Not even halfway through this generation, Japan's home console market clinches growth

[IcaroRibeiro]

VideoGameAccountant said:

IcaroRibeiro said:

However more consoles in the market means higher revenue from hardware units which means the market shrinking as far as hardware revenue is concerned 

I questioned whether having less systems in the market will lead to more software spending. If software revenue growth is big enough to cover the hardware loss, then the market is flat or growing. If it's not, then the market is declining

Ultimately, I don't think we can separate home and handled console markets anymore. Nintendo is the only company releasing dedicated handhelds, and their best selling model is a hybrid. What can be said however is home-exclusive consoles are failing to meet their past popularity, with Japanese customers choosing portable or hybrid models instead

That's a bit of a flawed thinking because if revenue was all that mattered, then these companies would have more consoles. The reason Sony's handhelds and Nintendo's console were phased out was because they weren't very profitable. The market didn't want 5 different systems. 

We're getting a little off the rails here. The main point of this thread was that Japan's game market wasn't as doomed as it appears. The success of the Switch shows Japan still cares about dedicated game systems. We can argue how to measure the growth, but I think to say it's not doom and gloom as some people predict. 

I said AS FAR AS HARDWARE REVENUE IS CONCERNED more hardware in the market will lead to more hardware revenue 

Sorry for the Caps

A big portion of console market revenue is from hardware (not really profit as hardware isn't that profitable). Profit comes mostly from software, that's why I pointed that when comparing gens we need to look if software sales has been steady, increasing or declining. I wasn't really making a point, rather opening a discussion and a reflection. Is Switch sucess enough to offset the fact Japan is buying less gaming systems than in the past generations? 

About the thread, it talks specifically about home console. As we don't have the limits of home console and handhelds console markets well outlined anymore this comparison with past gen is pointless. People treat Switch (standard version) as both home and handled, when in reality the answer is it's neither, Switch is on it's own category, is a new market sub-segment that so far only Nintendo explored