I'm a bit shocked. Suddenly people are saying that MS is stupid for trying to attract a dead market in Japan, because consoles are dieing there.

I thought that the person who wrote this was a complete moron, and so did many others. Here's my way to prove him wrong.

Look at the first 2 years in Japan. Wii and Ps3 aren't there yet, but I'll compare this even though it is unfair to those 2. I take away the same amount of time from their competitors. 

Wii 94 weeks sales: 6.76M

Ps3 97 weeks from launch: 2.36M

X360 104 weeks from launch: 0.51M

Overall: 9.63M

Now go to last generation.

Ps2 94 weeks (unfair, it has a slight 2nd holiday boost, Wii doesn't): 6.6M

GC 97 weeks: 2.31M

XB sales: 0.43M

Excluding the Dreamcast (1.8M in 104 weeks), they're selling spot on with each and every.

Software wise:

Wii: 23.6M

Ps3: 6.75M

X360: 3.23M

Compared to last gen:

Ps2: 22.4M

GCN: 10.9M

XB: 1.0M

Excluding the Dreamcast (6.8M), the total is once again almost spot on. The Wii is outpacing the Ps2, and the X360 is heavily outpacing the XB. The Ps3 is almost following GC.

So as a matter of fact, the console market has shrunk minorly. In a way, the poster I talked about was correct, as the handheld market is increasing at more than 100% HW wise.

I only posted this to get some statistics into this heavily speaked of point.

The wii and PS2 are very close. People always say the wii is hammering every console made into submission, when this aint the case

They aren't dead in the market it's just I believe 2 things are happening.

1. Due to the recent over saturation of the market thx to the DS the whole market is goign to suffer because of it. Whether people want to recognize it or not all gaming products whether handheld or console compete for sales within that same market. Meaning if one over saturates... they all over saturate. Meaning it's very probable that DS in it's "time of need" is dropping them all down. Really only thing to have seen a bright side during this has been the PSP but even it's starting to falter. Not to mention we are in the worst selling weeks usually in Japan.

2. I think it also has something to do with simply Japanese developers either being late on getting big name projects out or simply not making really successful games. Well I mean sure we've had Nintendo filling in their gaps with big games but it's only on one console. However Square Enix and other large name Japanese developers have yet to get their premier titles out. Games like FF13, RE5, ect. I think once those start hitting you'll see more and more gamers going to buy games. Now this doesn't mean they'll be buying the games on those consoles but it'll get more people in the stores.


Really I don't think the Japanese market is something to worry about it's just we need to understand the Japanese market has probably already hit a capacity for how many gamers it can hold. Europe and American and Asian markets have loads to go before they hit saturations while Japan can hit that a lot quicker considering it doesn't have much room to grow since the PS1 and GB days.

To fix it... it needs more innovation within the markets(which is why games like Wii Fit have been great for the market), continuous flow of big name titles, and of course mixing it around with console models and prices like 360 pricedrop and a much needed DS redesign.

if a phone psp was released you can be sure that it would outsell the ds in one years time.
japan does almost everything by phone, and if you wonder why with even all the tech they have that the phones are quite large, well it is because they have the functions of a mini computer for the price of tennis shoes.

maybe not in japan but it sure does in europe and the US

Zucas straight up GRAND-SLAMMED the nail on the head!

In fact, the ONLY one that lost marketshare from this generation from last generation is Sony. Microsoft and Nintendo has gained much momentum.

If you look at the chart you will see exactly what the original poster was hinting at; the PS2 was launched in March instead of November and so hits its holiday rush about 15 weeks sooner.

Its in its rush at the equivilent point on the chart (to where the wii is now), and wii will almost certainly fall behind it in October before pulling back ahead in January.

But while I certainly wouldn't call a 1 million console lead (what wii had over PS2 for most of year 2) hammering the PS2 into submisison, it still is huge on install bases of under 7 million.

Haha well thx.  Usually people just yell and tell me how wrong I am so glad someone agrees for once.  I've been really studying the numbers and trends in Japan a lot recently and this is the conclusion I've come up with. 

PSP was dead in Japan?
Not sure about this,
but after MH2G and PSP slim is started sell GREAT.

Same will be with PS3, it`s just have very few Japanese oriented games for now, But that will change eventually.

PS3 is only 1.8 year on the market, it`s less then 2 years. And it will be here for atleast next 6 years so far. =)

http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=PSP&reg1=Japan&cons2=PS3&reg2=Japan&cons3=PS&reg3=Japan&weeks=200
It`s a matter of time. Yakuza3, FFXIII, FFXIIIv, Tekken6, SFIV, Team Ico, WKC, Naruto are on their way. =)