Crticss and consumers are two different things dude.

Critic will get the game for free and get paid to review it. If he mentions the game is only 5 hours long and a consumer goes to the shop and sees a full price, he will not be happy.

But you also forget, alot of consumers DO NOT READ REVIEWS, they are impulse buyers. Most won't even know that it is a good game. If it looks dull and boring on the cover front and back they will put it down.

Now I just can't see a regular consumer picking up MadWorld see that it is black and white and go YAY I WANT. they will most likely put it down and get a nice colourful box.

I know it is stupid, but in reality that is how alot of people work. They love vibrant bright colours, it gets their attention.

      Actually, if it wasn't for Playstation, then Nintendo and Sega would still be duking out, and gaming never really would have reached the worldwide highs that it did under Sony's consoles.  Also, if it wasn't for Sony, Microsoft never would have felt a need to become a competitor in home console gaming.  They would have felt more than content to release the games that they did soley on PCs that ran Windows operating systems.

     There you see the dichotomy that exists between western pc games and Japanese console games that existed in the 16 and 32 bit eras and would have remained the status quo for this industry if Sony's Playstation brand hadn't entered the console market and become so popular that it prompted Microsoft to have a go at it too.  Western PC game developers saw the xbox as the first viable home console to be made in the USA / West since the Atari 2600 and more and more Western PC developers wanted to work on xbox consoles when they saw how successful Halo was for Bungie and then the success of Knights of the Old Republic for Bioware, and Epic Games' Gears of War series on the 360.

     Now because of Sony's success the last two generations, it is still hanging around in the West and it does enjoy much more popularity with Japanese gamers for whatever reason than does the 360.  However, if Sony decides to run another super system like the PS3 again next gen there's every reason to suspect that it would fare much worse than the PS3 has in either the Americas or Europe as Microsoft uses success, lack of Sony success, and a little currency to sway more and more Western developers to develop xbox exclusives.

     Really, the only way Nintendo could hope to compete with Microsoft's next console and the massive armada of Western game developers that will be making games for it is to try to develop their own super system next time out because if they try to go the Wii route again most of the key Wesern third parties that have ignored Wii this gen would ignore Wii 2 again next gen and the next xbox would be benefitting from the lack of a PS super system in the games market.

     The strategy of most Japanese developers and gamers to support the PS3 can only lead to Japanese gaming become more insular and less of a player in future gaming gens.  However, both Square and Capcom to an extent are seeing that to continue to be major players in gaming in years to come they need to establish secure ties with the Western game console.  This is very similar to Hollywood's rise in film prominence in the 1930's.

you need to make up your mind on what you are arguing.

First you say is sony didn't exist. Now you say Sony's weaker sales will lead to blah blah blah next gen.

Talk about milking a dead cow here.

      I think the main points of my argument are very apparent.  Microsoft will more than likely dominate gaming next gen especially if they can shore up their reputation as a console for the whole family while maintaining their rep as the harcore / mature gaming system of choice.  And the Japanese game makers that really want to be able to thrive worldwide in coming gens will need to support Microsoft's future consoles.

its hard to predict if you think about it, who would have thought that Nintendo was going to dominate MS and Sony this gen? now nobody knows what's going to happen and it's all up in the cloud since 360 will start showing it's age while Sony has this crazy idea of a 10 year plan and the Wii is pretty much in another universe?

edit: btw, JRPG has sold poorly on the 360 overall, people are just wating for better PS3 ports these days anyways /shrug

I approve of this post completely.

Nobody walks over Nintendo this gen, good sir. FF XIV? see you in 2019 with the Xbox 4.

 I'm talking about next gen.

So, they are developing for the 360 in case of the 1% chance that its successor will be in first place?

I don't think so. The next gen will be a three console generation.

      Yeah, but what if the new Front Mission  comes out and sells 2 to 4 million copies?  Square would have little reason to port it to the PS3, and it is still not official that SO4 will be on the PS3.

With Assassin's Creed 2, Modern Warfare 2, Fallout 3, GTA V, you sure as hell are.