Sankaku Complex Forums » Japan

1. 

   Michio
   

   http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090403p2a00m0na005000c.html

   I didn't know pokemon games were still being made. Then again I don't play games. O_o

   ----

   Total estimated sales for the home gaming industry were down 18.4 percent to 552.4 billion yen in FY 2008, the first yearly decline in five years, according to an industry report.

   Hardware sales were down 27.1 percent to 231.5 billion yen, with those for software down 10.7 percent to 320.9 billion yen, according to the yearly report by games magazine publisher Enterbrain.

   Hanging on at the top spot in console sales was the Nintendo DS, despite unit sales dropping 40 percent to 3.98 million, as did the Wii to 2.25 million. Sales for Sony's rival handheld Playstation Portable (PSP) also dropped 10 percent to 3.23 million.

   The top-selling games were roleplaying game Pokemon Platinum for the DS (2.37 million copies), racing game Mario Kart Wii for the Wii (2.20 million) and Rhythm Heaven (1.65 million), also for the DS.

   The report also blames sliding release dates for the drop in sales, with culprits including Dragon Quest 9 by Square-Enix, which has had its planned March launch postponed to July.

   Posted 6 years ago # Quote
2. 

   sporkhead
   

   This generation a lot of the games on Nintendo consoles have been hanging to the sales charts, sort the same situation over in the UK with Mario Kart Wii, which is still in the top 30 (as is Mario Kart DS which is almost 3 and a half years old).

   This news didn't surprise me too much considering the UK has recently overtaken Japan to become the second biggest market.

   Posted 6 years ago # Quote
3. 

   jinstevens
   

   I've been following this story, but haven't made a post for Sankaku because I wasn't sure if there was much interest in news about the gaming industry that wasn't somewhat sensational. One could make a broad cultural generalization concluding that while recession drives the Japanese away from gaming, it moves more Americans towards it.

   The recession, apart from layoffs at some major US gaming studios, has been exceedingly good for the US gaming market. Economists have long noted a trend of movies sales going up during recessionary periods, and that phenomenon seems to have spilled over to games. The one other major casualty in the US gaming market has been professional e-sports, which apart from Major League Gaming, has virtually dried up over night.

   Posted 6 years ago # Quote

Reply

You must log in to post.