JAPAN: Further year-on-year decline

Famitsu publisher Enterbrain has claimed that 2009 was yet again a year of decline for the video games industry in Japan with both hardware and software sales suffering year-on-year decreases.

Kotaku reports that hardware sales for the year were down 13.6 per cent, with the total market slumping by 6.9 per cent. The H1 24.4 per cent slump in software sales was subsequently offset by a number of high-profile releases including Final Fantasy XIII and Dragon Quest IX.

Here are the numbers from the last three years in the Japanese video games market.

2007
Hardware: YEN 327.4bn
Software: YEN 360.54bn
Total: YEN 687.95bn

2008
Hardware: YEN 250.5bn
Software: YEN 332.12bn
Total: YEN 582.61bn

2009
Hardware: YEN 216.49bn

Software: YEN 326.16bn
Total: YEN 542.64bn