14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that the Japanese domestic videogame market is continuing to shrink, according to the data offered by a report from Enterbrain, the company that publishes the quintessential games magazine Famitsu. Overall, the shrinkage is of about 10.5%, with hardware dropping more precipitously than software. The data covers the first six months of 2009.
The Nintendo DS managed to sell 1,698,818 units in that period, meaning that close to 29 million handhelds have been sold in Japan until now. The PlayStation Portable is second, with sales of 813,604 units and life time numbers of about 12,5 million.
The Nintendo Wii saw one of the biggest drops, with close to 600,000 home consoles sold in six months and with more than 8,5 million moved since it was launched. The PlayStation 3 is seeing a good run, almost matching the number of the Wii, with 581,676 sold in the period covered and 3,5 million moved since release. The Xbox 360 is the worst performing with just 137,059 units sold.
When it comes to videogames, the best performers were Dragon Quest IX from Square Enix, which managed to sell close to 4 million copies on the Japanese market, followed by the Heart Gold and Soul Silver version of Pokemon selling over 2 million and with Wii Sports Resort selling close to 1.2 million. Tomodachi Collection and Monster Hunter 3 complete the top five. It's interesting to note that all the titles were released for the Nintendo platforms, the DS and the Wii.
The constant reduction of the Japanese domestic market means that developers and publishers need to begin looking for ways to make more of an impact in the West. The lead is taken by Square Enix, which has recently taken over British publisher Eidos and aims to release games appealing in equal fashion to the Western and Eastern audiences.