The big gaming publication in Japan is Famitsu and when a high-score review comes out, people take note. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has just hit store shelves in the Land of the Rising Son, and the magazine gave it an almost perfect score, which ended up being 39/40. It was one miserably point away from joining 13 other games, that had received a perfect score from Famitsu. Either way, it proved the staff from the mag loved the game.

That turned some heads over in Japan, because the game has sold a little over 100,000 copies, which is quite good considering two things. One, American developed videogames generally don’t sell great in that area of the world. And two, first-person shooters are not a popular genre in a land where role-playing games dominate all others.

According to Kotaku, the PlayStation 3 version sold about 64,000 units, while the Xbox 360 version moved about 42,000 – which isn’t surprising because the PS3 has sold better in Japan.

What does this all mean? Well, for one — it looks like the Japanese market could be starting to move away from the RPG, and might be willing to experience other genres — even if it was created in America. Joy!