I'd say that varies. AAA games also mean high quality games.

If you read my first post, I stated that this thread was started by smeone who was rather bias against Japanese games on the whole.  Along with only using 'console' and the vague masuring stick of 'AAA' titles as his view.  And was ultimately going to turn into just a debate of 'Western games are superior to Japanese games'.  Which it did.

While I admit I wasn't adding anything to the conversation, that was kind of the point.  I was pointing out the conversation and the whle thread was just one of many pointless 'west vs east' threads.  And one that started off rather bias against one side.

If you feel it's a pointless thread, don't waste your time brah. Of course it's going to start of in a biased manner towards Japanese games as whoever started the thread disagreed with the idea of Japanese titles being superior to Western titles. Though he may be (and though I may be) biased, by taking opinions of critics, who try not to be biased and rate by a specific standard, and using their judgement of the game titles to make a point seems fair in all cases. I'm sure you get what I mean.

Western developers have and always will be king of the gaming developement. The best there ever was, best there is and best there ever will be. yeah... *jumps up on top rope and encourages the crowd to scream*

ok now with that over. By far Japan is an incredible set of developer. They have and will continue to make marvelous games. We could be selective a genre or 2 or 3 and come up with some good reason why the Japanese are the best. But that's not the poll. It clearly asks who the best developers are and I don't see any platform in that list.

Based on the lack of focus. Then Western Development is the winner. They have established the greatest variety over the largest set of platforms providing entertainment on levels for everyone. Sales wise Western developers are just monsters all round.

To be more specific USA out of the list has done the best. I know those who are backing up Japanese game development will argue this. But the Japanese have always been weak on the PC, pushing future revenue and consumer growth. The only real exception to that would be Nintendo, but not even Nintendo can over come the entire USA development levels.

Japans biggest game movements have been Donkey Kong, Mario Brothers, Mario 64. Past that USA has been the biggest movers of game design. Now and then. Japans strongest ability is to perfect games and when they do they are marvelous pieces of work that really don't have any comparison. I can't imagine any Western Cinematic story game that could beat FF. Having singular gems though doesn't make them better since the other side of the ocean will offer more variety and games that will do the same thing. entertain.

Japanese are excellent developers and there is no way given a choice I would choose to lose one. But sales and consumers don't lie.

How do you see around it? I think I need some help.

Unless you count WiiSports which is not only the biggest system seller ever, but also managed to open up gaming to the masses, and legitimized the video game industry beyond the usual shut-in crowd. More than any other game it is the face of Wii hardware.

More than likely when all is said and done it's probably going to go down as the single most significant piece of gaming software ever.

Whether or not you personally agree is irrelevant--the facts, coverage in real press, and sales figures speak for themselves.

Guess the almighty isn't all-knowing afterall :P

@ S.T.A.G.E.: Your rheotoric is as sickening as it is hilarious. Basing "AAA" status because of western reviews of western games, generally speaking western reviewers will prefer western games because they cater more to their taste. Add the fact that you are pitting Japan, a relatively small country with only so much talent to produce games, against the rest of the world, and I think you get the point. The ironic thing is even with your precious western developers churning out supposed "AAA" games, most of them are hemorraging money while many Japanese companys like Capcom, Konami, Nintendo, ect are posting profits. Furthermore, I like how you dismissed Japan's big offerings for next year as not being able to compare to next years western offerings before you've even...you know..played them. In summary, get ready to cry some more next year as Japan continues to step up it's game. Oh, and have fun trying not to choke on that heap of crow you'll be eating in regards to your little FF13 1st week sales bet.

Jayderyu: Lol, nice satirical post, especially the first and last parts, cause last time I checked the consumers and sales both agree that Wii and DS are crushing everything. Wait, that post was a joke right?

Let's pretend we're Famitsu and we're basing good games are based on popularity. In this case, you can say that popularity is = to total sales. I looked at the top 10 selling games this generation to find whether Western created games or Japanese created games are better. Here are the results: (Wii Sports will not be included due to being bundled in the West)

#1
Wii Play
Total Sales: 25.33

#2
Wii Fit
Total Sales: 22.83

#3
Mario Kart Wii
Total Sales: 19.33

#4
Grand Theft Auto 4
Total Sales 13.48

#6
Modern Warfare 2
Total Sales 12.88

#5
Modern Warfare 1
Total Sales 12.11

#6
Halo 3
Total Sales 10.32

#7
World at War
Total Sales 9.76

#8
Smash Bros Wii
Total Sales 8.98

#9
Wii Sports Resort
Total Sales 8.93

#10
Super Mario Galaxy
Total Sales 8.29

Honorary mention:
Assasin's Creed
Total Sales 8.19

Here's my result based on my research. Keep in mind that my research is skewed and only includes consoles this generation and no handhelds.

1)Nintendo is absolutely kicking ass with software. They truly found a market for their games that goes above and beyond. However, there's no Japanese developers that have sold at the magnitud that western developers have. Nintendo alone is putting the good numbers. If the Wii hadn't existed you'd be seeing total Western domination. This leads me to conclude that Western developers are definitely attracting more customers that Japanese developers

2)I did search handheld sales and once again Nintendo owns the competition. PSP had some good sales but the #1 selling game was created by a western developer (GTA) and sold close to 6 million.

In conclusion, yes, Western developers are leading the way. I'm not saying that Japanese developers are not creating great games, but if we take consideration sales as a true measure of popularity and not scores given by magazines/websites (which in either case, can be very biased) then indeed western developers win.

That is all!

Soonerman, why did you limit it to ten games?

And why did you focus solely on consoles?

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=87629

This larger, more complete list paints a very different picture.