There was a time, in the dewy morn of Xbox 360's life, when conventional wisdom dictated that "conquering" Japan was absolutely essential for Microsoft to succeed globally. Indeed, Microsoft has spent the last five years a-wooing Japanese consumers like some lovestruck sap, all to little avail.

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Now that retailers are pulling Xbox 360 from shelves , the feeling is that the game is up. But is this really such devastating news for Xbox 360? After all, the machine has failed in Japan, and yet is apparently untroubled on a global scale.Here's the reality about Japan: Unless you're a Japanese company, it doesn't really matter. According to one well-placed games publisher, who chose to remain anonymous, "it constitutes 18 percent of the global market for console games, but is declining at a faster rate than any other major territory, it's not that games publishers don't want to be successful there, it's just not a huge opportunity." Analyst Michael Pachter described the country as "about as important to western publishers as Scandinavia."Microsoft did some really smart things as it attempted to win the hearts and minds of Japanese consumers. It managed to win support from leading developers (usually through the expedient of hard cash). It spent a lot of marketing dough. It's difficult to see what the company could have done better. But still it failed.Japan has become less and less important to games industry spreadsheet jockeys, as they plot their future revenues. The growing markets are in Eastern Europe and South America, both of which are way more receptive to Western cultural tropes than Japan and Asia. Put simply, they just don't expect Japan to deliver much into their coffers.Japan throws an extremely powerful cultural voice, and this makes it more difficult for outsiders to break through. It's not that the country is insulated or, as some would claim "weird", but that Japan creates so much of what it likes, that it doesn't need to import culture. You can't say the same about many other countries.Japanese consumers are also prideful about their own brands. You don't see many foreign cars on Japanese roads, and this is even more the case in the games market where Sony and Nintendo are the local boys. Japan will buy foreign goods, but not if the local fare is at least as good.Not only, but the country seems to love portable games consoles more than home consoles. Wii, the best-selling console of the current generation, has not hit anything like the same numbers as PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation 3 has completely failed to come close to its predecessors achievements. The last few years have been about DS and PSP and mobile games.Xbox 360 always had one hand tied behind its back, not helped by the view - expressed by various commentators over the years - that the console and the controller's form-factor are too vulgar and clunky for Japanese tastes.Microsoft is also not an entirely natural fit for Japanese gamers. The company may be styling itself as the casual platform of the future, but for most people, even in the West, Xbox 360 means Gears of War, Call of Duty and very obviously Western-influenced yarns like the Tolkeinesque Fable or Oblivion. Shooters are growing in popularity in Japan, but not those with an obviously Western theme.Michael Pachter, the well-known analyst, tells a funny story about this one time when Activision boss Bobby Kotick visited Tokyo. "Bobby walked into a games store and he was delighted to see a big pile of Activision games, underneath a huge sign," retells Pachter. "He asked what the sign said. An interpreter politely translated - 'Western Dogshit'."Same as everyone else, they like what they like and they don't have much truck with the things they don't like.But let's give Microsoft some credit. The company has sold over a million units in Japan (estimated). It has won some credibility as the console for super-hardcore gamers. In Japan, it's the machine for nerds, and that can't be such a bad thing.The Japanese experiment helped release Sony's stranglehold on Final Fantasy and it helped to make Xbox 360 a solid host for decent Japanese RPGs like Lost Odyssey. Xbox was even the exclusive console home for massive arcade hit Idol Master, a coup that Sony and Nintendo would not have enjoyed one bit.Japan's importance for Microsoft must still be as a creative power-house rather than a source of revenue. The company worked smartly to bring Japanese developers on board. And even if Japan remains a marginal destination for Western games consoles and Western games, it's still been well worth keeping the country sweet. The company will keep trying, may even make greater inroads in the future, but Xbox 360's fortunes do not hang on Japan, and never really did.You can follow the author on Twitter @colincampbellx