Concern Over Dropping Japanese Console Sales

Posted by simoniker on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @08:16PM from the more-games-more-competition dept.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Yahoo/Reuters Japan article discussing worrying issues for Japanese console and software makers. The article states that "..sales of family game machines in fiscal 2002 were 8.76 million units, down about 20% from fiscal 2001, when sales jumped 30% ahead of the year before." It also notes that "per-title sales [for Playstation 2 software in 2002] dropped 25% to around 63,000", even as the total volume increased to almost 30 million units. The article postulated this is because "..the market is turning from one of growth, to one.. where manufacturers compete with each other to get a bigger share." Possible solutions suggested include "producing items that can link to audiovisual equipment, or.. cultivating markets overseas."

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What do they expect? by AvantLegion · 2003-06-11 21:04 · Score: 3, Interesting

There is a finite amount of consumer cash out there, and the PS2 is nearing the end of its life cycle. It should not surprise anyone that a high rate of PS2 game sales growth isn't being sustained.
Consoles continue to sell units up until the end of their product cycles, but the large majority of existing installed base is not buying games at the same rate that they were in the past. For the current PS2 owner, the number of worthwhile NEW titles is waning.