Hip-hip, hooray?

Anyone paying attention to the gaming world these days know the Xbox 360 had been doing really badly in Japan. Microsoft’s new console has gone over with the Japanese about as well as a mariachi band at the Hiroshima memorial service. Microsoft has been scrambling to fix this, as defeating the PS3, or at least fighting it down to a draw, on its home turf is the only sure way to win this battle of the console war. Recently it has become apparent that one of their main tactics for addressing this shortcoming has been to woo over a bunch of Japanese development studios to create Xbox 360-exclusive titles. Ace Combat 6, Beautiful Katamari, and Eternal Sonata are just three Japanese developed games that are being released exclusively for the 360. More importantly, 2 of the games I mentioned are sequels to popular PlayStation franchises that have essentially defected away from Sony.

Not only does the Xbox’s strategy of stealing away Japanese games seem likely to be a success, but even the most ionically American game out there, Halo 3, has managed to do brisk business in Japan.

So while the Xbox has sold poorly in Japan so far, it looks like Microsoft’s monolith has just been biding its time and resting up to deliver the ass kicking to end all ass kickings.
So…hooray? I mean, I hate the PlayStation on a visceral, unreasoning level. Those mother fuckers killed Sonic! So I want the PlayStation to fail horribly. But weirdly, I don’t have anything particularly against Sony in general. Meanwhile, I’m an Xbox fan who has the zeal of the converted, but at the same time I simply loathe Microsoft. Vista is disgusting and demeaning and horrible in every way. If the Revolution comes, I’m hoping Bill Gates catches a bullet.

In short, I really don’t know how to feel. I’m happy to see the Xbox gaining traction. I’m thrilled to see the PlayStation stumble. But I don’t want Sony to die, and I would happily dance on Microsoft’s grave.

I’m a man without a country.