Xbox 360 Sales Data

[Powderkeg]

Wha? 1/3rd of the market plus numerous game developers = not relevant?

Japan isn't even close to 1/3rd the market.

In 2005, less than 2.5 million consoles were sold in Japan. This includes the PS2, GCN, Xbox, and Xbox360.

To put that into perspective, 1.4 million consoles were sold in the US in November alone. More consoles are sold in the US during Christmas shopping season than are sold in Japan in an entire year.

And Europe is also a larger game market than Japan now. Japan's gaming market is close to the size of the UK, or slightly larger than Canada at this time.

 

[Magnum PI]

europe isn't a market it's several markets.

 

[eDoshin]

Japan isn't even close to 1/3rd the market.

In 2005, less than 2.5 million consoles were sold in Japan. This includes the PS2, GCN, Xbox, and Xbox360.

To put that into perspective, 1.4 million consoles were sold in the US in November alone. More consoles are sold in the US during Christmas shopping season than are sold in Japan in an entire year.

And Europe is also a larger game market than Japan now. Japan's gaming market is close to the size of the UK, or slightly larger than Canada at this time.

Europe is an entire continent of countries lumped into one marketshare .. Japan is one country alone.

 

[Powderkeg]

Europe is an entire continent of countries lumped into one marketshare .. Japan is one country alone.

Did you have to check and atlas before you posted that?

 

[mckmas8808]

Japan isn't even close to 1/3rd the market.

In 2005, less than 2.5 million consoles were sold in Japan. This includes the PS2, GCN, Xbox, and Xbox360.

To put that into perspective, 1.4 million consoles were sold in the US in November alone. More consoles are sold in the US during Christmas shopping season than are sold in Japan in an entire year.

And Europe is also a larger game market than Japan now. Japan's gaming market is close to the size of the UK, or slightly larger than Canada at this time.

Yet 20 million PS2's were sold in Japan alone. Why? Keep in mind that's about the same amount of Xboxes and Gamecubes sold in the entire world.

 

[Bobbler]

Japan isn't even close to 1/3rd the market.

In 2005, less than 2.5 million consoles were sold in Japan. This includes the PS2, GCN, Xbox, and Xbox360.

To put that into perspective, 1.4 million consoles were sold in the US in November alone. More consoles are sold in the US during Christmas shopping season than are sold in Japan in an entire year.

And Europe is also a larger game market than Japan now. Japan's gaming market is close to the size of the UK, or slightly larger than Canada at this time.

And around 5-6 million hand helds have sold (which is pretty substantial given their population) -- Japan's market isn't negligable or small as you want to claim. If you compare the life time figures of consoles in the respective areas you'll get a better idea -- Japan has a tendancy to saturate itself so end of life sales get pretty slow. Japan is around 15-20% of the market, I believe (which is a far deal greater than UK or Canada, but not as big as NA or Europe -- NA is some crazy number like 40% or so). Europe has the possibility of becoming the largest market (seeing as europe isn't just a single country), but compared to the total population it's sales aren't all that hot.

 

[Powderkeg]

And around 5-6 million hand helds have sold

That's great for the handheld market.

Means nothing in this discussion.

 

[eDoshin]

Did you have to check and atlas before you posted that?

Seems like a lot more people need to check their atlas. The big 3 marketshares are US, Japan, and Europe .. yet people seem to think of Europe as one homogenous piece of land, and not a bunch of separate entities. Maybe Korea and the other Asian countries will not make much more of an impact, but if the China market ever opens up (ala control piracy), then it would definitely NOT be lumped in with Japan (and don't they play games in India?). People want to trivialize Japan because its numbers do not hold up against the other big 2, but its significance is in more than just pure numbers.

And btw .. there is a whole generation of numbnuts who probably actually believe that Europe is a country. The stupidity in our education system is staggering.

 

[mckmas8808]

That's great for the handheld market.

Means nothing in this discussion.

Again 20 million PS2's sold in Japan. About the same as the number of Xboxes and Gamecubes in the world sepertely.

 

[Bobbler]

That's great for the handheld market.

Means nothing in this discussion.

So, I assume you agree with the rest of the stuff I said? (I mentioned the handheld sales as an explanation as to why there are slow console sales this last year -- high handheld sales and market saturation. Believe it or not, the consumers of consoles are pretty much the same as the consumers of handhelds).

In either case, you're point that Japan's gaming market was the size of Canada's is completely bogus. You are correct that Japan's market isn't 1/3rd of the entire market though.

