Well, yes and no. 360 will do fine with RPGs like Oblivion, but clearly their strategy to try and gain far better traction in Japan by funding new IPs and paying for timed exclusives didn't really deliver in the end so unless MS really feels like paying for stuff just for the sake of it, I'd expect to see MS settle for a multiplatform strategy rather than pay for exclusives that will likely make little difference in Japan now.

Lets not talk much about ME2, no use getting disappointed.

If Mass Effect goes, they pretty much just have Fable, Lost Odyssey (biggest non-FF jrpg on hd consoles thus far) and Blue Dragon (biggest 360 title in Japan) as exclusive RPG IPs. Is that it? Microsoft definitely needs to get some more western rpgs and japanese rpgs going under MGS.

The focus should be on first-party games. Moneyhatting third-parties has it's place though (theres always going to be those hardcore fanatics who can't wait a year+. You all went out and bought GTA on the PS2 and didn't whine when Xbox owners got improvements and extra content. We're supposed to believe that this isn't going to continue to happen in such a front-loaded business as this?) so as long as it's a big IP or a new IP that will generate a lot of interest. The Japanese Tales fanboys did overreact. Namco never said it would remain exclusive. They just used the old bs "we don't have plans for a PS3 port at the moment" crap that we saw from 2K Games, Square-Enix, etc. If you're only going to buy a console for ONE game, you are crazy (even though the xbox 360 surprisingly has a higher attach rate than PS3 in Japan, apparently many Tales and SO fanboys did go out to buy a 360 for just one game). It's not Microsoft's or Namco's fault that the fanboys don't have the patience to wait it out. They have that option. But many fanboys won't and there's nothing wrong with that so as long as they are willing to accept the risk of buying third-party exclusives. It's not like Namco or Square-Enix blatantly told them "it is 360 exclusive." Though if Namco releases ToV's PS3 port to North America, they deserve backlash for putting "only on xbox 360" on the box (in Japan, they wisely left that out). It seems like companies just want to slap that logo on their games just for show. If you don't want backlash and you can't say with 100% certainty that you won't port, leave that logo out of your cover art. Tecmo and 2K Games shamelessly put that logo on Ninja Gaiden II and Bioshock respectively and they deserve full backlash for false advertising.

I'm not even going to bother counting stuff like Infinite Undiscovery, Too Human and Two Worlds. Those will probably be discontinued.

Microsoft realized they banked on the wrong RPG market. The market they were catering to was a small, niche subsect of the market. Even in Japan they came to realize their WRPGs could sell comparably to many of the JRPGs they had on their console. Those same JRPGs don't bring in nearly the same amount of money as WRPGs, so MS is concentrating on getting out Fable III next fall, will probably put a good amount of money into getting Mass Effect 2 out and is more likely to gather a timed exclusive or full exclusive off another WRPG franchise.

I think what Microsoft didn't expect was that the RPG market was taking a swift turn in the direction of handhelds and it's useless to fight that. They wanted to undercut Sony in Japan, and found out most JRPG publishers didn't want to develop much for either of their consoles.

What CGI-Quality Said. Heres how things should be

Sony Playstation= Japanese Role Playing Game
Microsoft Xbox= Western Role Playing Game

They secured the biggest JRPG, Final Fantasy. Nobody talks about the PS3 getting late ports of Star Ocean or Tales of Vesperia. Instead, everybody is talking about Xbox360 getting a simultaneous release of Final Fantasy XIII.

And MS did a good job for a western company in Japan. Japan is very loyal to their own companies. Look at cellphones. Nokia is by far the biggest brand for cellphones in the world. They stopped selling phones in Japan last year, because Japanese people picked Japanese phones. Same for iPod or iPhone. Both unbelievable successful products around the world, but apple is having a hard time in Japan.

Therefore, it is pretty big to sell 1.2 million consoles in Japan against 2 Japanese competitors. A 300% growth compared to last gen is very impressive.

WRPG is in MS hand anyway. Fable is the most successful franchise for WRPG. There is no WRPG with sales as good as Fable.

I have respect that MS tried. Last gen they didn't bother now they did. I just feel so sorry for the MS division in Japan who probably feel very dissapointed.

fixed

If you mean JRPGS then yes. MS has pretty much given up on JRPGS with the possible exception of Mist Walker who already stated they are working on Blue Dragon 2, which may or may not be exclusive. I think Magna Carta 2 will hit the PS3 within a year given It's being published by Namco.

WRPGS? Hell no. If you want WRPGS either get a beefy PC or buy a 360. Mass Effect for the win. Also, if you guys look at sales WRPGS are clearly more profitable and sell better then JRPGS.

This has been going around the forums for the last hour http://meforums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=698935&forum=144&sp=15 looks like it's not happening people and it remains to be 360 and PC only