Oh and for god sake sex is not disgusting or perverted.... that's so american to hear that..... if we had more sex and love on TV and less violence believe me the world would be way more peaceful.... oh and tell me beside XXX satellite channels you have to pay for... where you can see just a boob on TV in USA without having a patch censoring it... I'm curious to find that.... or a show where you don't have a bip every 10 seconds because the guy said shit and poor boby might become a gangsta if he hears that.... (they are some like south park, but really a few)... NA TV is one of the most soporific in western world.... go in south america or europe... now we are talking about sexy TV lol.... doesn't make us killing machines or sex predators more than the others, if not the opposite..... in NA especially USA (I lived in canada too) you have really a problem of over protection of your children (towards sex, drug, alcohol etc) which usually result in more extreme behavior at the end... (what's forbidden is more tempting as always especially for teens and young adults)....

Also, don't forget there are big, big differences in living styles which make the Japanese market very different from the US. Small homes and high energy prices mean big, power-hungry consoles are less of an impulse buy; great mass transit and high population density means that portable games and media are everywhere (people watch cellphone TV, play games on the subway). Last but not least, Japan's high-tech society puts a premium on training and education of all kinds, so training games are sort of built into the culture, in much the same way strategy games are built into German culture (true story, they love their strat games) or sports games are built into US culture.

I just wonder how many of those PS3s and Wiis are actually being bought to be resold to the rest of East Asia, i.e. whether Korean and Chinese demand might be picking up now.

dirty minds think alike.
now, if you didn't have the perverted thoughts to begin with, what you just saw on your screen weren't sexual to others.

Video games are like other forms of entertainment, but because they are more expensive than tv, books,and movies people shop a little differently.

One analogy is Training Games and Budget titles are the paper backs, but unlike the literary industry most games sell more on the front end (not including Nintendo games).

Movies are a one time affair to many, so this doesn't compare well when talking sales. But, an anectdote, I know when I goto Wal-Mart I always look in the $5.50 bucket, and usually buy one. Same goes for used games under $10, or new under $20, for me.

I have bought games for $3-20 dollars that I NEVER would have bought for $60. Brain Age is one, Tales of Symphonia (I just didn't know it would be that good), GT4 (Like I said before, I still play 3), DQ8 (You know I played through that whole game and I can't remember if it was labeled DW or DQ. LOL), Vagrant Story, Chrono Cross, GTA3-series, Sports games, the list goes on and on.

That's a great way to put it.  MS is trying harder this time around with some dedicated titles like BD, ES, and LO, but these are just RPG's, and while they are pretty good for the most part, there's a lot more MS could do to not only gain ground in the JP region, but in the casual market as well.  Scene-it I think shows that MS has no clue how to do this.  They need games that are a little more "cutesy" (not kiddy), and at least some ripoff of brain training.  There's no reason they couldn't make a few of these and put them on XBL as $5 downloads.  Sports is a great example, they could easily make a game similar to Wii sports or HSG, these aren't intensely graphical, real physics, simulations of sports, they take sports and make them accessable to people who don't follow the PGA or MLB or whatever.  I'm sure there's better examples, but I think this thread has hit the nail on the head of why MS is losing Japan, but there are some simple things they could do to help out their situation.

 lol true... I use to live next to germany.... Blitz Kreig style lol :)....

I agree with you

hum oh and about the last paragraph I don't know but me I buy over Ebay games in NTSCus from taiwan based retailers.... lol it's that way I got a brand new copy of Forza 2 for 40 bucks+ the week of releases :)

so I guess some japs must do the same with the rest of the asian market.... if tawain is selling to USA lol 

I agree with what slorgnet, galaki, steven and king of the castle said.... great point of view :)

Look, i'm gonna respond to this once more and i'm done with you.  I just graduated from college with a double major in east asian studies/international business 2 days ago, i've been studying Japanese for 5 years, I lived in Japan for 1 year, I've had 2 Japanese girlfriends and one of them couldn't even speak English.  I keep a diary in Japanese on mixi, I am going to Japan later this year to start a job.  I don't care if you've been watching anime for 100 years, it doesn't tell you about the culture as a whole.  The kind of anime that has violence and sex is a small niche.  Anime itself is not entirely a niche in Japan because there are a few that are popular to everyone but those are kids (family) shows and light comedies.  You can watch stuff like Doraemon or Crayon Shin-chan on TV every day, but you can't watch most of the anime you are probably watching.  Some stuff like Princess Mononoke are huge, but most of the anime movies are nothing more than a niche.     

 and that's exactly what I was saying from the begining you are just mis interpreting what i'm saying..... but you have to admit that some characters from jap annimation (I was mostly talking about series than stand alones) are widely known in their culture, like superman is in the US one or Tintin and smurf in france and belgium.... and no needs to brag with diploma degrees... they mean nothing anyway (not saying you don't know what your are talking about, but it doesn't make anybody better than someone else) I have a bachelor in addvertsising management a bachelor in integrated marketing communication, a minor in consumer behavior and consumer psychology and actualy in grad school for a MBA in international business... it doesn't make me smarter than someone else..... but I can tell you even if you spent 2000 year in japan and hooked up with all the girls over there......that a phenomenon like hello kitty is way more than just a niche and is a cultural phenomenon and that's just one exemple.... and in that case it's even spreading all over the world

I never tryed to say that a 45 years old is found of stupid pokemon and has pillow of  it or everybody is playing cosplay every weekend..... I'm just making an analogy that jap animation is a cultural trend in japan like comic books or family guy simspon or other stuff like that is in USA.... or asterix tintin and the smurf are in europe..... and you keep trying to make that look bad... it's not on the opposite it's what makes everybodies culture unique and interesting to study or have an interest in..... damn it would be boring if everybody in the world was the same way :) 

What the F*** are you talking about??? Yeah right, we Germans all sit down and plan the strategy for the next attack on France. Maybe this time we go via Switzerland and Italy to make a surprise attack? We love our Blitzkrieg big time and still all think lovingly about the good old days when we were allowed to kill everyone we disliked and could sing all three parts of our national anthem.

Get this guy banned.