Sales of the Xbox 360 in Japan have increase almost nine times since the release of the RPG Blue Dragon in the beginning of December. This boost even allowed the Xbox 360 to outsell the Playstation 2 for a short time.

Microsoft has been struggling to improve its international market share, especially in Japan where Sony’s Playstation and Nintendo have near total dominance. Blue Dragon, the Xbox 360 exclusive, is almost a love letter for Japanese gamers. Blue Dragon teams Hironubu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy, with character designs by Dragon Ball Z creator Akira Toriyama, and music by Final Fantasy’s music composer Nobuo Uematsu for a visually stunning and critically acclaimed RPG.

Blue Dragon’s success could be just another piece of kryptonite against Sony. It’s questionable whether there will even be enough Playstation 3s by the next holiday season. Blue Dragon could be the next big franchise with more international support than Xbox’s Halo and Gears of War. Also, popular RPG Dragon Quest has left Playstation for Nintendo. With systems costing so much now, it’s hard to own mor ethan one. If these exclusives remain, Blue Dragon on Xbox, Dragon Quest (and Zelda) on Nintendo, and Final Fantasy on Playstation, then the console wars might be getting more vicious not only on the companies, but for us fans. How are we supposed to choose?

Exclusives were looking to become less prevelant as product costs skyrocket. Elder Scrolls ported to Playstation and Metal Gear Solid is rumored to go multi-platform. Namco reported designing games for the Playstation 3 requires sales of 500,000 units, which is getting harder to do as game prices and length continue to increase. Blue Dragon’s success in Japan shows the Xbox has legs outside of the U.S. and that means Sony and Nintendo no longer have safe harbors. This might mean more exclusives, which Xbox seems to have the leg up. Gears of War and Halo are more than a match for Final Fantasy, Zelda, and Mario. And Xbox has Mass Effect and Lost Planet ready to pound the competition in the coming year. For this Playstation fan, I’m starting to think Xbox is the system to bet on.