360 game sitting pretty on Famitsu list ... really?

They've had an entire year with no competition to make things happen, if it hasnt already, then its not going to happen now; no matter how anticipated Blue Dragon is.

360 still has the fundemental problem that its not appealing and so only the diehards will buy 360 for Blue Dragon. Once that demand is exhausted, things will flatline again.

And, once Wii launches it will be all over for 360 in Japan. PS3 will be too scarce to have a direct impact on 360 sales.

"Japanese-friendly games flowing; Japanese gamers are known for being fickle and trading in game machines after finishing a game"

.....Weird?

"360 still has the fundemental problem that its not appealing and so only the diehards will buy 360 for Blue Dragon. Once that demand is exhausted, things will flatline again."

One game can move a console. That's lesson of FFVII. All Microsoft needs to do is get enough consoles in the pipeline to make it worthwhile for the traditional JRPG devs to jump onboard.

I really think that Microsoft is making all the right moves now. They launched early with hardware and production problems, but it seems that everything is running smoothly now. PS3s are hard to find in Japan so those that were thinking of buying a PS3 may just buy a Xbox 360 instead. It has quite a few games that Japanese gamers may want besides Blue Dragon (DOA4, DOAXBV, PGR3, Table Tennis, Winning Eleven, etc). These games sold poorly before, but now that the 360 has a Japanese killer app, these games may actually sell.

dont underestimate a human being's patience, if the ps3 aint there people will wait, if they realy want it, if they cant wait then they dont really want it.

T & A games and Dragon Quest-ish games. Do they do well in Japan?

Justin Murray is nothing but a sony tool. He takes a jab at microsoft in every blog he writes, and no Vlad did not pay me to write that.

On the real...the boobs in DOAX2 are CRAZY!
THAT game is gonna SELL!

I am just waiting for Mr. Japan Jeff to put his negative spin on this.

I think there is a big chance for 360 in Japan. There are two reasons. One, some people are (already) disappointed in PS3 (expensive, no software, supply shortage). And now 360 has some Japanese-favored games. And it is FAR cheaper than PS3!

If you don't buy 60GB PS3, you can buy 360 AND Wii. Yes, there is chance. But they need more and more Japanese-favored games (that means, no FPS, no Football).

By the way, my friends who has PS3 (in Japan) said, "PS3? yeah, this is very good for winter. This is not game console, but a heater."

lol

"And now 360 has some Japanese-favored games. And it is FAR cheaper than PS3!"

You forgot "Also has better graphics capabilities and online service".

Blue dragon looks great, it could be king of the blues in Japan when it's released (the losing blue being "Blu" ray of course).

I'd love to love some Blue Dragon just based on who's making it...but everything that's been released about the game thus far just doesn't seem compelling. Its fighting interface/random battles system seems horribly outdated (especially in the light of FFXII), the whole spirit dragon system doesn't seem appealing for some reason (for the same reason I never liked the mechs in Xenosaga - always felt less like your characters were the ones who were powerful), and the main antagonist guy looks like a cranky old guy who should be in a wheelchair. I'm sure he's not the end boss...the game clearly plays by the old standard there's a main bad guy and then a higher up, puppet master-y bad guy. Relying on conventions like these is what made Dragon Quest 8 fun but not exciting or innovative. But that doesn't seem to stop the Japanese from getting all worked up about it.

Socrates:

From what i've seen, the game doesn't use random battles. The enemies are out there in the game world just like with FFXII. Also, it's a bit early to judge the bad guy just based on his appearance.

As has been mentioned, MS has a distinct opening now. They just need to be smart enough to exploit it. They have approximately 3 other JRPG's to release after Blue Dragon. This is a start. Also, although i don't believe it will ultimately pan out, the rumors of a Capcom purchase, if true, would be MASSIVE. Anyway, just my 2 cents.

A Blue Dragon manga comic and anime series has been announced.

Logikil -

You're right, my bad. I didn't mean random battles, I meant the Crono Cross-esque system where you physically see a represetnation of an enemy, and then if you touch them you switch to a different screen. I associate that with "random battles" so much I used that phrase where it is inaccurate. It is the disconnected aspect of having such a seperate battle screen that I think people need to find alternatives to.

But you're right, it could concievably boost 360's sales quite a bit.

If capcom sells to MS, it will be a dark day for all gamers.

Wow big surprise. Sakaguchi, Uematsu and the DBZ creator back together again with the amazing hardware that is the 360? Who WOULDN'T want that game? Mistwalker is going to be where it's at now. Since Square dropped Sakaguchi and Uematsu left, there's no magic in Final Fantasy anymore. It makes me sad to say it but I've moved on.

Re: "If capcom sells to MS, it will be a dark day for all gamers."

Not all gamers, just Sony ones. :)

White Knight Story> BD.

In reference to the list - isn't Resident Evil 5 coming out for both xbox 360 and ps3. Last time I saw, Capcom said that they really wanted to go for a simultaneous release.

Perhaps it is listed as PS3 on the list because Japanese gamers are more excited for PS3 and may be more likely to play it on PS3 than 360, but if the 360 starts to move an actual significant amount of units before the release of RE5 (which seems quite possible) I would guess that RE5 would be a boon to both consoles.

Besides that...MS should really make a very strong note of this list. If they ever hope to even have a respectable amount of units sold in Japan, this list serves as a great indicator of what is popular in the Japanese game market.

Hell, if MS ever managed to get a release of FFXIII (however unlikely - or a spinoff, also unlikely, as has been rumored), not only would hell freeze over, but they would pretty much have the top 3 of the list covered.

Now just licence some Japanese made RPGs and a mech title based off of an anime series and there you have it.

final question, does anyone know what the 3 DS games listed are (translated to). Are any of them coming to the US (under english names of course)?