I want to preface my little hypothetical with this; I'm not a blind fanboy or even a Lemming. I certainly don't think Microsoft or the 360 are infallible, or that they will definitely win this generation, or are even the best product on the market. Halo 3 is not the be all and end all in my mind, and I'd really rather the library of the Wii or PS3 than the library of the 360, since so much of it crosses over the PC.
That said, hoping my point is not torn down in 1 sentence as Lemming gibberish; is Japan really a pre-requisite for a console's global dominance?
Some people have said that you cannot win a console generation without Japan, but is that necessarily true? Is it that having Japan is an element to victory, or simply that popularity in Japan is an element all previous console companies have had in common (ie, Sega, Nintendo, Sony). Think about it this way, since the video game crash in the 1980s and the NES revival, Microsoft is the first major non-Japanese console manufacturer. Is saying Japan is necessary because every winning console in the past has dominated it as hypothetically incorrect as saying a President of the US must be a man in order to be good, because all good Presidents in the past were all man, despite the fact that there was never been a female President?
Thus far, Microsoft has had trouble penetrating Japanese culture in terms of video games. I really feel it's incorrect to take the view this is simply due to Japanese elitism or xenophobia, as of course, other things like baseball and iPods have had no difficulty thriving in Japan. More reasonable causes in my opinion, are that many of the best selling Western games are unnappealing to Japanese gamers (ie, American football games, some shooters, though I've heard Gears of War wasn't badly received, action etc).
This, some have argued, is a cultural flaw to the Xbox which cannot be reconciled, that loss of Japan is bad enough, but without Japanese support, their best titles will not be available from Microsoft in the West, and thus it will be unwinnable. I see degrees of truth to this. On the one hand, many Japanese games, such as Gran Turismo, Pokemon, Mario and Final Fantasy, sell extremely well in the West and are a huge impediment to the 360's success. On the other hand, many of the best selling franches; The Sims, Madden, FIFA, GTA, are Western based.
Is the 360 simply a console with a huge hole, or is it attempting to emulate the only form of popular gaming that has thrived despite lukewarm support from Japan; PC gaming. Theoretically, isn't there a possibility that the 360 can succeed in a similar style to PC? (which despite many inane topics here, is experiencing expansionary software sales and increasing popularity in key titles such as the Sims and WoW).
My last question would be, while Japan is certainly a region of cultural importance, is it of economic? The populations and the GDP of both the US and EU far outweigh that of Japan, so theoretically, one could certainly survive with dominance in those two regions (albeit a more pronounced dominance to make up for weakness in the third region).
My feeling is that Japan isn't vital for Microsoft to outperform the PS3 or Wii on a global level, though without, it will be much more difficult to do.
Thoughts/opinions?
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