Blue Dragon did enter the USA chartz with about 100,000 units but it soon dropped out of the list. Eternal Sonata did enter last week with 40,000 + units, but it's now obvious that isn't going to reach 400,000/ 500,000 units that some did estimate here a couple of weeks ago.

I personally think that  the reason why those two J-rpg's have sold so bad, is simply because the average Xbox 360 owner doesn't have interest in J-rpg's and prefer to play games like Halo 3, Bioshock and other typicall american games. I even think that those games whould have sold better on the PS3.

Well it's hard to say if they would have sold better on the PS3 in North America and Europe (they very likely would have in Japan though) because up until now it appears that Sony is trying to attract the same type of hardcore gamer that makes up the bulk of the 360's installed base. I mean look at some of the big games coming out for the rest of the year from Sony, Unreal Tournament 3 will appeal to the same type of gamer as Halo 3 and the same can be said about Haze.

it's not a good sign for the 360 though, it really shows the kind of userbase the 360 has built up. Microsoft still has a lot of work to do to change the image of the 360 from nothing but western shooters/sports/racers. It's starting to appeal to me more with games like this, but i still want more.

I have to agree with that, with the current line-up it seems that Sony is trying to attract the same type of gamer, and I actually know lot of hardcore gamers that actually have both consoles. But at the end of the year with games like Ratchet & Clank and Uncharted, Sony should be able to convince some of the PS2 action-adventure fans in USA/ EU to buy a PS3.

I'm not entirely convinced they would do remarkably better on the other two consoles. PS3 games simply haven't been selling that well and both games are perhaps too "hardcore" for the casual Wii audience.

At the best they would sell better on the Wii in the US, however on the PS3 they would've sold worse. In Japan I would imagine they could both have sold better but I guess we'll find out with a little more certainty when Eternal Sonata is released on the PS3.

I'm saying this because a big part of the PS, PS2 and PSP base where gamers who liked Japanese gamers and did especially buy those consoles for that.

It's sayd that most of the PS3 gamers are hardcore gamers (obvious due the price of the console) and gamers who have Sony's previous consoles.

The biggest issue is the Xbox 360 has never ever catered to JRPG gamers before. Because of this, there is no JRPG fanbase in the US (not the case in Japan, where for the userbase, it has a decent bit of JRPG fans).

With games like BD and ES, they are establishing the JRPG userbase - EM and PSU only catered to the diehard fan that only cared about the few offerings the X360 offered.

However, I feel very optimistic about Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata, with Christmas coming up, the X360 should sell well overall, and move a decent bit of hardware to the former PS2 userbase, which bought the bulk of JRPGs last generation. Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata should still be known enough to sell well.

Aside from this, both BD and ES have had phenominal user reviews, so I think both games might wind up being fairly notable, and selling well for quite some time. It's interesting to note that within 3-4 weeks, EM and PSU were totally DOA in terms of sales, whereas Blue Dragon is still 10k+ per week.

So total sales are around:

Having said this, numbers *could* be off. In the case of Blue Dragon, sales could be higher, or lower. Most MGC cards have stated Blue Dragon is doing rather well in Europe, as Blue Dragon is handily beating every other RPG aside from Oblivion under "most played" sections in Europe....Despite TW debuting much higher on the lists.

As for Eternal Sonata, it's too early to tell where it'll land. In comparison to EM and PSU, these numbers are fairly decent. Blue Dragon should have enough to easily hit 500k, which is no less than 2x what EM was. TB will also easily hit 250k. However, I do think both will do fairly well in the US and elsewhere. Blue Dragon is getting the Platinum treatment in Japan soon, and that'll move quite a bit of units (15k+), and for all we know, NPD #s for BD and EM could be higher.

Also, as for arguing about PS3 RPGs: Folklore bombed. There's no way around stating that. Also, Enchanted Arms did far less sales (about 75k in US+JP for PS3 ver. vs. around 150k for US+JP X360 ver.)

Folklore isn’t an J-rpg, it’s more an action game with some RPG elements, the reviews weren’t that good and it never got much attention from Sony unlike Blue Dragon from Microsoft. Enchanted Arms is just a mediocre game, so let’s not begin about that game. It would be the same thing like putting Unlimited Saga in a discussion about PS2 RPG sales.

The Xbox 360 is going to have some great J-rpg’s, but I highly doubt that it can compete with Sony in this territory.
Imagine this; Your are an J-RPG gamer and you are doubting between the Xbox 360 and the PS3, well technically you are doubting between; Infinite undiscovery, blue Dragon and Lost Oddysee Versus Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy versus XIII, White Knight Story and another 20 RPG’s which are currently under development for the PS3.

Microsoft misses a established million seller J-RPG franchise like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Pokémon and i’m course referring to the real one’s, and without such a franchise I highly doubt that they can convince the PS2 gamers to leave the PS3 in the store’s and buy a Xbox 360.

Carazo -

But then you forget the fact that in order to play FFXIII, WKS and such your going to have to pay $200 more to play the scant few more/better JRPGs.

And the fact is, there are VERY FEW new RPGs being announced for the PS3 vs. X360. Most of the titles are going to Wii and DS anymore.

I'd argue that Microsoft can convince, at a minimum, the Japanese to buy the X360 for JRPGs since they have Sakaguchi, and have a proven track record with selling alot of s/w and h/w on the X360 with Blue Dragon - despite the X360 was DOA up until BD launched.

Time will tell how PS3 does, but as much as you want to argue about Folklore and EM - they should of sold better. Selling 40,000 units for Folklore in Japan isn't a good indicator of how mid/lower level JRPGs will do there.


Then again, we do have MS coming out with 4+ more JRPGs in Japan this year, and has a few more lined up for next year, and Nippon Ichi now dev-ing for them.

So from today, until mid next-year, what does the PS3 have to compete with the X360 JRPGs? This Christmas, US and JP JRPG fans are going to buy what's available for Christmas, not what's available in late 08 with FFXIII. That's a fact.

^Excellent post Mrstickball. You left me with nothing to say on the subject.