14 DAY TRIAL // A lot of people were saying that the videogame industry was all but impervious to the current world wide economic crisis, mainly because of the importance that entertainment holds in the lives of all gamers. That positive imagine has been shattered as 2009 debuted sluggishly on all markets, with sales registered by the NPD Group for the North American market getting nowhere those posted for the same period in 2008.
Now, fresh figures out of Japan show that the videogame market in the home of Nintendo and Sony has shrunk by about a quarter, with sales generating about 218.9 billion Yen, the equivalent of 2.31 billion dollars, which is 24.4% lower than in the same period of 2008. The biggest fall was in hardware sales, with 27.6%, while sales of videogames went down by 21.8%. The data came courtesy of Enterbrain and ITmedia.
It's worth noting that, in the first half of 2008, there were four videogames that sold more than 1 million copies on the Japanese market, including Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, which is still a best seller today mostly due to a price reduction.
During the first six months of 2009, no game even remotely approached 1 million in sales, with the biggest performer being Mario & Luigi RPG 3 from Nintendo, which managed to move 650,000 units. Other notable performers were Monster Hunter, Yakuza 3 from SEGA, Resident Evil 5 and the ubiquitous Wii Fit.
Nintendo's DS, buoyed by the release of the newer DSi version, sold about 1.62 million units, while the PlayStation Portable was close behind with 1.18 million handhelds sold to gamers. The best selling home console has been the Nintendo Wii, with 640,000 units, while the PlayStation 3 from Sony was pretty close behind, with 550,000; the Xbox 360 only moving 210,000.