I think the japanese market this generation is a little tired of hardcore games, and they are an extremely trendy people. Anything that is popular seems to be picked up rabidly, like the Wii, and anything that is deemed unpopular is ignored and hidden away in shame. Also, things that are tiny and cute, and don't take up much space in cramped living quarters are preferred.

Add in their nationalistic fervor to ignoring foreign made products, MS's stigma of the last xbox (massive console + american size controller), and it's hard to imagine how they could see any success over there.

I think it's awesome how hard MS is fighting for that market given the high wall of entry. Maybe in 2009 they'll be able to release a '360 slim' and have a game library large enough to tempt even the most cautious japanese.

You say PC and 360 are not targetting the same market, yet you yourself switched from PC to 360... PC and Home consoles are in direct competition (not so much with the Wii).

As for sales, in multiplatform titles, single-player games sell better on 360 and online games sell better on PC. 

 It's totally outside of this discussion, but what about the role that HD TV's play in this part. For PS360 you got to have a HD TV to benefit the most. (based upon graphics) Not everyone is willing to pay for that too.

Ok, one thing: Japanese love American stuff. They even pay big money for vintage Levi's jeans etc. And iPod isn't exactly bombing over there.

I think it has partly to do with brand. Nintendo and Sony are so enormously well known there that it's hard for MS to capture marketshare. Plus the image of Xbox is very much western shooters. The new RPG's should help. Image building can be a slow process. 360 is already doing a lot better than the original Xbox.

Probably most pepole dont know that so many rpg games are coming out on the x360, i mean to be honest if i never come on this site i deffo would not know, i would just think it was halo and halo to be honest.

Pluss getting all these jrps japanese gamers probably dont know because they are not really going to go out there way to find out info on a BRAND they dont really like

it might do better when the next jprg's are out.

The games are certainly there for the Japanese audience so i don't know what else can be stopping the 360.

lmao @ the 360 being the RPG king. It doesn't even have 10 solid jrpg's.

easy.... cause they have there hands full with the real king of RPGs this gen the nintendo DS... and also they love that wii