Only 8% of Koei's sales come from outside of Japan

You hit the nail on the head. That, and maybe a little progression of development rather than Dynasty Warriors XXVI: the same as you've always known it.

Space marines was my first thought too.

That, and a WWII shooter.

That and they need to have their male characters look and dress like male characters.

Also, less anime.

Also, better game mechanics/controls.

Dynasty Halo Warriors?

A Japanese-made WWII FPS? For some reason, I don't think that would work out.

And they need to make some real Football games. That'd net them some appeal.

How about a Japanese WWII flight sim?

"Mission Complete! ... annnnnd.... Game Over!"

If they'd remake Uncharted: New Horizons with better graphics and the EXACT SAME GAMEPLAY I'd buy it on any system.

Dynasty warriors is definitely their money maker. Its like madden for the japanese. Every year a new release with just a little bit more tacked on. Same plot, same characters, same gameplay.

Maybe it's because all the games ARE EXACTLY the same.

Indeed. Dynasty/Samurai Warriors with "Empires" and "Xtreme Legends" for every version. Now Dynasty warriors Gundam (1 AND 2)....the only one that was ever different was the very very first dynasty warriors which was a street fighter style fighting game.

It's just getting old now.

I don't say this often, but: Demon G Sides, you're an idiot.

Another FPS? I love them but really there is not much difference in what the majority of the western world likes

Agreed, you act as if western developers aren't in the exact same rut.

The ONLY thing Japanese developers need to do to break into the US market is take their tried and tried and tried and true formulas and swap them for western tried and tried and tried and true formulas.

I don't play Madden, I've played about 3-4 dynasty warriors and got disgusted at how similar they are, and I'm freaking addicted to guitar hero ;)

The Last Remnant is the only Square created game I can think of that was a 360 exclusive. Were there more exclusives?

The Last Remnant is also out for PC and I believe a PS3 port is still in the works.

Are there any 360 exclusives from Square? O_O

@ chris

Except that most of the Square-Enix games on the 360, are completely terrible, which is half the reason they've sold poorly regardless of platform.

SO4? Awful
Infinite Undiscovery? Burn it with fire
Last Remnant? Actually decent, but weighed down with glitches.

@ BananaBoat
Infinite Undiscovery, but the game is easily one of the worst I've played this gen.

Infinite Undiscovery as a game mechanic wasn't too bad. It was much more linear than I'm used to some RPG's being though. Combat was fun though, except that you couldn't control ANYONE ELSE. What KILLED that game though was the absolutely ATROCIOUS voice work. And I'm the type of person that doesn't care about "american voiceovers" for movies and stuff. I prefer to 'hear' a movie rather than read it. But holy crap, I couldn't stand the voice work in the game.

Also, wasn't IU made in conjunction with tri-ace or something? Eh, whatever.

Yoichi Wada needs to get fired.

Yeah and Dynasty Warriors Gundam sold like 200,000 copies in the US. That game sucks but 200,000 copies is still decent for a game of that scale.

"Yeah and Dynasty Warriors Gundam sold like 200,000 copies in the US. That game sucks"

No, you're wrong. Dead Wrong, as that awful Biggie song goes.

Maybe they have alot game unreleased outside japan? (just saying, i don't actually know)

Japan just needs to wait it out and let this generation end.

If they're smart, they'll come out strong on whoever launches their console first next gen (I'm guessing Nintendo at this point), which will go a long way towards influencing people's buying habits for the next generation.
I honestly don't believe FPS games would be as popular if MS and the 360 didn't have such a massive push for them during the 360's first year.

Meh to each their own, and maybe I've just played too many JRPGs and have become a bit jaded, but I thought IU and SO4 were both awful. And the decent combat system didn't make up for everything else.

I did say Last remnant was good, just flawed. And while I agree Lost Odyssey was amazing, it's not a Squeenix game.

Holy shit someone drank the kool aid. Japanese games largely fall into three camps: Standard JRPGs, text based affairs, or hack and slashes of a more mindless level than any Halo title. What comes out between those three genres and actually sells is few and far between. Virtually everything Japan has done within the JRPG world has been done far FAR better by Bioware and other western developers. Even the MMORPG market is ruled by WoW.

As a matter of fact aside from the few gems that crawl out of the homogeneous stink hole that is the Japanese gaming world, there really is not that much going on. Now I concede that the American market is very involved with anything that goes boom. But this is also the country that gave the world The Sims, Elder Scrolls, inFamous, etc. And they aren't the exception. Western developers are much more apt to allow innovation.

If Japanese developers can make their JRPG's have as much thematic weight as the Call of Duty 4 nuke sequence I'll eat my hat. But they can't do that, nor can they craft a game with even a serviceable level of gameplay. Even games we traditionally scorn (Too Human) would do exceedingly well in the Japanese market with a spiky haired lead and an anime inspired art style.

The Japanese gaming market is burning in its own failure to change. We should collectively let it burn.

@ Danny

"If Japanese developers can make their JRPG's have as much thematic weight as the Call of Duty 4 nuke sequence I'll eat my hat."

Earthbound, and Mother 3.

Also, if you think Japan refuses to innovate, you obviously haven't looked at the handhelds, where there are all kinds of different games being made that are fresh and innovative. (Not surprisingly seeing as how this is where Japan's focus seems to be)

Don't get me wrong, the japanese gaming market has some (big) problems, but you're coming off as "RAWR RAWR WEST IS BETTER THAN ANYTHING!"

I'll give you Mother 3 but that's totally the exception. As for handhelds, well Scribblenauts is American made, as are many of the innovative games that have come out for the DS and PSP. As a whole the Western Market is generally more interesting.

No, Almost every single innovative title on handhelds is Japanese-made with only a handful of exceptions like Scribblenauts. You're vastly overestimating their importance, much less their presence. Mostly because the West tends to not give two shits about any gaming that isn't HD on a 42 inch television.

I'm not saying western developers are bad or anything, I just happen to spend most of my gaming time on the DS/PSP and am quite familiar with their libraries.

That is something that bears pointing out. Western developers seem to have this all or nothing mentality about innovative titles, they're either indie games, or PS3/360/PC games. The in-between platforms (Wii, handhelds) are always neglected for titles that push the envelope. The Japanese have been far better about putting quality efforts on these in-between platforms. Far, far better.