The Xbox 360 console has been plagued by a lot of problems in the past. First of all, the hardware failures and the dreaded Red Ring of Death (RROD) brought the North American console not such a good reputation. Second of all, a lot of countries were reticent about the Xbox 360, especially because they were used to Sony's PlayStation 2 and eagerly awaited the next iteration.

But now, things are really looking up for Microsoft's product as it is on a high ascending trend in terms of sales and popularity across all territories, even in Sony and Nintendo's native Japan. We've heard Square Enix, a major developer of games from the Land of the Rising Sun, talk about its opinion on the fact that the Xbox 360 will become even more popular in that country and now it seems that another big Japanese developer, Capcom, is also confident in the North American console.

Keiji Inafune, the head of the Research and Development department for Capcom, recently talked with the Seattle Times about the problems that the Xbox 360 has encountered in Japan and how he thought that in 2009 Microsoft would sell quite a lot of consoles in that country. He then went on to stress that, because of the newly-found popularity of the 360 in Japan, local developers would need to start paying attention to this platform.

“They've been having a hard time of it since the launch in Japan,” said Inafune. “But lately it seems to have found its feet and the Xbox is selling a lot better now. Between this year and next year I think we'll see a lot more 360 games shipped in Japan.”

If you take into consideration the fact that the Xbox 360 is now one of the cheapest consoles on the market, and that Microsoft has partnered with quite a lot of Japanese studios in order to develop games aimed at the local market, the North American console will become more and more attractive to people in this country.