Another story on CVG today quotes Peter Moore of Microsoft as saying the Japanese gaming market is "flattening out and declining" and says that, of course, Microsoft has the solution: "They have no choice because they can't survive on Mahjong games shipping for 100,000 people anymore - they have the same issues that we're resolving with XNA now: they need to develop large-scale global games to stay in business."

What's more interesting, though, is the blatant ethnocentrism Moore displays in another quote, which is sure to win Microsoft no good will in the Japanese market, where Robbie Bach in another article is quoted as saying Microsoft can, but should not necessarily expect, to win with the Xbox 2:

"Last time [I was at Tokyo Game Show] I thought I saw the same game 15 times over - a guy with a sword running around. There's a lack of creative juices which they admit themselves... It's the western developers and publishers who are really driving innovation."

Of course, Moore seems to be ignoring the obvious killing move for Japanese developers: a Mahjong game... with swords.