Within the next two months, three high profile exclusive, Japanese games are coming to the Xbox 360 (in the USA). The games are Eternal Sonata, Beautiful Katamari and Ace Combat 6.  All three have their own target audiences, a small niche for BK, and a much wider target for the other two.  Of course later in the year there is the AMAZING-looking Lost Odyssey (ive never really believed in "something-killer" games, but if K2 is the PS3's Halo-killer, then Lost Odyssey is the 360's Final Fantasy killer by the looks of it).

In addition to these four exclusives that range from small (but still very important) to quite massive, the 360 is getting games like Devil May Cry 4 on a multi-platform basis from Japanese dvelopers.  At this point, strangely, the 360 is undoubtadely the console of choice for JRPG lovers (Blue Dragon just came out), but my question is whether it can last.

 Do people think its likely that Microsoft have more of these massive exclusives lined up for next year (apart from Cry On which sounds pretty nifty)?

Also, do people think there is a 'critical mass' of Japan-centric games that Microsoft needs to make available in order to get the 360 to comparitively respectable sales in Japan of say 10,000/week? 

Well, next year in Japan, I can't think a whole lof ot MS exclusives, but you do have Infinite Undiscovery (a JRPG) slated for next year. It should do Trusty Bell-type numbers (plus a few extra ten thousand due to newer consumers).

I don't think there's a critical mass of games needed, outside of a real steady once-a-week Japanese-centric game if MS ever wanted +10k weeks in some sort of regularity.

However, with Last Remnant, DMC4, RE5, and others coming out next year as multi-plats to the much cheaper X360, we could see sizable increases in the consumer base next year. I can't wait to see what RE5 does in Japan on the X360. It should be huge.

Why would RE5 on the 360 in Japan be big? I thought it was coming out at the same time as on the PS3? Wouldnt the PS3 take all the sales?

You know.. I really wish Nintendo made that decision with Sony back in 1994-1995(?)

 Lol, why? it would mean less competition?

Japan is not Microsoft's strong point and I don't expect it to happen this generation. All they can really do is keep pushing and keep hoping that something sticks like Blue Dragon did. Also, it is important that Microsoft start becoming a brand Japanese can relate to.

Japan is not as important for success as North America, Europe, and Australia are. They just have to do substantially better then they did last round over there. These releases should help them do that.

I think the key is in how they are wooing Japanese developers into developing for 360 on the promise that they can get more world-wide success rather then just Japan. And it seems to be working with all of the mentioned titles also coming out around the world.

The point of me being excited about RE5 on X360 is to see how well is sells vs. the PS3 version. 1/4th? 1/3rd? Who knows. Either way, it's still going to be a huge game, despite being multi-port. Look at AC4, it did fairly decent on the X360 despite coming out later.

Hopefully, devs start realizing they need to multiport most or all of their PS3 library in Japan as well as the US. If they did that with games like Gundam Mousou, we'd see the X360 in Japan do well.

Yeah but i dont see that happening en masse this generation unfortunately. As long as Microsoft dont introduce a new console for a while, they could conceivably get 3 million+ in Japan if some of their games like Lost Odyssey and Cry On are big AND they get a LOT more multiports. Its like Neoratt said, Microsoft just need to be successful enough in the USA and Europe to make a profit, and sell enough units in Japan to imprint a brand name and make it viable to port all major games from the get-go next generation

i think all those games you mentioned will move more ps3's in japan than 360's to be honest.. you probably just want to see how the sales stack up to each other or something...