Apparently a French news site has some potentially devastating news for Sony in Japan.

[Mr.Person]

<div style='font: 14pt Modern; text-align: left; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://www.playfrance.com/infos/viewnew ... 42554,">If you don't understand French just go to gaming-age's boards, and read the translation there.</a>

Apparently Enix is reconsidering the development of Dragon Quest VIII for the PS2 citing the fact that sales are decieving,(software), and that the platform ain't an easy cookie to crack. They are looking at other consoles, like the gamecube. (no mention of X-Box).</div>

[Don]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Maybe in Japan where they buy anything with a Dragon Quest name on it, but here in America whether Enix develops for PSX2 has no effect whatsoever. Your average American gamer isn't going to go out and buy Dragon Quest 7 if they actually port it. I probably won't buy it after seeing how stupid it looks. Yeah Japanese friend says it's all about tradition, that it has good gameplay, but it looks like something that could've been done on a Super NES. And really, after looking at the battle engine, I'm not convinced that it's any different from all the other RPGs out on the market. If I want a game where I'm God recreating the world (which seems to be a big part of DQ7), I'll play Terranigma. Hell, Terranigma looks far more beautiful than Dragon Quest 7.</div>

[Eric]

<div style='font: 11pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Well Japan is the #1 concern.</div>

[Insane Cultist Edge]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>I want my Soul Blazer 4, Gaianigma!</div>

[Don]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>The age where only Japan matters has been long gone. N64 survived for the longest time with virtually no sales in Japan.</div>

[WooJin]

<div style='font: 11pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Funny, I don't recall FF IX breaking 2.4 million anywhere outside Japan...</div>

[Insane Cultist Edge]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>North America is the largest market for Video Game sales now, 4 million+ of those 7 million Zelda copies that sold in 6 weeks were here</div>

[Insane Cultist Edge]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Of course, Sega pulled out because of the Japanese market..........</div>

[Insane Cultist Edge]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>That's an RPG, almost all other types of games sell better here than in Japan</div>

[Stephen_S]

<div style='font: 9pt Arial, Modern; text-align: left; '>Gotta agree with Don on this one. (Could this be...the start of a deadly trend?) Dragon Quest VII looks like one of the most mediocre RPGs in recent history.</div>

[Manshoon]

<div style='font: 14pt "Times New Roman", Modern; text-align: left; '>Whatever console sells the most in Japan generally recieves the most amount of developer support (yes, I'm aware of the catch-22)</div>

[Don]

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Saturn market share in Japan > N64 market share in Japan. Saturn is dead, N64 is still alive and kicking.</div>

[Manshoon]

<div style='font: 14pt "Times New Roman", Modern; text-align: left; '>I was only talking about the top-selling console, not the 2nd or 3rd ones.</div>

[Mr.Person]

<div style='font: 14pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Agreed, but a lot of Japanese developers like Namco,Capcom,Konami,etc.., have very successful franchises in the U.S, and they usually follow the Japanese market trends. Square itself was the biggest turning point of the last gen wars. And Square games appeal a lot more to Japanese players than us.</div>

[Mr.Person]

<div style='font: 14pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Bad example, Nintendo is a name brand trusted by parents, so they will buy the console for their kids knowing that the product will not have any "contreversial" views in it.</div>

[Stephen_S]

<div style='font: 9pt Arial, Modern; text-align: left; '>Sega replaced the Saturn with Dreamcast. Thus far, Nintendo hasn't replaced the N64 with anything.</div>

[WooJin]

<div style='font: 11pt Modern; text-align: left; '>RPG's is all that matters, really >:P</div>