Global Weekly Chart - 07 May 2016

[mjk45]

Ka-pi96 said:

Mike_L said:

I agree completely. But something must've happened during 7th gen because each and every Japanese publisher saw a huge decline in market share with the exception of Nintendo. No matter what, I just hope that 3 of my favorite publishers (Sega, Capcom and Square Enix) can reach some of their former glory. There are just so many great IPs that have to return some day XD

Well it just seems like a lot of Japanese publishers screwed up their games (often as an attempt to appeal to a western audience which often liked their previous games anyway) coincided with western publishers rapidly improving.

Although that said, looking at that graph it looks like Japan was punching well above their weight considering the small size of their country in the current gaming market. If anything it probably would have been stranger for them to retain a market share >50%

Looking at the graphs, the decline realy took off about the time of MS coming out with the xbox, the 60% period coincided with Nintendo , Sega and Sony dominating the landscape and although there is a small decline between the 60% high and the steeper fall after xbox comes aboard most of that can be put down to Sony's investment in a large portfolio of western studios to feed it's need for gaming software.

So you go from  a Japanese hardware software relationship that sees both sides tied very close together, then comes Sony who while not breaking this relationship  loosen the strings , these strings are then further loosened upon xbox's entry,  compounded overtime by a westernisation of console gaming bought about by  changing home demographics and gaming having grown to the point that Japan was no longer a big enough market to justify being the primary focus.