well, i'm not sure about other countries, but i'm from brazil, until the n64 era nintendo officially shipped consoles here, after that they broke up with their partners here, and no longer ship anything. they only difference was that we got the same games as in the US but with portuguese package and instructions manual. After that every console in brazil is imported from any US retailer, and not actually shipped by nintendo or sony or MS, so they are already included in the website number under America. And well, if you don't pay the taxes this is illegal, but a lot of people do it, i actually bought my wii at paraguay, since its cheaper there, but just like Ovelia said about the psp at china, even if they illegally entered china, they were normally sold at the US or japan, meaning they are already in the numbers. But i don't know if this is the situation for africa or india, but if the situation there is the same situation we have here, splitting the data would create duplicated entries, as the consoles being sold in india or africa were already sold in another regions. Another information, here in brazil, since everything is imported, there are many additional costs, like the taxes and whoever is importing needs some revenue. So the consoles here cost something around this at minimum: Wii - 1200 Reais = 500 US dollars. 360 - 1500 Reais = 600 US Dollars. PS3 - 2500 Reais = 1100 US Dollars. Taking into account that the income here is much smaller, there are not many people that can afford many consoles.

I always thought 'Japan' meant just that: Japan Much like in Europe how that island called the UK is a little different on matters than other countries of the Europe land, the same applies to island nation Japan in regards to Asia. Japan is a little different on matters than the other parts of Asia and both UK & Japan are like this because of geographic reality. They are apart from the mainland. A literal island to themselves. And as a result things are different with them than the others. I'm not aware of significant markets of gamesales in East Asian region. I thought they were either too poor or too bootleg a market for high-tech goods or firmly entrenched into PC gaming. I mean Nintendo sells goods to China under the iQue label. Plus I think its historic grudges between Japan and the other Asian nations that cause a little friction on these matters. Not to mention differing governmental structures. Did I read it wrong? Are there other markets where videogame goods sell to be charted under "Japan" label? I always thought "Others" took care of all that. John Lucas

A-HA! So Japan does include more than just Japan. The plot thickens!

Sony lumps all of Asia together. Nintendo appears to separate Japan from everything else where possible. And Microsoft doesn't even bother releasing figures by territory.

@ioi Great, thanks for your clarification (this is definitely FAQ material!). Basically vgcharts can break out more continents as soon as Nintendo, Sony and MS do, and that will be when these sales account for more than the few % they provide today, probably at least 10%. So let's return to this subject in 10 years.

But this is "different" - you can't include imports as another market. Only places where shipments are sent directly should be counted as a market. I'll be *very* surprised if HongKong doesn't warrant shipments in its own right. I was there for a couple of days at the start of the year, and little games shops are EVERYWHERE. Heaps of stock for sale - most of it does seem to be the Japanese version (most games don't get released in Chinese/Mandarin do they?). It could be possible they are all imports - but I would be surprised. Sony had a HUGE presence in HK, I have never seen so many people walking around with PSPs (all of them hacked/warez no doubt ;). Was also a huge amount of software available, etc. If the units are imported from Japan, Im almost certain they would have to be at the wholesale/retail level - rather than being purchased, and then re-sold (many of the units I saw were cheaper/same price as normal retail in Japan). I suppose the only real question is whether these units are "counted" in the Japan sales figures - I saw no, they aren't. So we should try and get some figures and track these down?

I almost think this is time for a VGCharts mission statement (unless there is one already) ;? I think our aim should be to gradually, and over time, accumulate as much information about games /console sales in every region of the world (pretty obvious :>). Maybe setup contacts in the more remote countries that can chat to shop owners, and find out what/how much is selling - and guesstimate from there total sales? As we get more figures, we can extrapolate a figure for "Other" countries - and work over time on making this better and better? ... In my eyes, the key question is this - finding out which "import" sales come from the wholesaler, or which come through normal retail/sales channels. We don't want to count units "twice" - so if they are sold from one retailer to another (and this counts as "sales"), then any sales from that other retailer should be ignored. (sorry if I am rambling :>)

shams said: stof said: ioi said: Markets such as Hong Kong effectively import machines from Japan and repackage them etc - these sales will be counted within Japan sales. A-HA! So Japan does include more than just Japan. The plot thickens! But this is "different" - you can't include imports as another market. Only places where shipments are sent directly should be counted as a market. I'll be *very* surprised if HongKong doesn't warrant shipments in its own right. I was there for a couple of days at the start of the year, and little games shops are EVERYWHERE. Heaps of stock for sale - most of it does seem to be the Japanese version (most games don't get released in Chinese/Mandarin do they?). It could be possible they are all imports - but I would be surprised. Sony had a HUGE presence in HK, I have never seen so many people walking around with PSPs (all of them hacked/warez no doubt ;). Was also a huge amount of software available, etc. If the units are imported from Japan, Im almost certain they would have to be at the wholesale/retail level - rather than being purchased, and then re-sold (many of the units I saw were cheaper/same price as normal retail in Japan). I suppose the only real question is whether these units are "counted" in the Japan sales figures - I saw no, they aren't. So we should try and get some figures and track these down?

Most of the games, especially those text-heavy games, will not see a Chinese language release because the size of the market is quite small compared to the others (7 million people), and many players have learned enough Japanese to understand the game. Even if they don't, there are always gaming magazines providing walkthrus. :p Piracy seems to add to this factor, too. But as of now, more and more games get a Chinese-language release. Blue Dragon is going to get a Chinese version (whether it is fully voice-acted in Chinese is in question, due to many players' concern about the quality of Chinese voice-acting), Mass Effect is going to get one too.

Yes, there are shipments to Hong Kong when a game was released in Japan, but I think these shipments counted in the "Japan" figures, because it is just the packaging that is different, anything else is the same. But that's just my opinion though...

 Sony had a huge presence in HK because of Sony's long-established brand name. Being a portable multimedia device, PSP is THE fad there. (also in mainland China, which is why HUGE amount of PSPs - possibly 3-5 million - are illegally imported there.)

Ovelia said: Sony had a huge presence in HK because of Sony's long-established brand name. Being a portable multimedia device, PSP is THE fad there. (also in mainland China, which is why HUGE amount of PSPs - possibly 3-5 million - are illegally imported there.)

Um where did you pull those figures from? Just coming back from china I'll tell you i didn't see anyone playing any portable gaming device, whenever i whipped out the ds I'd get strange looks

jstam said: Ovelia said: Sony had a huge presence in HK because of Sony's long-established brand name. Being a portable multimedia device, PSP is THE fad there. (also in mainland China, which is why HUGE amount of PSPs - possibly 3-5 million - are illegally imported there.)     Um where did you pull those figures from? Just coming back from china I'll tell you i didn't see anyone playing any portable gaming device, whenever i whipped out the ds I'd get strange looks

I also visited Singapore & China on my trip, and saw a few DS's, but mainly GBA's. HK was the obvious territory for PSP's (makes sense, as stated above).

This is also what I was talking about - shipped units vrs sold units. We don't count shipped units - so they are shipped to HK, then sold - we should aim to collect some sales figures from the region.