The Japanese Home Console Market Is Recovering

'Japan is only interested in mobile gaming.' 'The Japanese console market is shrinking' 'Console gaming in Japan is doomed.' 'Japan is irrelevant.' These, and other refrains, from people with a vested interest in seeing Japan's home console market decline for some reason, are increasingly common- but all of these people are wrong. The narrative that Japan doesn't matter in the big picture of console gaming anymore?

Wrong.

First off, this week finally marks the point where the PS4 starts outpacing the PS3 in terms of sales- indicating that the Japanese market is now on a rebound over the previous generation, which represented a decline

(Graph Credit hiska-kun on NeoGAF)

As of right now, the PS4 is tracking to sell faster, and more, than the PS3 in the long run, indicating that the demand for consoles in Japan is trending upwards.

This, combined with the sheer amount of quality software support for consoles from Japan either already out, or slated to come out, this generation - Metal Gear Solid V, Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, Bayonetta 2, Final Fantasy XV, Dragon Quest XI, Star Ocean V, Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Tales of Zestiria, Persona 5, Yakuza, Ni-oh, Ni no Kuni: Revenant Kingdom, NieR Automata, Scalebound, among others - indicates that console software and console hardware, is now finally trending upwards in Japan, recovering from the recessive period that was the previous generation. Add to this Nintendo, and the upcoming NX, and things start looking even better.

Given that the highest rated games of this generation are all Japanese, that two out of the three consoles this generation are Japanese, and that even within Japan, consoles are recovering, the notion of a contracting and irrelevant Japanese market can, I think, safely be put to rest.

Of course, I am sure certain fans will still come into this thread to spout off about how Japan is irrelevant, even in the face of facts.

Yep, PS4 has been outselling the 3DS for the past 2 - 3 months in Japan.

Yes, but I am not discussing a weekly trend- as the overall graph shows, PS4 has now sold more than the PS3 had at this same point in its lifetime, indicating an increased demand for home consoles in Japan now, finally.

Only will get better when Sony announces another price drop later this year. PS4 priced at $299.99 is gonna be a big deal, especially considering the upcoming PS4 games that will be releasing this year.

With handheld dying and mobiles being not good enough to handle full fledged games with their touch screens probably home consoles are the only thing left for Japan to go back to.

@Kashiwaba: Except handhelds are not dying in Japan, either.

You're in for a rough time with this thread dealing with the kind of gamers the majority of system wars represents. Good luck, you're always starting trouble for yourself.

Is it outpacing Wii sales in Japan? That's the question you need to ask and your biased Sony agenda, chaz

That does seem encouraging, but to me mobile and handhelds will dominate that market. Or do you think consoles will surpass Nintendo Handheld numbers? It seems like the games, portability are a great fit for that culture. Everyone is on the go and the masses ride public transportation since cars and parking is so expensive there.

So by that logic, the console market everywhere is declining, because nowhere in the world are the current gen consoles selling more than Wii+PS3+Xbox 360.

Looks like console gaming really is dead, folks!

So does this mean they'll start playing real video-games ?

No, handhelds and consoles and smartphones are all different markets- something that most people did not understand, even when I tried explaining it to them. Smartphone games will be a separate market that thrives, handhelds will be a separate market that thrives, and consoles will also be a separate market that does well.

The rise of Xbox 360 hurt Japan a little bit because on the monotonous taste with FPS. Now it is back on track thanks to PS4.

Who is them being separate there, diffrent from here in NA or Europe? It seems to me all 3 markets thrive here too, as we see endless amounts of mobile games on app stores, both Android and IOS. Handheld gaming, or Nintendo seems to be firmly entrenched in the marketplace too and shows no signs of going anywhere. And we all know consoles continue to sell extremely well.

@charizard1605: If this gen cannot outsell last gen, then yes, this mean that console sales aren't good! For the game industry to grow, sales trend must go up, not down! That's why I asked if the PS4 is on pace to outsell Wii sales trends. It's called facts

No console is on par to outsell Wii, and no console will, because the Wii was a bubble selling on the back of a market that has migrated to smartphone gaming. Those sales, revenues, and customers are now forming the smartphone gaming market.

Our bet, then, is to compare the core gaming consoles, i.e. the ones that are sustainable in the long term, and see how they hold up to previous generation counterparts- in most of the world, the PS3 and Xbox 360 were both dominant, and they are both being outpaced by the Xbox One and PS4, which is good news. In Japan, the PS3 was the only meaningful core console, and it is being outdone by PS4- also good news.

Yes, my differentiation was not just restricted to Japan- it's global, though handhelds and smartphones have more of an overlap in the west than they do in Japan.

oh I see, PS4 doing much better than PS3 currently at this point in life... surprising actually it isn't doing much better considering PS3 was pricier and market was more split

That's a funny joke because I could swear my Xbox 360 library has more then FPS games in it....

Even though the PS4 is starting to do better in Japan now it's very unlikely it ever will outsell the PS3 there. It's probably going to sell anywhere between 6 and 9 million for LTD.

This is a prediction based on what supposition, exactly?

@charizard1605: He is always slightly pessimistic with anything regarding PlayStation.

