Munkeh111 "Fable II should be a big hit, but I have no idea how well IU and TLR will sell"

IU and TLR are both new IPs, but I don't really know either. However they should be good indicators for how well Microsoft is winning over the JRPG market segments by how well they sell relatively and if they achieve that magic million.

c0rd "Indeed, the RPG's only take an arcade and a single controller to enjoy, so even I (sorta anti-Microsoft) couldn't resist if the price dropped to the rumored $200.  Unfortunately, my little bro would want Live since all his friends are on it, so I'd probably need more than just the Arcade.  Strangely enough, even if I'm not buying the Arcade, if it were $200 I'd still feel more pressured than ever to pick up a 360.

I never seriously considered buying a Microsoft system until recently - I must say, they're doing a damn good job."

Haha, maybe you need your little brother to contribute to some of the costs eh? :P

Its awesome to see some anekdotes of the effect I was describing. Thanks for your perspective.

steven787 "I was torn between PS3 and 360, leaning PS3.

Now, with FFXIII and all those other games sooner, I will be getting a 360."

Awesome, glad to have to "Jump in". If you're like me, you'll find the system just grows on you.

shio "So far only Tales of Vesperia had some success, since Lost Odissey didn't even reach 1 million so there's doubts about whether it was profitable or not.

On the other side, Ninja Gaiden 2 is not an RPG, so you shouldn't count it on your flops.

I wouldn't have much hope for the DLC of Fallout 3. Bethesda always makes terrible overpriced Downloadable content.

You are right about the rest, except that they release the games playable on Xbox 360 arcades out of necessity. It would be pretty stupid if a game doesn't work on a few millions 360s because the developers/publishers didn't want to spend an extra on DVDs. The only games that do require a hard drive are the ones that possess some huge database, such as Football Manager."

Lost Odyssey would have made about $23,000,000 considering it was 1st party published. So it should have at least broken even if not made a nice albeit small profit, and its still selling a trickle week on week.

If you take a shooter with a large online component you'll need a $299 premium to play that game, if you take a general RPG all you need is a much cheaper $199 Arcade (When the price drops) because the experience is mostly offline anyway and you don't need more than that to enjoy the game to its fullest.

IMHO, talking about a gambit for MS move on RPG with its XB360 is making them a disservice.
Is it a success for them? I hope so, and I'd be inclined to say it's a success. It better be, because it cost them lots of money.
And Ninja Gaiden is not a RPG.

So now, their "gambit" is a success, but unfortunately it's not effective :
- with WRPG, they were king already, as they secure all the PC devs, and most are western devs,
- with JRPG, well, they flop one after another, even a western-style one like LO ("2nd party").

Or I take that back, perhaps it's effective, we can't know yet though.
Sony made a very good move by saying (correct me if I'm wrong) that delayed ports to PS3 have to add content. So now, unless devs have a strong incentive to work more to release a PS3 version (like a flop, meaning they didn't or barely got their money back, or worse, their audience is shrinking), there won't be one if the XB360 gambit is a success.

ToS on GC didn't make enough with 300k sales in Japan, so they made a PS2 version in Japan. As ToS made 1M sales worldwide, I think they feared for their audience. But if 300k wasn't enough in Japan for a mothership, I doubt the ToV sales in Japan will be enough.
But for XB360 it was a success.
And they secured FFXIII, which is huge.

Though, if you take into account their initial goal which was to get relevant in Japan this gen, they completely failed.

theve done a good job in securing RPGs not sure if it will pay off tho

I think it's great they are releasing so many RPG's, this i think gives them an edge against the PS3 in terms of Games, because it's lineup is so superior. And i think many gamers choose X360 over PS3 or Wii because of the RPG's. Because rivals do not have much to offer ( i hope Wii will get some RPG love soon)

Of course most of them are not as popular and as succesful in terms of sales as shooters but i think the amount of RPG's is definitely helping Microsoft to build a larger user base for their product so in a long term i think it does pay off.
Also Xbox is the only console with strong WRPG lineup which is great.

I cant wait to Play Fallout 3 on my housmate's 360's. I've been waiting too long for a fallout game.

First - Ninja Gaiden is not an RPG!
Second - Ninja Gaiden is not a fail. It is one of the best 2008 games IMO.

This. And the primary reason it didn't do so amazing it because its an extremely difficult game to most people. The gaidens have never sold as many as they should because of this.

RPGs are the bread and butter of my 360s purchase now. Really, since I expected the PS3 to have all the good RPGs I had planned on getting it with MGS4, but now.... 

So far the gambit means 360 users get many jrpgs and wrpgs to play and pick from. As a user, I like that =D

Success!

Anything that can expand your titles into different territories (both genre-wise and territory-wise) is pretty awesome. MS is enjoying some stronger than usual sales in Japan thanks to this, so it went over well.

Whether or not it makes a difference in the long run, who knows, but as of right now, an increase in Japan sales and RPGs is pretty good.

I don't feel Ninja Gaiden 2 is a flop. It could have used more polish and bug squashing but it was a good game. The sale was pretty good according to NPD (and even better from VGC count).

As for Microsoft getting all the RPG, well all I can said it's a success for gamer especially 360 owner.

Credit when credit is due. X360 has had a lot of RPG's this generation and the list is growing.