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Forums - Sales - Iwata: Thoughts on Japanese market

Ail on 05 February 2009
Demotruk said:
bigjon said:
I just think that Home Consoles are not "cool" in japan right now, right now in the West thanks to the Wii and the ground work the PSX and PS2 laid gaming is cool. I have Japanese friends, and they tell me that really gaming is for nerds and kids... kinda sounds like what the gaming market was mainly in the pre- Playstation era.

 

That's strange...

Far more people game in Japan than in the West. Consider the console per capita ratio in Japan, almost no other country rivals it (though, some do on specific consoles).

 

Err ?

USA is 3 times the size of Japan in population.

Console sales in USA are 10 times the sales in Japan...



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PS3-Wii gap : 20 millions and going down !

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Demotruk on 05 February 2009

It has only been like that recently though, as they've been stagnating and even more recently declining. If you look at the last generation, 23/120 PS2, compared to USA's 50/300. Adding in the other consoles gives a boost to the US, but it's still no Japan. Consider that 1 in 5 owns a DS there, while 1 in 10 american does. And it's the most successful console in both regions.



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peachbuggy on 05 February 2009

The Wii needs something in Japan and quick! My bet is different colours. The Japanese sure like their different colours. There is also tho option of price cuts or bundles. I honestly think they should slash the price of the Wii by a fairly large amount. That would probably invigorate sales for quite a while.



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Demotruk on 05 February 2009

If you add up total consoles from this and last you get:

USA: 171 mill.
Japan: 75 mill.

So that's a per capita ratio of .57 for US, and .63 for Japan. So I was wrong, Japan's decline and US growth is bringing them closer to the US's per capita rate, but they're still ahead.



A game I'm developing with some friends:

www.xnagg.com/zombieasteroids/publish.htm

It is largely a technical exercise but feedback is appreciated.

Flash on 05 February 2009

Cause and affect. There's a metric shit ton of games being produced for the DS, although i'm not too sure about the PSP in Japan (assume it is healthier than the west though). At this point you have to ask, are gamers buying these portable systems purely because they are portable, or due to the fact there is an abundance of software available for the systems. Japanese developers are feeling the burn of HD development and seem to be falling behind the west in an industry they once dominated and are moving towards the handheld markets in order to save costs and remain profitable.

How do you reverse this situation in favour of home consoles once more? Is it even possible this generation for even the mighty Wii to defeat the DS, these are important questions and ones which only a company like Nintendo have a chance in hell of solving.



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outlawauron on 05 February 2009
Louie said:
dib8rman said:
@Luie

You understand that your saying the Japanese market hasn't increased or decreased since whenever you started your research till whenever you end it.

Hmm, it would make sense for the Wii to compete with the PSP then?

 

First sentence: No, that's not what I'm saying. I said the market grew extremely big during 2006-2007 and is now getting back to the previous average.

 

Second sentence: Well, to some extend yes. Each PSP game a developer puts effort and money into can't be released on either Wii or DS. So basically those three consoles are competing for developer resources. The problem is that the market isn't big enough to have 3 consoles selling extremely well (more than 4 million units a year) so developers have to spread their resources over the three consoles.

The thing is just: We have 3 extremely hyped consoles now (maybe the Wii to a lesser extend) but as there are not that many people in Japan (the American market is roughly 3 times as big) all three consoles see good but not huge sales.

Eh, why not? We've seen a lot of PSP/DS and a even a few PSP/Wii titles.

I think it's a nice middleground for developers.



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Mr.Y on 05 February 2009

Epic JRPG on the way then?



markers on 05 February 2009

i guess handhelds are the social trend. wonder if ffxiii will kickstart the ps3, but of course to keep that momentum sony would have to introduce new colors / lower price / whatever after the initial boost.

as for nintendo i think its just a matter of time before they get huge sales like in the other regions.