VF5 to skip Japan on 360?

Despite being scheduled for arrival on European shelves this autumn, the Xbox 360 incarnation of Sega’s massively popular Virtua Fighter 5 might not see the light of day in Japan, according to lead designer Tohru Murayama.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Murayama conceded that 360 had to date not proved very popular in Japan, adding that: We haven’t decided if we’ll release Virtua Fighter 5 in Japan because of that.

But if we can only release the game for the US or EU markets, we just hope Virtua Fighter 5 will be a key title which encourages people to buy Xbox 360s.”

Xbox 360 has to date sold around 400,000 machines in Japan – far less than the three million Wii’s and one million PS3’s that have already been snapped up at retail.