Hello, I'm new to the forums, but I've been playing console & PC RPG's since the '90's. It seems to me that currently the Western development studios are at the top of there game, BioWare, Bethesda, Rockstar & the like are constantly exceeding gamers expectations with series' such as Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fallout & Oblivion. Not to mention other game titles such as Borderlands, GTA/Red Dead Redemption/LA Noire which although not traditional RPG's, I think they are what is becoming the future of RPG's, with less cumbersome interfaces, and a more accessible direct experience.
My question is what do you think will happen to traditional JRPG's like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest & the like ? SE have been stumbling since the loss of Mr Sakaguchi, and his new studio, MistWalker, in fact 'Lost Odyssey' is why I bought an xbox 360, yet what seemed like a promising start seems to be fizzling out, mainly I think due to the massive costs & time involved in creating such immersive game worlds that can live up to the modern gamers expectations and still trump previous titles whilst bringing in good sales numbers whilst up against triple AAA FPS's & Sports titles.
Atlus still make great RPG's, the Persona series sells well in the West. Level 5 studios continue to release fantastic Dragon Quest games for SquarEnix worldwide, but if you look at the next crop of upcoming PC RPG's, stuff like 'Guild Wars 2' & Terra Online look amazing, where's the console equivalents ?