When they mean Japane developers are falling behind Western developers, they actually refering to the fact that Japanese developers are using dated gameplay mechanic, control schemes and development methods. It has nothing to do with profit.

Not true.  They care about gameplay and polish just as much.  Also, Western developers aren't afraid to redefine genres.  The only actual genre they have trouble redefining is shooter related.

Okay, buddy.

First: I assume this means you agree that you were wrong, and that SE is actually making money after all? I'd assume the fact that you dropped the subject means you agree with me after all.

Second: This is not what the article is talking about. It's clearly a discussion of sales, as the whole article is about attach rate's and RPG sales and so forth. Nowhere in the article do they even remotely suggest that the "Gameplay mechanics are dated" or anything to that effect.

And more importantly, that's just opinion. Do you believe they're dated? Fine, that's no problem. I don't. See? Opionions.

What is not an opinion, however, is that Western Publishers are struggling financially compared to their Japanese counterparts.

The mechanics aren't dated as much as they haven't evolved much.  It's just that a decade ago, JRPGs were considered THE genre.  Now however, Western gamers are tired of them and want the genre to evolve.  Please don't misunderstand me.

When were JRPG's ever the genre? The PS era? Recall how things looked then:

http://www.vgchartz.com/games/index.php?name=&console=PS&region=America&developer=&publisher=&genre=&keyword=&boxart=Both&results=50&order=Sales

It's clear FF7-9 were the only real standout titles (and were topped by plenty other games, especially if you include N64 hits).  The PS2 looked the same (only FF and KH selling well). The reason we see no JRPG's lightning up the charts is simply because no FF/KH has released yet. JRPG's have never really been mainstream, only FF and KH have (and KH can thank Disney for that).

Look at Lost Odyssey's sales in the west - it's only behind the SE franchises (FF, KH, SO). The games are fine, there just haven't been many due to the consoles' install base discrepancies between Japan and the west. This means there won't be a single ideal console to put JRPG's on (like there always has been in the past), so sales will suffer (see: ToV).

Thing is, there's a pretty obvious reason as to why the Japanese developers are making more money: They aren't really pushing out a lot of effort on the HD consoles, but are focusing more on the DS, which is doing far better in their homeland than abroad (in terms of top-tier titles). That can certainly play into who is making money, and who isn't.

Also, you forgot to add Tecmo to the losers list - they just got bought out :-p

The market is in transition, but I think that if you compare unit shipments, Western developers are fairing pretty well thus far, but they've pushed a lot harder on developing titles. Fallout 3 shipped 4.7 million units its first week - How many Final Fantasies or Dragon Quests have done that in the West?

I should have noted - when I was talking about Halo 3, I was talking about console games only. MK Wii has sold better, but I highly doubt it has half of the online userbase.

And after playing a few hours of The Last Remnant, I think I'm realizing what's going on here: Square needs more experimental JRPGs like this one. The reason that JRPGs (imo) have gone stale is that Square, and other developers are doing what EA is with certain series (like Madden): They are whoring out specific franchises to earn cash, rather than begin to do what made them great - new IPs. Many people (even such as myself) look back on games like Chrono Trigger and SMRPG as being awesome because........Guess what? They were very innovative for the time. As of late, the only 2 JRPGs that have come out that are truely unique in a good way (for consoles, mind you) would be The Last Remnant and Kingdom Hearts - both are totally outside of what the normal JRPG is. And I think that if Square, Atlus, and Namco tried to make more unique titles, they'd begin to hit good chords with the Western audience.

And think about what some of Square's West-looking games: Secret of Evermore (one of the few Square games ever to be made outside of Japan), Kingdom Hearts (Disney licenses)...Both, especially KH, were well recieved in the West. Japan didn't mind KH either, from my knowledge.

Of course, outside of the 'big' companies, there are plenty of smaller J-devs churning out quality IPs. The Katamari series is a fresh, new IP from the East that's quite an innovative title that Westerns are pretty happy with. I think that the big developers are a few years behind EA, when all they were noted for was churning out crappy sequels and cash-ins.

The Last Remnant is a unique game and could have been something truly amazing if it weren't for technical issues.  Hopefully if there is a TLR2, they S-E should try to do what Killzone 2 is doing:being the high quality game the previous game was suppose to be in the first place.

This just shows that gamers misunderstanding the current situation is not a uniquely American/Western phenomenon.

I am not even sure this is original as I remember something similar being posted a couple of weeks ago (I searched and could not find it).

Mike from Morgantown

They are starting to realize that the umpteenth number of JRPGs released just in Japan is bad for the industry. I would call it a ware that begins with an s; however, I don't want to tick off the anime lovers here ;)

They better start making the effort to make the big JRPGs appeal to the West yet at the same time appeal to the Japanese.  Square-Enix aren't quite there yet but they're trying.  They made The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery, two games that S-E hoped would be relatively popular both in Japan and the West.  FF and KH have done a great job of appealing to both the West and the Japanese.  Even Star Ocean The Last Hope is made to appeal to both the Western and Japanese gamers.