Not all agree with this downtrodden viewpoint

Not all agree with this downtrodden viewpoint about the state of gaming in the Island nation, and Maplestory2 Mesos one such supporter is Xbox boss Phil Spencer. Speaking with GameSpot at the Game Developers Conference last week, Spencer, who heads up Microsoft Studios, said he's optimistic about console gaming in Japan.

"Well, I don't think the number of gamers in Japan has gone down. We obviously haven't launched FUT 16 Coins [the Xbox One in Japan] yet. I'll say we're doing more development in Japan right now than we've probably done in quite a while," Spencer said. "But the development community, I actually feel like there's a lot of great talent there for console games."

    "I don't believe that console gaming is dead in Japan" -- Spencer

"I don't believe that console gaming is dead in Japan. I'm not Japanese, so I'm not the best person to talk about why I believe that. I don't have any kind of natural connection to it. But knowing my friends there and the things that they're interested in, and the games that are built there, I think we've got to find some genres of games that re-emerge," he added.