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Concern Over Dropping Japanese Console Sales

Posted by simoniker on 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."

8 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. Piracy by Kris_J · · Score: 4, Funny

    The problem is obviously piracy. The games market was doing fine, but now there's this Interweb thing that people use to steal stuff. Ban fibre-optics!

  2. If they only would.... by Hougaard · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Release some of all the cool stuff in Europe and USA - Why is it, that we get stuff ½ - 1½ year after its released in Japan ??

    1. Re:If they only would.... by edwdig · · Score: 2, Informative

      Final Fantasy has a huge amount of dialog to be translated. Why not release it in Japan when its ready? It doesn't make sense to have the Japanese version sit and collect dust while waiting for the English translation.

      Also, by getting the English version later, you usually end up with fixes to bugs in the Japanese release. Or tweaks to fix things people complained about (i.e. in Zelda: Wind Waker, a section of the game towards the end was made much less tedious for the US release, because Japanese gamers complained about it). Considering you can't just download updates to a console game, its not necessarily a bad thing to get the game a little later.

  3. duh by cyrax777 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    japans economy is in in the toilet no wonder the sales of consoles is down. That and there market has been pretty much flooded with the dang things.

  4. What do they expect? by AvantLegion · · 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.

  5. Burden of Proof by robbway · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The article fails the burden of proof to its thesis. In order to show decline, you must show a simultaneous drop in: console sales, console titles. With the dropping price of PCs, you must also include PC's as a console and count game software as console titles.

    If you can show a consistent drop in all those areas, then yes, the thesis is upheld. Even better, if you multiply console sales drops by their previous market share, you can take a weighted average and pretty closely estimate that drop.

    The article fails to do this. I'm not saying the article is wrong, but what happened to responsible journalism? Oh, yeah. FOX!

  6. Do the math by DrWho520 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Let x = sales in 2000
    if sales went up 30% in 2001, then...
    x + 0.3x = 1.3x = sales in 2001
    and if sales went down 20% this year, then...
    1.3x - 0.2*(1.3x) = 1.04x = sales in 2002

    therefore, that means sales over all went up, since 1.04x > x, 4% since 2000. Or I could be crazy.

    --
    The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
  7. Re:tsarkon reports - flawed thinking altogether by amuro98 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's not by choice - it's what the market demands over there.

    Electronics cost 2-3x what they cost here and you can ONLY buy the latest and greatest high end equipment, because THAT'S ALL THERE IS. This isn't because the Japanese consciously have said "We only want new stuff!" but rather, the companies have dictated "We only sell you new stuff."

    Games cost $80-$100. They've always cost $80-$100. Selling used games/CDs/etc. is considered "Grey market", with many stores closing down due to police pressure (only to move down the street and re-open.)

    The market in Japan is screwed up. Food prices arecompletely controlled by the farmers in Japan. You can't get non-Japanese rice in Japan - even non-white varieties like bhasmati, because it's too cheap.

    My last company had to TRIPLE the price of its servers for Japan because the resellers told them $1000 would make people think that it was a bad product, but that for $3000, they'd think it was a great product. I don't quite understand how we got away with selling half the hardware at 3x the price of a normal PC, but that didn't stop Japan from becoming one of our largest markets...