Dodece said:
What is exactly so difficult for you to comprehend. The market accounted for less then five percent of the global market last week, and thus far this generation Japan represents thirteen percent of the total market. You might not be aware of this, but the Japanese market accounted for almost eighteen percent of the market earlier in the generation. So the Japanese market is actually shrinking. Please do tell me where you place the line of relevance seeing as five percent is highly relevant to you. What is it one percent perhaps. A million units is not very relevant when this generation is going to move well over a hundred million units. Were we to be overly generous, and were we to say the PS3 would sell 20,000 units a week in Japan from this week foreward, and the 360 to stop selling entirely. Sony would be able to only accumulate an additional two million within a standard generation time frame. For generation end totals that could be a massive percentage of between one percent and two percent. Honestly this probably couldn't happen the 360 will still sell, and the PS3 will probably average out well under twenty thousand units weekly. For the high definition consoles this market is entirely irrelevant. Half the generation has been spent, and returns are nothing to write home about. Microsoft works on Japan, because that is their weakest market. They want to enjoy better sales there next generation four or five million in sales is always worth having. Having good relations with the developers is good for all their markets. That does not mean the market has the potential to alter the outcome of anything this generation. The numbers that can be generated there can never hope to offset North America or Europe. You can easily win without Japan. You cannot win without being competitive in North America. You cannot lose by a hundred thousand in North America, and be competitive by using the small sales from Japan as a crutch. The reason nobody talks about Japan is simple. The market in Japan is just not substantial not in regards to sheer volume. Japan moved ten million, but the rest of the world moved sixty six million. Further more Japan is moving less consoles weekly now its as if the rest of the world moved nineteen while Japan moved one. That is how you should look at the numbers. |
Ok so maybe I exaggerated the significance of the JPN market. I guess it's not the powerhouse it once was. But it's still an important market, hence JPN sales figures are well publisised and they are still second (I think) only to the United States in sales figures (if we speak of single countries only and not whole continents). There is a reason Japan have many of the top console specific developers and that is because the land that gave us Nintendo, Sony, Sega, Konami, Namco, Capcom et al is a nation full of gamers.
Using your figures out the 76 million consoles shipped so far, Japan accounted for roughly 13% of the market. As a single country it's not too bad. Last gen, the JPN bought over 25 million consoles, more than any other country bar of course the US. That's about 15% of the global hardware sales. I'm sure Microsoft wouldn't mind a piece of that. But yeah I get your drift. Japan is a small piece of the overall global pie.
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