Sometimes it can be a challenge to keep track of industry markets around the world, let alone on your own continent or your own country. And if you’re living outside of Nintendo’s home base in Japan, you might be missing out on updates and news from that side of the globe.
Well, a consistent trend for the past year in Japan has been the dominance of the 3DS in the handheld console market, and sometimes the sales of the 3DS, 3DS XL, and DSi combined have placed it at the top of the charts. However, reports have come out for the past few years that software sales have slowed and the industry has felt a bit of slump.
The good news is that there’s been a 5% growth in hardware sales recently, part of a small 1.2% growth for the Japanese gaming market over the last fiscal year (according to Enterbrain data). This is the first games industry growth that Japan has seen in five years.
Why has the growth come now? Games, and games sell systems. Over this fiscal year, we’ve seen releases of highly anticipated games such as Super Mario 3D Land and Monster Hunter 3G, New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
Is this a new leaf for the gaming industry in Japan? That remains to be seen.
