Enterbrain: Japanese Game Sales Dropped In 2008

Enterbrain, publisher of weekly Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, revealed that Japan's hardware and software sales for the March 2008 to March 2009 period suffered an 17.4 percent year-over-year drop, down from $6.79 billion (¥676.95bn) to $5.54 billion (¥552.42bn). Hardware suffered the brunt of that decrease, with revenues down to $2.32 billion (¥231.52) in 2008, compared to 3.18 billion (¥317.47bn) during the same period in the previous year. Nintendo DS was the top seller of the year with almost almost 4 million copies moved, followed by PSP with 3.23 million units sold. Wii was the only home console to sell in the millions (2.57 million), as PlayStation 3 barely fell short of that mark with 999,903 sold. Though Xbox 360 was the poorest selling console in Japan last year, it nearly doubled its amount sold in 2007. Exact unit sales in Japan for the observed period and for the systems' lifetime, as posted by Enterbrain and translated by game weblog Kotaku, follow: 1. Nintendo DS: 3,983,205 (26,152,966 LTD) 2. PSP: 3,230,563 (11,804,589 LTD) 3. Wii: 2,257,575 (7,953,154 LTD) 4. PlayStation 3: 999,903 (3,009,395 LTD) 5. Xbox 360: 398,633 (1,001,191 LTD) Software sales in the region also declined from $3.61 billion (¥359.58bn) in the previous year to $3.22 billion (¥320.91bn) in 2008. Nintendo DS's Pokemon Platinum was the top-selling title with over 2.37 million units sold, followed by Mario Kart Wii, Rhythm Heaven Gold, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, and Wii Fit. Enterbrain shared the following unit sales data for the five top-selling games in Japan: 1. Pokemon Platinum: 2,372,336 2. Mario Kart Wii: 2,203,430 3. Rhythm Heaven Gold: 1,651,424 4. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G: 1,629,867 (2,453,132 LTD) 5. Wii Fit: 1,506,713 (3,268,906)