Japanese Game Market Shrinks in 08

The Japanese market for videogames shrunk by about 15 percent in 2008, largely due to an absence of new console launches in recent years. That's according to a recent report by Famitsu publisher and data tracker Enterbrain, as translated by Agence France-Presse this week.

Taken together, sales of videogames and consoles in Japan dropped to 582.6 billion yen ($6.26 billion) in 2008, down from 661.89 billion yen ($7.2 billion) the previous year. Following worldwide trends, Nintendo was the leader in Japan last year, selling 4.03 million DS handhelds and 2.91 million Wii consoles over the 12-month period. Sony fared second-best in Japan, moving 3.54 million PlayStation Portables and 991,000 PS3s.

Microsoft is still struggling to sell Xbox 360 consoles in Japan, although its sales there are higher than they've ever been. The 360 sold just 318,000 consoles to Japanese gamers in 2008, despite exclusive agreements with blockbuster Japanese developers Square-Enix and others.

Although the PSP-3000 and DSi both launched in Japan in 2008, it wasn't enough to push software sales higher than 2007 levels. Game sales were down 7.9 percent compared to the previous year.

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