 

[Powderkeg]

Again 20 million PS2's sold in Japan. About the same as the number of Xboxes and Gamecubes in the world sepertely.

Let's see, 100+ million PS2's sold, only about 20 million in Japan.

That looks like about 1/5th of the market to me, not 1/3rd.

 

[Evil_Cloud]

europe isn't a market it's several markets.

Agreed to a certain degree. Although there are many countries, they all have certain things in common, which makes it easy for companies to market their products. For example, football is something that is popular in all of Europe.

For certain genres or types of games there are differences between European countries. Some games need different marketing approaches depending on the country, some do not.

I think the biggest problem for companies in Europe is the different languages and localisation (manuals for example), not possible culture differences.

 

[Serenity Painted Death]

Let's see, 100+ million PS2's sold, only about 20 million in Japan.

That looks like about 1/5th of the market to me, not 1/3rd.

Yes, but your argument is that Japan is *irrelevant*. If it is so *irrelevant* then what does that say about MS and Nintendo consoles... when their /worldwide/ (all three regions) sales only match up to the *irrelevant* Japanese region?

Though, I do agree, in a way... Japan is *irrelevant* for MS. It will never do well their so they might as well pretend it doesn't exist. Of course, they'll never be able to dominate without it, and they know it, so they must try even though it would seem they are destined to fail.

 

[Powderkeg]

So, I assume you agree with the rest of the stuff I said? (I mentioned the handheld sales as an explanation as to why there are slow console sales this last year -- high handheld sales and market saturation. Believe it or not, the consumers of consoles are pretty much the same as the consumers of handhelds).

No, actually I don't, but since it was mostly irrelvent I didn't feel like dragging it out any longer.

In either case, you're point that Japan's gaming market was the size of Canada's is completely bogus. You are correct that Japan's market isn't 1/3rd of the entire market though.

I didn't say it was the size of Canada. I said close to the size of the UK, or a little larger than Canada RIGHT NOW.

 

[Powderkeg]

Yes, but your argument is that Japan is *irrelevant*.

Really?

I see where I wrote that HANDHELDS are irrelevent, but I don't recall saying what you claim.

Care to quote it?

 

[Nicked]

I didn't say it was the size of Canada. I said close to the size of the UK, or a little larger than Canada RIGHT NOW.

Its about 6x larger than Canada and at least double the UK. So not really. Thats just hardware sales too. Software generally outperforms other regions relative to installed base.

 

[Serenity Painted Death]

Really?

I see where I wrote that HANDHELDS are irrelevent, but I don't recall saying what you claim.

Care to quote it?

Well, I would agree that handhelds are irrelevant with regard to consoles as well - but not in the overall picture. I mean, however, that the success Nintendo is having with DS will not necessarily carry over to Revolution, just as the GBA didn't carry over to the GC. Is it hampering X360 sales? Ugh, hard to say, they weren't going to be very good at any rate, so whatever the effect it is probably totally negligible either way. I do think the success of DS software, and the release of KHII, will reduce whatever effect DOA might have had on Japanese X360 sales.

Though the kind of success the DS is having is not irrelevant. Nintendo hit it big.

 

[Bobbler]

I didn't say it was the size of Canada. I said close to the size of the UK, or a little larger than Canada RIGHT NOW.

When did "slightly" start meaning "substantially"? Last time I checked Canada's market was around ~8-10% of the US' (which makes sense since Canada's population is around 10% of the US') and Japan's is around ~50%. The supporting facts for your original point (which wasn't wrong -- Japan isn't 1/3rd of the world market) are completely bogus, and if you'd stop trying to defend them and get a new set of data which correctly supports it, that would be fantastic. Playing the semantics game won't help you when you're this far off.

 

[Nexiss]

Close to the size of the UK or a little larger than Canada? Didn't somebody just say 20 million PS2s alone in Japan. The entire population of Canada is only like 30 million and the population of the UK is around 60,441,457 (anybody have figures for console sales in the UK?). This is asinine.

 

[inefficient]

Just to put things in the correct perspective.

US population: 296 mil
GNP $11.75 trillion

China population 1,306 mil
GNP $7.262 trillion

Japan pop: 127 mil
GNP $3.745 trillion

UK pop: 60 mil
GNP $1.782 trillion

Canada pop: 33 mil
GNP $1.023 trillion


The numbers usualy accedited to "Japan" are usualy Japan + Asia. Korea is a huge marketplace for games. And China, if they could just get the piracy under control, will be an enourmous market place. To capture markets like that you need the help of Japanese developers.