The general trend isn't good though in Japan for consoles:
Famicom - 19m (more if you include NEC's system)
Super Famicom & Genesis - 20m
PS1 & N64 & Saturn - 30m
PS2 & GC & DC & Xbox - 30m
Wii & PS3 & X360 - 18.5m to date - probably not going to reach 30m
Pretty stable for the last 20 years. Why? Well look at the Japanese population in 1985 = 121m, vs. 1990 = 124m, 1995 = 126m, 2000 = 127m. 2005 = 128m, 2010 = 127m. The death rate is greater than the birth rate in Japan now - the country is shrinking. In theory though that means the country is getting younger too, which helps explain the portables, as for every one person born something like 1.2 people die (most of them older).
Now look at the USA:
NES - 34m (37m w/ master system)
SNES & Genesis - 40m (more with Turbografx and others)
PS1 & N64 & Saturn - 56m?
PS2 & Xbox & GC & DC - 73m roughly by the time PS2 stops selling
Wii & X360 & PS3 - Roughly 70m through 2010 and huge volumes will be sold in 2011 and 2012 at least.
USA Pop in 2010 = 308m
USA Pop in 2005 - about 295m
USA Pop in 2000 = 281m
USA Pop in 1995 = 263m
USA Pop in 1990 = 249m
USA Pop in 1985 = 238m
The USA has 70m more people now than at the start of the NES generation, Japan only 7m more. Not surprisingly, USA console growth per generation is going to increase by about 70m from the NES era to the Wii era. Wii & X360 & PS3 could easily do 50-60m, 35-45m, 20-30m in the USA each.
People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.
When there are more laws, there are more criminals.
- Lao Tzu
