Hah, get it?  Big in Japan?  Okay, as long as no one understands these Initial D jokes, I'm going to keep making them.

So anyway, Bill Gates went to Japan recently and made a pretty obvious assessment -- the Xbox 360 is not Nippon's favorite toy.  This is why we all pee'd our pants when Gears of War made top 10 in Japan when it was released, surprising much of the gaming community.

Gates sounded rather optimistic when he explained the situation:

"Product share varies from country to country. In the US and the UK, the share [of Xbox 360] is high, but besides Japan, there are other areas we haven't penetrated. From now on, I think the breakthrough's going to be the online service, and you'll be surprised if you look at that."

This makes you wonder what other regions of the world the 360 may it off with.  There aren't too many places where money can be thrown away so easily on leisure products, and the 360's image will need to be altered from country to country.

I personally love the Xbox 360 (I named mine 'NAVI,' and dressed it up with some Assassin's Creed decals), but how many regions around the world can afford to throw money into the console wars?  Should Microsoft concentrate on pushing their product in Japan?  I'd love to see what more they can do with LIVE, if that's the case.