JAPAN: Market 10% down in 2009H1

The ongoing decline in the Japanese video game market has so far continued in 2009, with Famitsu reporting that the sector showed a 10.5 per cent decline year-on-year for the period between March 31st and September 28th 2009.

Hardware sales fell 15.1 per cent, whilst software fell 7.5 per cent.

However, the numbers do at least point to a slowing down in the rate of decline. In 2008 there was a 13 per cent decline, so Japan is still on track to see an improvement in this year’s numbers.

DS remained in control of the hardware market, with total unit sales reaching 1,698,818 units. It was followed by PSP (813,604), Wii (594,398), PS3 (581,676) and Xbox 360 (137,059).

In the software charts, proceedings were dominated by Square Enix’s Dragon Quest IX with total sales of 3.92m. Other strong performers included Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver (2.06), Wii Sports Resort (1.19m) and Monster Hunter 3 (908,636).