I mentioned that in an earlier post as to why this one might do better in the west. I'm not just trying to put the game down, you know...

Okay, just it also shows why this was more front-loaded than the PSP game.

I'm not trying to be "fair", what does "fair" have to do with the argument? It's true that Monster Hunter Tri was highly frontloaded, which means it had big hype but either it didn't live up to expectations or the enthusiasm for the game did not transfer to others well (if the game was niche, maybe). The game isn't niche in Japan though, so I think it's accurate to say that it probably didn't live up to the hype for Japanese gamers.

Maybe that's because they expected free online, or something, but either way that doesn't detract from my original point.

Is there some correlation between fee based online and frontloaded sales? Or did they expect it to be free?

Reasonably front-loaded, and it performed better than its precessors although it obeyed similiar trends.

I don't see how this is evidence of it not living up to expectations. As has been pointed out, its one of the very few titles not published by Nintendo to make it to the million selling mark.

It'd be nice to see this become a breakout hit in the States...

I also like the bundle with the classic controller pro...kills two birds with one stone. Sweet!

"Is there some correlation between fee based online and frontloaded sales? Or did they expect it to be free?"

When a series took off when it was free, having to pay is a factor.

In it's value, sure. But in the degree to which it's sales are frontloaded? You'd have to explain that to me.

I can't exactly do a scientific survey, but the most likely reason I can think of (feel free to propose more, any of you) is that the audience that was turned off by the subscription price was a "legs" audience, while those that didn't mind were those that bought a game around launch.