"Japan"

[shams]

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?