The Japanese Console Market

[johnsobas]

FishyJoe said:

ssj12 said:
Joe, its a matter of how you look at growth. The console market may shrink but the handheld market will only grow.

The picture isn't a whole lot different when you include the handhelds.

NA = 718k
Others = 606k (UK = 153k)
Japan = 251k

So Japan is under 16% of the global market.  

Why are you just taking 1 week and comparing the global market?  You should know sampling 1 week or small period of time is gonna be biased.  Earlier in the year Nintendo was selling nearly as many Wiis in Japan as they were in NA, I could use that but that would also be a small snapshot that doesn't represent the market as a whole.

1.35, 3.79, 0.49 = 5.63  Japan

6.07,8.47,2.32 = 16.87  NA     

4.02,4.32,2.08 = 10.42  Others 

32.92 million total

That's next gen console sales for you.   

 

Handhelds

20.10+6.08 = 26.99 Japan

16.37 + 9.86 = 26.23 NA

18.48 + 9.54 = 28.02 Others

81.24 million total

 

other factors to consider - NA population 514 mil (USA 304 mil)

Japan population 127 million

population of others - europe is over 700 million plus there is many other countries included.

 

 

Do you notice how Japan has actually sold more handhelds than NA?  Handhelds are also very popular in Europe, and it is obviously taking sales away from consoles.  Notice how NA has sold so more next gen consoles than Japan and others combined, but it can't sell more than either one of them in handhelds.  It seems to me like handhold sales have a huge effect on console sales.

 

Ok here is the last piece to consider

Japan, America, Others

Gameboy

0.00 / 32.47

0.00 / 44.06

0.00 / 42.16

 GBA

0.04 / 16.66

2.00 / 41.10

0.66 / 21.71

DS

4.50 / 16.02

4.23 / 11.74

4.73 / 12.52

 

Notice how now Japan has a much bigger market share for handhelds than before. 

 

I'm not going to make definitive conclusions here but it looks to me that Japan is moving towards handhelds.