface experience they have, which is really more important than things on the hardware side of things. Sony has always been weak in software, and the PS3 has been a great example of this. Of course MS also has more money to invest in this sort of thing, and they've done a good job courting content producers with the 360 video store, both of which help considerably.

Wii deserves these RPGs. >:/

 I agree. I would love to have them on the wii. This is just to explain why MS is doing this. It's a lose for many consumers, but a win for the corperation.

Yes, there might be a dose of distruption strategy on MS' part, but you forget a whole lot of other reasons:

* MS is putting effort on having global simultaneous release of these JPRGs. It shows that they're treating JRPGs in a respectful way. That suggests they have a deeper plan than to just disrupt Sony.

* Most JRPG sales occur in the West, no matter what console.

* Many Japanese devs have expressed their interest to expand into the Western market (even more). They want a viable platform. It makes sense from both perspectives, not just for MS, to release some JRPGs for the X360.

* MS wants to build up a good reputation among Japanese devs, and gamers all over the world that it's to be taken seriously not just in this gen, but probably even more so for Xbox 3

* The need to broaden the game library. The X360 is today perceived as a hard-core/shooter platform, which is not good if you have a bigger plan.

I agree. Goal one is stop Sony. Goal 2 is profit. Goal 3 is dominant market share. Microsft also wants at least a foothold by gen's end though. I bet for they hope Xbox1080 will be the dominant console in Japan.
"Xbox1080- we have every angle of multimedia needs covered"