So for some reason I have become addicted to following the gaming industry. I wasn't into gaming at all during most of High School and college, but since Holiday 2006 when I bought a Wii on a whim, I've become very interested in the business side of gaming. I don't know why exactly, but I find it very fascinating and surprising. One reason is you get weekly feedback on what is selling and what is not- Japan, the region I follow the closest, releases weekly sales chart showing the top 30 in software and hardware. If new trends are emerging, one can see them months before they appear in Reuters articles.
For example, lately the PS3 started outselling the Wii in Japan. It was the subject of numerous articles back in April when the monthly figures started in. However, if you had been paying attention, you knew that the PS3 due to some strong software in March and April and an anemic Wii release date, had in fact been seizing the momentum since late February. On the other hand, because the PS3 releases have dried up, the Wii is again back to outselling the PS3 weekly in Japan. Nothing in the mainstream media so far, but expect articles coming up soon about how the Wii is once again in front.
Like I said, Japan is currently the market I'm most interested in. The main reason is how unpredictable it is. Handhelds, the DS and PSP, dominate the hardware and software. Wii, despite slowing down, maintains a huge advantage over the PS3 and 360 but much of its software doesn't sell and 3rd parties are just now starting to support it. It's all very fluid and dynamic and it is hard to predict where it is going next. The U.S market on the other hand, is relatively predictable- consoles still generally rule, and the order for most of the last 2 years has been Wii>360>PS3, with 360 and Wii software dominating the monthly top 10 chart. Europe is generally the same.
I'll expand on the Japanese region a bit later today.
No comments:
Post a Comment