So, what really happened to the console market in Japan?

[AnthonyW86]

RolStoppable said:

AnthonyW86 said:

I wouldn't worry about it, i think we have reached the end of the decline in Japan for consoles and we will see slight increases from here on out. I fully expect PS4 to outsell the PS3(and probably ps3 and x360 combined). So then what's left is the large number of casuals that have left after the Wii. The home console market is about to reach a solid baseline in Japan.

If anything it's the handheld market that i would be worried about. 3DS/Vita could end up with a decline of up to 30%/40% from last gen, and i feel the worst is still to come in that market.

Why would you be worried about the handheld market? You've already decided that the home console market will be fine despite a significant decline, because the casuals don't count. You might as well apply the same reasoning to handhelds.

But more importantly, the handheld market is going to be bigger this generation than the home console market, and it has lower development costs too. The handheld market is clearly healthier.

I'm worried because home console don't have much competition from say tablets and smartphones, handhelds do. And on that part Japan seems to have a somewhat delayed reaction(slower adaption maybe?) compared to the rest of the world, where l the decline of handhelds is much more apparrrent. So i fear there is an even bigger drop incoming for handhelds in Japan.

 

And the drop is already substantial. 3DS and Vita stand at 22 million combined right know. With alligned launches DS and PSP were already at 34 million.