Rarely is it that a big-name game is released in the West and not in the East, but Eurogamer reports that the Microsoft Xbox 360 version of SEGA’s Virtua Fighter 5 might not be released in Japan.

Sales of the Xbox 360 are somewhat pitiful in comparison to its rivals in the region. Despite a year's head start, the console is already lagging around 600,000 and 2.6 million units behind the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii respectively, and it's those numbers that are thought to be the decision behind the possible move.

Speaking at last week's Leipzig Games Convention, lead designer Tohru Murayama said "it's true" that 360 has not proved too popular with Japanese gamers.

He continued, "We haven't decided if we'll release Virtua Fighter 5 [on 360] 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."

The PS3 version of Virtua Figher 5 is already out, but the Xbox 360 version features various online modes, which, due to time constraints, were not included in the same game for Sony's next-generation machine.

Could today's news spark a similar trend amongst developers and publishers when considering their Xbox 360 released in Japan? Microsoft would hope not.