Japanese Market Continues Narrowing With 10.5 Percent Fall

The domestic video game market in Japan shrunk by 10.5 percent in the first half of fiscal 2009, according to new data from Famitsu publisher Enterbrain. The report, translated by consumer weblog Kotaku, shows a 15.1 percent drop in hardware revenues alongside a 7.5 percent drop in hardware sales between March 31 and September 28, 2009. The shrinking Japanese market has led numerous publishers to take a hard look at globalization strategy, Western design methodologies and tools, and products with more worldwide appeal. Many Japanese companies increasingly look to Western acquisitions to gain a bigger foothold outside their shores, as Square Enix did with Eidos. First-half and life-to-date unit sales for hardware platforms in Japan are as follows: Nintendo DS (all models) 6MO: 1,698,818 LTD: 27,851,784 PSP 6MO: 813,604 LTD: 12,618,193 Wii 6MO: 594,398 LTD: 8,547,552 PlayStation 3 6MO: 581,676 units LTD: 3,591,071 units Xbox 360 6MO: 137,059 units LTD: 1,138,250 units According to the report, the top five software titles by units were Dragon Quest IX</> (DS, 3.92 million), Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver (DS, 2.06 million), Wii Sports Resort (Wii, 1.19 million), Tomodachi Collection (DS, 1.15 million) and Monster Hunter 3 (Wii, 908,693).