tastyshovelware on 09 February 2008
I know Japan is going through some tough times economically (though apparently not tough enough to pass up products pushed out by the big N), but I just took a look at the software sells over there. Man, it's terrible.
I'll do the wii, though the same thing holds true for pretty much every system save the ps2 and xbox360. There was a definate spike over there this past week due to brawl, but still. There have been right around 5 mil wiis sold to go with only 16 mil games. That gives you an attachment rate of just over 3:1. For anyone who thinks, "that's not too bad," keep in mind that 5 mil of those sales went towards wii sports and wii play.
Let me put it in a different way. In America, there have been 9 mil wiis sold. 18 games (7 of them being third party titles), have broken the half million sales mark and every game in the top 50 broke 170,000. In Japan only 24 titles have broken 100,000, and only 14 (2 of them being third party titles) have broken 200,000.
So, when a japanese developer craps their pants and thinks "I don't know if there's enough of a market for our game," I can see why.
Once again though, I'm not just picking on the wii. I just own one and in Japan I see proof that 3rd party titles (that don't include the words dragon warrior) don't really stand a chance.... Even the good ones (resident evil, zack and wiki, no more heroes, etc). If you want something even uglier though, check the psp in japan, an attachment ratio of less than 2:1!
