Wait till FF comes out. They'll make their money then.

I think most people (inc the jpn) are bored of the same old tired jrpg. Back in the days, the Jpn were well known for buying a console just for one game. Seems like Blue Dragon, Last Remnant, Lost Odessey, Infinate Undiscovery and heck even Star Ocean 4 didn't do it for them. And judging by the reviews (in the western world) none were considered that great, some down right average.

I wouldn't just blame the platform. Alot of PS2 buyers were casual who have moved onto the Wii and have ditched RPG's for Wii Fit (There are more Wii Fit copies sold in Japan than PS3).

In the western world, when you have great action RPGs like Mass Effect and Fallout 3 appealing to western tastes, it's little wonder the convoluted and confusing storylines of jrpgs with their dated turn based combat and overly long 'epic' quests that take ages to complete have fallan out of favour.

Dopn't get me wrong I love jpgs but it's not just about me. Stagnate and you get left beind....look at the former USSR!

Which is the issue with this article.

They state the Playstation 3 isn't a viable platform because SE and others didn't put their franchises on it early... when it would never have been a viable console.

uh, SE still makes 50% of their revenue in Japan, they make games for these things called handhelds which are far more popular in Japan. They make up a userbase of nearly 40 million in comparison to 3 million.

FFXIII being multiplat was a good decision. More userbase is better than, you know.... less userbase. That's why 360 exclusivity makes no sense. Either make it Wii exclusive or HD multiplat. Ps3 exclusivity makes no sense either.

 triple corrected for truth:)

^^The circle of life!!!

There is another problem with new JRPG's... They suck.


None of these games can hold a candle to SNES RPG's from back in the day.

Here's another problem. JRPG's are suppsed to be 40-100 hours to complete. A lot of people are saying WRPGs like mass effect are way better then new JRPG's. And they are right. But you can beat mass effect in 6 hours. Now look how long it takes to develop a short 6 hour long game and think about how long it would take to develop a game that is 10X as long. That's why People have high hopes for FF 13 because it's going to be big budget big graphics LONG ass game. Were going to see more quality JRPG's as this gen continues games that have been in development for 5-7 years.

The author hit it on the head.

Politics & ego caused this situation. They bet on wrong horse & instead of shifting strategies they doubled down.

Economics folks. Why in the hell would somebody spend more & more money to make a game that sells for the same rate as games of the past?

More & more investment in products should yield more & more returns from that product but it's not. That's not sustainable. And that's the kind of stuff that crashes an industry.

The companies need to adjust their philosophies or they are going down with a sinking ship.

In Japan, it's Nintendo followed by Sony followed by a nearly non-existent Microsoft. PSP is competitive with DS because it's an alternative to the dominator. Wii is top home console but home consoles are #2 in Japan since Japan became centered around portable play. PS3 has gotten a boost thanks to PSP. PS2 is fading & won't be a factor for much longer. Handhelds have less graphical technology than home consoles. Why would you put so much emphasis in graphics when what sells are systems comparable to the last 2 generation's graphics?

In rest of the world, it's Nintendo followed by Microsoft followed by Sony. Nintendo's Wii & DS top virtually every market in the world. Microsoft's XBox 360 either does very well behind Nintendo or at least average. The XBox 360 is an American console made with a "Western" focus. Microsoft's productions which come from PC developers get star emphasis on platform. Sony either lags behind both competitors or at best does averagely. PS2 is fading everywhere, PSP is handheld alternative but is not as close to DS as it is in Japan, PS3 is struggling as a bankable platform. Why would you focus on the HD platforms exclusively when your titles are not the absolute superstars there & both of the HD platforms are behind the leader either a little or a lot? Why would you ignore platforms which allow for lower costs & are uniform for market performance all over the world?

Yeah, they made their bed & now they have to lie in it. They better hope Nintendo doesn't get more aggressive on securing marketshare this year or they're in even worse shape. Capcom got smarter. Spread it out amongst 'em all.

John Lucas

 yes ME and Fable are short, but WRPG's aren't all that way.  Look at Oblivion and Fallout, even without all the expanded content, there is easily about 200 hours worth of play time in oblivion, and I'm still working on Fallout, so who knows:)  I don't think FFXII wil be more than 40 hours though. 

 as far as percentage of marketshare, PSP is actually a little bit better in America then Japan:)