I think the Japanese tastes are shifting away from consoles at a pace most people could not have predicted. Handhelds and cell phone games are selling at an astonishing pace, but consoles are stagnating. So I suppose a case could be made that the UK could eventually supercede Japan in terms of console relevance, but it's unlikely that it will ever exceed Japan in total video game sales. At least not within any of our lifetimes.

Yes, yes it could (Population AND gaming industry questions).

*Enter John Lucas Mode*

And it will happen by 2015. For the Queen!!

every1 say the uk has a developed gaming industry but i dont think this is true there is still so much growth in the uk market. if u look at japan even old people have a ds or a ps2 and gaming is a way of life for every 1 there but in the uk playing game is seen as just for young people but this is beggining to change with the wii and the ds, even my mum wants a wii and she has never had a interest in games before so the market can growth massively in the uk now because the older generation is begining to play game

Just look at the numbers:

Japan:
PS2: 22,173,751
DS: 20,100,295
GBA: 16,699,907
PSP: 6,891,808
Wii: 3,787,453
PS3: 1,349,072
X360: 489,707


UK:
PS2: 9,572,149
GBA: 5,043,954
DS: 4,388,959
PSP: 2,163,685
X360: 1,520,468
Wii: 1,449,944
PS3: 473,248

As long as the most innovation comes from Japan, UK doesn't really compete Japan. Better question would be, that "could USA become more important to gaming market than Japan?". By sales it is, but look where the industrys driving force comes from.
Anyway, back to UK. If we look at only the console SW/HW sales numbers, it may be possible in a decade or two, but i still see it unlikely, unless recession of century (which could be coming) or China strikes Japan.

 They will do probably nothing and don't think that they will let immigrants come into their country.

They are way to proud on their culture to let others 'non-Japanese' come in massive numbers to their country.

How many immigrants they let into their country last year?  642?

Luxembourgh a country in Europe with 0.444.450 inhabitants let more immigrants come into their country than Japan.

The more interesting question is: when will germany be the bigger vg-market than UK. Population and economy is bigger in germany than UK. But VG-market is behind (mostly because of strong PC-game-market I think). Possibly that will change in the future.

Mnementh -

Honestly, I'd say the reconciliation of East and West Germany has much more to do with the issue of sales rather than PC-dominance (which is probably part of the sales going to the PC market).

When they joined back up, there was a huuuuuuuge income difference. West Germans lived in poverty. Even now, the incomes of east and west still have a difference. Not only this, East has had to pay alot for West's equality. Because of this, GDP has grown near-stagnantly, and incomes aren't as expendable as UK.

However, it's getting better. At some point, I'd tend to think that Germany will snap out of it, and rival France (which is about 20-30% bigger). Then UK.

I'd love to see Eastern Europe grow, prosper and sell more consoles. It'd be neat to see what the Polish and Russians could do for gaming.

Study your history, brother. No matter how much Europe grows as a market the Japanese market is irreplacable.

For it is because of Japan that videogaming exists. Until Europe begins making consoles & handhelds that sell internationally AND well, Japan is and will always be the capital of the videogame industry.

UK is a smaller island area wise (94,526 square miles/244,820 km²) with about 60 million (population density: 637 per square mile/246 per km²). Japan is a larger island area wise (145,883 square miles/377,873 km²) and has about 130 million (population density: 872.8 per square mile/337 per km²). This Japanese island, by the way, which is about 70% to 80% unlivable mountains forcing this high population number to live on the livable 30% or 20%.

This Japanese island not much bigger than the U.S. states of Florida & Georgia combined having almost 130 million people (10th largest world population) living on about 20% to 30% of the land in comparison to the giant United States with its 300 million people (3rd largest world population) spread out over its vast area (3,793,079 square miles/9,826,630 km²). Half of 300 million is 150 million so Japan is roughly 43% the population of the U.S. with a little under 4% of its landmass, that U.S. landmass being the world's 3rd largest for a nation.

Not just that but also the fact that the Japanese are greater buyers of videogaming proportionally than other nations. Japanese buy games or are apt to buy games more considering the ratio to people in the land. And the obvious fact that the developers who make much of videogaming come out of Japan.

Two out of three of the gamesystem makers in the world are Japanese companies. PS2, PS3, PSP, DS, Wii all came out of Japan and you wouldn't have seen these systems otherwise unless they did. ESPECIALLY for ideas like DS & Wii which were made with the Japanese in mind FIRST.

N-Gage & Gizmondo are your clues to why UK will not become more important than Japan for the videogame industry. Europe has barely TRIED to make a gamesystem in the whole history of videogaming. The ones they DID make didn't last. Mostly Europe has PC as its digital electronic gaming platform which is why we keep seeing orcs, elves, & Gothic/Medieval themes in "Western" games on PC not to mention the gunplay from FPSs.

The United States of America where videogaming was born didn't even try to make a viable system for about 20 years since the North American marketcrash of 1983/1984. 1993's Atari Jaguar was an outright failure & it stopped American companies from even taking a look at it for about another ten years before the most moneybucked company of all, Microsoft, got into the picture. And they're STILL subsidizing their systems! Luckily they can afford it & with Halo 3 & a few others maybe they will eventually profit.

Understand this, man. The only reasons why consoles & handhelds exist is because of Japan. They are the HOME of the videogame industry and have been so ever since Nintendo took over a little more than 20 years ago. I'm not saying other markets have no importance to the big picture and that sales mean nothing but don't fool yourself into thinking Japan can ever be succeeded as the most important market for videogames. Where Japan goes the rest of the world pretty much follows including North America. That doesn't mean the sales pictures always match perfectly (some things sell better in some regions than others) but that the trends tend to correlate (DS big in Japan, DS big in UK, DS big in US).

Europe/Australia/PAL lands & the Americas are getting stronger no doubt but no matter how big they get saleswise they still do not render obsolete the importance of Japan. And that is because Japan is where the cakes are baked. They are the oven from which all baked gaming goods come from. Videogaming = Gaming on a TV Screen. This form of gaming only continues to remain because of Japan, directly because of Nintendo. Without them the whole world goes PC/Mac.

You really gotta study the Crash of 1983 & the NES to know why this will never change.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System

John Lucas 

Maybe, ways down the road. But the Japanese have bought tons of software. Every major FF and DQ have over 2 mil in first week.