Lawlight said:
Japan is not as big as it used to be. Even Japanese devs bow cater to western audiences rather than the Japanese market. It's huge for handheld though. And the industry may be changing but the one constant has always been console gaming. |
#FACTS
Japanese console game market shrinks to nearly one-third its size ten years ago
"During their regular round-up of video game sales, Dengeki Online mentioned a troubling statistic for video game lovers in Japan. Sales have been steadily declining over the past ten years to the point that sales now amount to nearly one-third of those in 2007."
"In Japan summer is a prime selling season, but this year summer sales of consoles and handhelds have dropped 24.1 percent to 14.2 billion yen (US$127 million) from last year. Games fared poorly as well, falling 21.1 percent down to 25 billion yen ($224 million) for an overall loss of 22.2 percent."
"Dengenki Online points out the summer video game market in Japan peaked in 2007 at 113.4 billion yen ($1 billion) in sales of hardware and software. Comparing it to this year’s 39.2 billion ($351 million), its obvious to see that a substantial contraction has occurred."
