I kind of feel this way too, Xbox360 was DOA in japan, never seemed to catch on, and since the Japanese market is what kept them in the black, it seems logical. The Xbox360 was also region-locked, something the PS3 wasn't, while about half of the ports to Xbox360 were region free, some of the best ones weren't. While Cave fanboys like myself will seek out a 2nd Xbox360, most gamers, even shmup fans won't. This probably limited their audience to an extent. I dunno, perhaps if they'd ported everything to the region-free PS3, which was also way ahead of the Xbox360 in Japan, Cave might still be around. Not rolling in dough, but not dead either.DanMagoo wrote: It is a known fact that the Xbox exclusivity of Cave games prevented them reaching a wider audience.
IMHO - PC/Steam ports don't play into this much, most people will either pirate the game or download the rom's in MAME for free. The whole reason people use MAME is so they don't have to buy overpriced PCB's (Cave was also notorious for that). It's too bad, I want more Cave goodness in my life, but the choice of Xbox360 over PS3 seemed like a huge mis-judgement.
Disclaimer: I know nothing about running a game dev studio.