Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance never released to Xbox 360's in Japan because the console simply isn't popular enough in that region, Kojima Productions production Yuji Korekado said while speaking on the HideoBlog podcast.

The decision not to bring the title to the Japanese Xbox followed last year's slow sales in 360 consoles throughout the country. Xbox 360 has always struggled to sell across Japan despite its impressive sales numbers elsewhere.

"Around last year, Xbox 360 sales didn't really grow [in Japan]," said Korekado. Projected sales for the Xbox 360 release of Revengeance across Japan were far lower than those expected to sell on PlayStation 3.

"Bwah? I thought [after seeing the projected figures]," Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima said on his podcast. "And if we did release that [number in Japan], there was talk that it would be rough on the brand."

However, the studio would later sate the appetite of Japanese Xbox 360 users by including Japanese subtitles on the Western release of the game, allowing gamers in Japan to import the title.

Earlier in the month Kojima also announced Metal Gear Solid: Legacy Collection would not release to Xbox 360 consoles due to the large data size of Metal Gear 4.