Do we have NPD numbers from when SO3 launched in the US? We have 3 weeks of data on SO4. It's legs have been decent when compared to Blue Dragon - which ended up selling 350,000+ in North America. SO4 is about 17,000 units ahead of BD, which is decent at this juncture.

CaptDS9E - Here's the issue with the 'WRPGs don't sell good in Japan' argument: WRPGs never have sold well in Japan. It's only been since the Xbox did they get anything at all. So there's never been a user base for them. Despite that, however, Fallout, Oblivion, and Fable have all done quite well, despite being on low-selling systems. The difference is that JRPGs in America have been here for 2+ decades, and there've been multiple million-seller JRPGs, so we do have a history of buying a few of them.

I think SO4 is a casualty of America rejecting the JRPG genre, and embracing the WRPG. It's hard, even as a big JRPG fan, to see the quality in half of the JRPGs on next-gen systems when I can get a much superior product in a WRPG. The writing, combat, and side quests are usually better. The best JRPG (ToV) isn't quite on the same level as the best WRPG (Mass Effect or Fallout 3). Problem is, there are about 3x more 'quality' WRPGs out there than JRPGs at the moment. FO3, Oblivion, Fable 2, Mass Effect are all top-notch, whereas ToV is the only real standout.

If American developers want their rpgs to do well in Japan then they need to start putting ambigously aged female characters that wear extremely skimpy clothes and that have pink or green hair with giant eyes in them.

360 can't sell good games confirmed.

It wouldn´t change its sales, but making SO4 more like SO1&2 would have led to better reviews I believe. It´s nice they spent so much time for a perfect gameplay, a huge monster list, space travel, awesome, long CGI cutscenes, but it lost its essence that made it so great. Instead of skyrocketing the costs with these long CGIs, they should have invested that in making better characters, hire better voice actors and have the option to recruit the characters you want.

great point I guess

I like JRPG's, but didn't buy SO4. I'm used to bad dialogue, but god, from what I saw on youtube that shit was terrible. And the characters look like dolls. So badlu done. Since its 360 exclusive they should have made it somewhat more westernized.

I find the doll look annoying as well but westernization is not the answer. We already have WRPGs. JRPGs are also a casualty of the faltering JP gaming industry. Either that or the WEST has really improved and just breezed past them taking all the customers along or it could all be attached to sony's fall from grace.

Nintendo is still doing better than everyone else though and people never get tired of the cliced Italian plumber saving the world so I really don't know why the rest of the JP gaming industry can't find a way to emulate their model.

Amen

its on the 360 what do u expect

The characters looked like dolls on the PS2. Actually, the character models were terrible in SO3.

OT: I think the problem is that they would need to have multiplatform releases to get the same sales they did last generation. However, they would have to delay the 360 version to complete the PS3 version and they would lose Microsoft support and money by doing so.