"During the Xbox Summit 2005 the other day, Game Informer had a chance to talk Yoshihiro Maruyama, the Executive Officer General Manager Xbox Division Japan. Mr. Maruyama revealed some interesting facts about the Japanese gaming market and his thoughts on Sony.

Currently the subscription rate for Xbox Live in Japan comes in at 9% worldwide. He wouldn’t disclose how many Xbox units have been sold, but he stated that it's in the range of hundreds of thousands, not tens of millions. Although, what was kind of funny was the fact that he did not know anything about a PlayStation 3 version of Resident Evil 5. He did mention that it would be “exclusive” to Xbox 360, but Capcom has announced it for both systems. Could this mean Xbox 360 will get it first?

Xbox Live will not change in different markets besides language. The company wants gamers to experience the same thing wherever they are. There will also be some sort of connection between cell phones and Xbox Live. Microsoft is still looking into different areas, but more information will be released at a later time.

As we all know, Sony has been very quiet concerning their next console—PlayStation 3. Mr. Maruyama thinks that they are trying to re-Dreamcast. Meaning, when Sega announced the Dreamcast, Sony came out and announced the PlayStation 2. Many people think that was why the Dreamcast failed. Well, now that Xbox 360 is about to come out, he thinks Sony is doing the same thing they did back in the day.

There is some pretty killer information being released now that the Xbox 360 is almost out. If anymore information is released, you’ll be the first to know. "