@linuxguy

I agree, it's just devil may cry with a woman.

As a PS3 owner I don't know how to feel about this. Either it's good news, as Platinum games will see the sales and realize that the PS3 is a viable market and thus shouldn't get shafted with shitty ports or it's bad news,as Platinum games will see the sale and realize that they can cut costs and release shitty PS3 ports that still sell great, regardless of their inferiority. It's that little dilemma that renders me unable to decide if I should buy Bayonetta for fear of sending the latter wrong message.

It got what, 0.2 less than the 360 version? When it comes to reviews, that doesn't mean shit. It's just an arbitrary number they come up with and then that try to justify within the text.

I'm actually impressed that it sold that well. The 360's install base is way smaller in Japan.

Chances are there's ten times as many ps3's as xboxes in Japan, hence the higher total numbers.

It speaks to the attachment rate, as the Xbox one in Japan is paltry compared to the PS3 one.

OH NO! Two point difference out of 40!!!

@linuxguy
Ditto.
Well, Bayonetta herself is hot, but other then that I think the game is meh... personally.

Jim, the PS3 install base in Japan is simply much larger than the 360's, it's got nothing to do with xenophobia. The fact that Bayonetta only sold twice as much on PS3 as it did on 360 means that the 360 version's attach rate was higher so there are clearly a number of people who chose the superior version. The rest likely only own PS3s or weren't aware of the differences.

I don't think that Japan went z0mg better western version lets not get it cause it western. But rather better Japanese hardware lets buy this, 2-3 years later i still have japanese hardware lets buy games for it :D

Well, according to latest charts, there are about 3 times as many PS3's in Japan as there are 360's.

I'd guess that anyone that COULD get it on the 360 DID, and the rest bought it for the only of the two systems that they have.

I would like to see these sales as percentages of install base. That would give better indicator of Japanese 'taste'.

a bit slow from last night's drinking-fest, but I think the figures break down like this:
1.7 Mil 360 sold in Japan.
3.76 Mil PS3 sold in Japan.

45K sold for 360 comes out around 3.8%.
95K sold for PS3 comes out around 2.5%.

All this says is that the game is not a system seller and it's a simple choice for the country who owns more PS3 than 360. In fact, I am curious how many Japanese version of Bayonetta's were produced vs PS3.

I don't get all this "the 360 doesn't sell in Japan because Japan hates American things" stuff. American movies, clothes, and music all sell really well in Japan. The 360's lack of success there has nothing to do with xenophobia.

Japan's "geek" culture is very different than America's. Superheroes, space marines, and gun-violence just don't resonate there, and most of the 360's bigger games (Gears, Halo) are about those three things.

Put some musical numbers and giant transforming robots in Gears, and make Halo a turn based RPG about a skinny boy who lives in house with 13 sexy space aliens princesses, and see how well the 360 sells then.

any of youse completed the game yet? damn i want to see a review

@Jonathan Holmes

Do you do any Japanese culture seeking or hunting? Japan probably has more violent and sexually oriented contents per population than anything you see in America. Japanese just have a different taste and they just don't care much about the western materials. I think it's as simple as that.

And I think most of Americans who wave a battle flag over Japanese hates American nonsense watch too much Fox news and/or just plain ignorant. There is no cure for ignorance. Move on.

i think more people in japan own a ps3 because they expected the ps3 games to appeal more to them. this generation experienced a bit of a shift when the big companies actually produced games that the japanese actually desired on the 360 which led to higher 360 sales for a period of time. unfortunately, the early games produced didn't appeal to the japanese so the 360 had low sales for a long time. all the big name western games such as halo, gears of war, and call of duty just don't appeal very much to the japanese. even among games in a similar categories, the japanese want something different than western gamers. an example is RPGs. you want an RPG to sell in japan, make a semi-long (say 30 hrs-40 hrs) fairly linear with a few extended side quests. you want an RPG to sell in America, make a ton of side quests and make it open ended and easy to get lost rather than linear.

All I care about is the 2-month-out US PS3 port of Bayonetta. Is it at all possible that it can be further polished? There doesn't seem to be any need for drastic localization due to its bi-lingual design, so I'm still hoping the time is spent optimizing the engine. I really want to keep my action game collection on the PS3..

@capitan

ditto. I agree with your point. There was an interesting article on the Internet about the Japanese culture and game preference.

It's hard to summarize the whole thing, but it comes down to this:

Japan as an island country which has a relatively rough terrain and small land mass and a long history of warfare and militaristic caste society bred society where everyone tries hard to avoid confronting each other. This result a society where MMO and multiplayer co-op and competitions are not all that welcome and popular compare to single player games. As a society, Japan just is a shy country and very introverted mind set. Sony PS3 appeals to them b/c it is Japanese made and rightly so they assume that there will be more games which will appeal to them than 360. And the first two generations of 360s hardware is total garbage. I own 360 and PS3, and I use 360 much more than PS3, but build quality of 360 is just crap. I did buy 3 x 360 and 1 x PS3. I need to play more PS3 to justify my purchase decision. I don't even watch BD movies on PS3. I even charge my PS3 controller on my 360 b/c of the low usage my PS3 gets in my flat.

considering how more people own PS3s than 360s in Japan, its not surprising is it? Bayonetta is a new IP and I don't think its going to lure people to buy 360s solely for that game

@Monte said: "@BlackDove
If that were the only reason PS3 tops the 360 in japan, then the PS3 would also be dominating in the USA..."

The other reason was the price, but since the price cut things have changed, we'll see the effect of that this year as it should be.

@Blackdove - almost a compelling argument, if only you'd left out the subjective fanboy elements.
The PS3 is also prone to malfunction (something about a yellow light of death?); is arguably 'better' at some things but 'worse' at others. That leaves image and tradition. Fair play, the Japanese tend to be pretty loyal from what I gather... but no-one should confuse xenophobia with national pride.

Why the hell are you even discussing this so in depth? It's not that big of a deal. PS3 is more popular in Japan, therefore it sold more copies.. Not really a shocking revelation.

For all the bitching of the inferiority of the PS3 version, I played the demo and it looks fine. It's not anywhere near to the level of exaggeration people are making it out to be.