@Dodece,

I think the continuing sales in the US points to Wii not being in direct competition with X360/PS3. And that the US market is quite content with the current game library, and the Japanese market is clearly not.

Also, this might be going out on a limb, but I think the US market is more slow-moving than the Japanese (and the EU). If you look at the music charts, you see less change and "longer legs" in the US than in the EU, for instance. In other words, EU and Japan need new "fixes" (game releases) more frequently than the US. Or to use the thread wording, our bubbles need refilling more often.

I remember hearing the 360 people saying that Japan isn't that important. Now with the Wii they use it to determine that a drop in sales in Japan is indicitive of a Wii collapse overseas. So is Japan important or not?

You are a man who's tastes I understand and appreciate. While I want to see Video games explore online functionality I don't want console games to become as malleable as PC games. Don't get me wrong, PC games are great as their own thing but not a model that all forms of gaming should strive for. Just like you I want to see Console games remain a self-contained experienced, games that are finished works of art if you will, that only use online as a means to explore and expand upon interaction between users and the multiplayer gameplay experience, not as a window for devleopers to keep a game a moldable piece of clay for them to do with as they wish at their convenience.

@Stranne: Actually music charts between NA and EU as a comparision was pretty bad, since in EU you have a lot more to choose from overall, and when it comes to different languages, there are only the certain amount of people who buy music other than their own language or music in their own language. And games are basically the same everywhere.

@Topic: Nice and civil topic for a change and good points from everyone. I don't think that there's a single reason for dropped sales, but i see "drought of games" and the release of the new PSP being the biggest factor. Japan and NA have had almost equal amount of Wiis, while NA has 2,5 times the population of Japan and NA also has bigger games market. So in order to maintain sales at the same level with NA, you have to have "killer apps" constantly. Since Wii doesn't yet have a solid games library, which itself would drive sales, it needs new games that can sell systems.
And the PSP, despite the fact, that Wii and PSP doesn't compete, there's still a lot of people who buy both of them and there's no particular reason to get Wii now since SMG is yet to come and PSP, with solid games library, just got a new fancier version. You can anyway play PSP until you get Wii with SMG.

 Only the Wii hating cry-babies flip flop like that

@bdbdbd: How much of the music sold in EU is "native language"? Not that much here in Sweden, I think. More in some other european countries. But sure, drop the music analogy. I still think it's true when it comes to gaming.

The bubble won't burst, more like Xbox (right nut) go Uh!, Wii (rubber) go Uh!, PS3 (left nut) go kaplowee! The only thing about to bust is Sony's balance sheet.

 Nice concise analysis. I approve this post.

To answer the question the reason the Wii results in Japan could be indicative is, because the market in Japan, and the global market spent much of the first year behaving exactly the same. While that has never been the case with the 360. Where Microsoft has done well in North America, and Europe. While In Japan it has done rather poorly from the start. Obviously the 360 is not going to drop down to two thousands a week in other markets to match Japan.

We have a situation of three regions having the same trends up to a certain point, and then one region has had a rather dramatic change. Asking the question what has changed, or what could this mean is thus very relevant. I sense an analogy is in order to demonstrate my point.

Lets say you buy ten cars that are exactly the same, and they all run wonderfully. Then one day inexplicably three of your cars start to have issues. They guzzle gasoline, and they make a lot of noise, and sometimes the electronics go nutty. Would you just assume that these cars are special, or would you consider that whats happening to these cars might soon start happening to the other cars you bought. Remember they were all the same up until very recently.

Now lets say you bought ten cars seven of which are apparently the same. While the remaining three are radically different, and have always behaved poorly since they day you bought them. Do you assume that these three horrible cars can tell you something about your other cars, or do you think they can pass on their queer characteristics to your other cars. Chances are you wouldn't you would assume you got three lemons, and be thankful if you can actually get them to work from day to day.

That should clarify the Xbox 360 sales in Japan are actually a anomaly for the brand. While the sales of the Wii in Japan were comparable to the world wide sales. By default this makes using the Wii sales in Japan very applicable while the 360 sales in Japan are not very applicable at all. Due to the fact that they were never similar to begin with.