The United Kingdom probably won't become as big as Japan largely due to the handheld race. Japan has outsold the UK 27m to 6.5m.

However, in the console race, I do think that the United Kingdom can slowly get close to Japan, but that's still years away.

Currently in the next-gen hardware race, it's Japan's 5.6m consoles to UK's 3.5m. Definately not close, but closer than the handhelds.

However, mainland Europe, I believe, is where it's at. There's a huge population base (about 350m) that have relatively decent incomes that aren't buying a bevy of hardware.

For next-gen hardware, you have:

United States: 15.2m Consoles
Japan: 5.6m Consoles
UK: 3.5m Consoles
France: 1.85m Consoles
Canada: 1.6m Consoles
Germany: 0.9m Consoles
Spain: 0.9m Consoles
Italy: 0.65m Consoles
Scandanavia: 0.6m Consoles
Other Europe: 0.75m Consoles

Austrailia: 0.55m Consoles
South Korea: 0.3m Consoles (est)
Taiwan: 0.2m Consoles

So in the future, UK as well as some European markets could become huge.

i dont think they will germany and italy population are decreasing so there console sales will not increase that much wear as france and britian have growing populations so they will become even more important

IMO the UK and Europe share more tastes in common with the North American market. Thats what makes them more relevant to Developers and Publishers as a market demographic than Japan. They can tailor their product to 2 seperate markets with simular tastes in gaming. As it is you see more Japaneese developers targeting western markets more heavliy than they have in the past.

True. And that's probably why Mr. "I love xbox 360" started this thread:

1. Xbox games don't come from Japan

2. Xbox doesn't sell in Japan 

3. XBox sells in UK

So his statement may be true for the Xbox, but hardly for the video games industry.

just caz iv my name is "i love xbox 360" dosnt mean i dont like japanese games

Not only that, Spooky, theres vastly more English-speaking nations and people in Europe. That way one translation goes alot farther for your dime. Whereas Japanese-language games need translated to go anywhere outside of it's home country.

But on the other hand, to make a good pan-European game, you'd need atleast 4-5 laguages (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian).

Why not quote Japanese games that sell, rather thank rankings? It's a little different.

Checking the Million seller list for the X360, you have 3 Japanese developers with million-selling games (Tecmo, Konami and Capcom). Not horribly bad.

could you use less question marks for your next thread title?????? thanks!!!!!!

I don't see the UK overtaking Japan in population, even with immigration and stuff like that. 60M vs 120M is too big of a gulf for industrialized nations to cross in a generation.

That being said, population doesn't determine how big a region's gaming scene is. Europe has twice the population of the US, yet game sales are clearly lower here, and let's not get into Africa or China.

Anyway, gaming in the UK looks like it's growing fast, and the Japanese market looks like it's shrinking, although it's probably just a temporary thing. I see Europe becoming more important in the near future, along with Korea, but nothing too drastic.

No Japan is a much bigger market than UK could ever wish to be haha.

im sorry i'll only use 1 next time