I don't think that should be argued.  SO3 arguably sold better in the West than in Japan.  Many 360 owners seem to be previous PS2 owners who happened to have loved JRPGs.

So people are celebrating that this game sold 800k, while it ptobably needs a million just to break even?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but 800k for this game is terrible.

You don't know much about JRPG sales, do you? :p

Also, LO uses the Unreal Engine which would significantly reduce production costs

It's of pretty high production value, so who knows if it's broken even or not, but the vast majority of JRPGs don't crack a million. And they still keep making them...

That's because the vast majority of JRPGs don't cost that much to make in the first place

Just consider that the 360 is a current generation console and not a "next gen" console. Along with that, you should also consider that the DS and PSP have dozens of million selling Japanese RPGs between them, and you didn't even specify home consoles.

Besides that, Dragon Quest Swords has sold 700k with no PAL data included, and it likely had a FAR lower budget. And why is 800k a milestone? It maybe JUST broke even with numbers like those, and it hasn't even sold a million yet which is widely considered the definitive milestone for most games. So no, it's not impressive in the slightest. And considering all of the hype and marketing that went into it...

@chrizum

This.

Accroding to the figures the game has already amassed just shy of $50M in revenue. Do u really thing a jrpg costs the same as the high budget titles [halo 3, killzone 2 ,GTA4]

$50m revenue? Then it's definitely successful. Gears of War cost $10m to make, as I recall, and I don't think this could've cost much more than that, if even as much.

It would have sold even better(in the West) if it wasn't a turn based RPG.  Also, hype doesn't translate into sales a lot of the times.  Ever heard of a game called Shenmue.  Also, you should blame Japan for not buying for more copies of the game.