This great news though and with all the big Japanese games releasing this year and further into the future it should be sustainable.

It just took a while to get people to upgrade from PS3 to PS4. The NX will cause a shake up as well.

@charizard1605: So, you rather ignore the market that bought a Wii just to make sales pf core gamers that bought core consoles that should make the current gen of consoles look good in sales? So twisting facts is what you're doing?

@charizard1605:

It's not dying as fast as the West but you can't deny it's declining when you compare last gen handheld sales to this gen and with mobile games rising probably it's gonna be the last successful handheld.

The market expanded and so did the platforms. We probably won't get PS or PS2 numbers anymore with mobile and PC rising which cannibalizing some of the console market. The gaming industry overall as a whole is bigger but the console side hasn't changed much.

Another big reason last gen sold so much was because of hardware failure. Both PS3 and 360 sold around 80 million, give or take.

Xbox 360 > 80 million sold > 50% failure rate > 40 million sold in actuality

PS3 > 80 million sold > 10% failure rate > 72 million sold actuality

PS4 at over 40 million already after 2 years is amazingly successful which is neck and neck with 360 from it's 8 years lifespan.

You can blame Nintendo for that as the Wii U turned out to be a big dud, but both the PS4 and XB1 are on track to at least sell as well as their predecessors.

Sony is a Japanese company but everything about the PS4's creation and focus is very much western.

Yup- plus with the launch of NX, hopefully a further expansion of the market.

No, I am using context to frame numbers- you should try it sometime.

Handhelds as a market have declined, they are not dead- not in the west, and definitely not in Japan, where even the Vita is successful.

Which is literally exactly my point- the Wii audience is not a console market audience, it was a bubble that popped and moved on to smartphones. Bringing the Wii up in any comparison about the overall long term health of the console market is a stupid idea, which is why I ignored the Wii in this comparison.

@Legend002: Except FPS games weren't anywhere near shoved down people's throats like many of those run of the mill JRPG's.

@mems_1224: It is them who begat the most toxic kind of weeaboos and weebs in general, though :(

@charizard1605: How do you know if PS 4 isn't a bubble and their audience isn't a console market crowd either?

Software sales, attach ratios, investment in long term services, online engagement, and so on?

I don't get how the PS4 is selling this well without the software to back it up. Plus the cost of software has gone up quite a bit.

The PS4 has software to back it up- just not exclusive software.

PS4 currently have almost 1,000 total titles lined up. The PS3 had only about half within the same time frame.

what do you mean lined up? Are they out now? If not, that shouldn't reflect mainstream sales so much. There's no way the software is comparable, exclusive or otherwise. And also btw, I think the ps4/xb1 software has improved greatly since late 2015 and so I think it is a good product that should be selling. I just don't see why the ps4 should be out pacing the ps3. Launches aligned, didn't the ps3 have titles like GTA4 and MGS4 out already? If we're talking system selling software, the ps4 is a tier lower

@charizard1605: I'm using reality, maybe you should try it sometimes. XP

Also, just because they moved from the Wii to Smartphones, doesn't mean they should be put out of the equations. Taking out the Wii because of a casual trend is not a way to prove that the Japanese console market isn't dying. Maybe next gen we will see casuals coming back to buy consoles, but that's because there aren't any games for casuals to play on consoles .

According to wiki. Not hard to see why PS4 is dominating. Actually, I'm surprised the gap is not bigger.

*Percentages are rounded up, hence does not add up to 100*

Xbox One = 501 total games

7% Exclusives (34)

1% Microsoft Exclusive (7)

19% Console/Timed Exclusives (97)

77% Multiplatform (387)

PlayStation 4 = 1,000 total games

10% Exclusive (98)

10% Sony Exclusive (96)

25% Console/Timed Exclusive (248)

56% Multiplatform (558)

@FireEmblem_Man: for sure the Wii should be counted and it does complete the story. The Ps3 was too expensive and the Wii was kicking its butt. Wii gamers in Japan have split between NX (edit: i meant wiiu)and PS4. The total console sales are likely much lower

I take it you weren't math/statistics major?

@howmakewood: The numbers are correct.

So lets go by your numbers that the sales of x360 would be 40million out of which 50% would fail thus owners having to replace it with a new one, so that's 20million new ones?

40 million was already cut down from 80 mill. Can you not read?

Good for Japan :)

Aww, nobody has paid this troll any attention, so I'll give him a pity post.

What are "real video games" in your opinion, cowboy, and what makes them that way?

Oh I'm reading but your numbers dont add up, not to mention you are expecting that nobody got theirs repaired and everyone who got rrod bought a new one.

Yes it did affect the total sales, but no where near to what you are saying.

@howmakewood: How doesn't it add up? .... well multiplied but whatever.

Let's say there was 50million unique inviduals who bought an xbox360 and out of those 50% RROD'd, this would mean 25million faulty devices leading to 25million new purchases, which would get us to 75million sold in total?

If the unique number was 40million the RROD rate would need to be 100% to reach 80million

@howmakewood: So the number does add up but you don't like it. Xbox 360 sold 80 million so we use that number and RROD rate is 50%. Where the hell do you get 50 million? Are you living in 2010 or something?