Interest

Japanese Game Market Down 16% in 1st Half of 2011

The Japanese publisher Enterbrain announced the preliminary data for the Japanese video game market during the first half of 2011. Specifically, the data covers the period between December 27, 2010 and June 26, 2011.

The total market for both hardware and software was 191.98 billion yen (about US$2.3875 billion) — 84 percent of the total in the same period last year. Enterbrain's Famitsu cited the lack of "killer software" in the beginning of this year, compared to last year's four million-selling titles such as New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation. However, Famitsu noted that it had expectations for a better second half of the year, since that time period will include the release of "prominent titles" such as the Super Mario and Mario Kart games for the Nintendo 3DS portable console, along with Sony's release of the PlayStation Vita portable console.

During the first half of 2011, the market for hardware sales totaled 79.81 billion yen (about US$989.56 million), down 8.8 percent from the same period last year. The market for software sales totaled 112.17 billion yen (about US$1.3908 billion), down 20.4 percent from the same time last year.

Entebrain noted that the Nintendo 3DS had the most hardware sales during this time period, with 1,153,891 units sold. Sony's PSP sold 1,077,724 units, and the PlayStation 3 sold 621,048 units during the first half of the year. Nintendo's DS portable console sold 614,927 units, Nintendo's Wii console sold 413,091 units, and Microsoft's Xbox 360 console sold 68,724 units.

Enterbrain revealed that the five top-selling games in Japan in the first half of the year were:

• Monster Hunter Portable 3rd on the PSP - 968,269 units sold (cumulative total 4,449,258 units)
• Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Professional on the Nintendo DS - 469,469 units sold
• Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy​ on the PSP - 454,522 units sold
• Shin Sangoku Musō 6 (Dynasty Warriors 7) on the PlayStation 3 - 443,873 units sold
• Ryū ga Gotoku Of the End (Yakuza series) on the PlayStation 3 - 376,193 units sold

Source: Famitsu