Perhaps this is evidence that Western publishers have been "living beyond their means" and are now being adjusted downward, and therefore more in line with Japanese publishers.

Or to put it another way, perhaps this just means that Japanese publishers have already taken their medicine, while Western publishers have been partying hard and are only just now realizing that they are sick.

I doubt it.  The video game industry has really matured over the years.  The fact that the renvues for the industry are higher this year than last year despite a recession only shows this.

I agree with Monti.

They're not losing money, but the influence is gone. There games aren't gracing the NPD top 10 or anything like that, but it's not uncommon to see a Western game or two in the top 10 games of Japan.

The influence is all but gone, as they keep churning out more of the same as the years go on. They're stuck in the past.

Agreed.

Gaming has been in the age of a sandbox/shooter for atleast 4 years now. This is what western developers do well so we can't really blame Japanese devs for losing the influence... Japanese devs are adapting however and have applied the sandbox element well to their games. Im still waiting for Japanese FPS version however...

That fact that many publishers are struggling despite record revenues can only mean one thing: record costs. Development for the 360 and PS3 has finally started to catch up with them.

Since most of them still haven't figured out the Wii, they are in a lot of trouble. Those who have figured it out are going to be the ones left standing. Those that fall will have no excuse. They have had two years to figure it out.

I mean, most of the time the wii games, are not marketed like their ps3 xbox 360 counterparts. I guess, they gonna get it next year, hopefully. Madworld and condult is a good start.

Madworld and The Conduit might be successful on the Wii, but not any more than the next Ben 10 game or Guitar Hero spinoff. EA has dug themselves into the ground trying to make original IPs, so I don't think too many companies are going to follow suit. The key to success this generation is release as much shovelware as possible on the Wii and DS (just look at how well Ubisoft and Activision are doing). It's not anything against those two systems, the PS2 and GBA received tons of shovelware last generation (as well as the PS1 and GB before that).

@ Montana... EA's big yearly franchises grew old ( Medal of Honor, Battlefield, Burnout, Need for Speed), hence they need to make original IPS, most of them have been pretty good actually, i loved skate, mirror edge and dead space. Activision got lucky with Guitar Hero and Call of Duty 4. But they'll eventually go the way EA is currently going, and start to make new IPs.

New EA > Old EA

It's nice to know that even a money grubber like EA will makes changes if necessary.  New EA is definitely better and they even realize that they release games in their established series too much.