Create new account
Forgot password?

NEWS

Japanese Game Sales Up In Q3, US And UK Sales Down

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

November 5, 2009

  • Login or register to post comments

See also:

Related Articles:

The latest Top Global Markets report from sales trackers the NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track and Enterbrain has been released, showing a strong rise in Japanese software sales during the third quarter, but a decline in US and UK sales during the period.

According to the report, combined software unit sales across the world’s three largest game markets experienced a decline of six per cent between July and September.

The Japanese software market saw unit sales increase by 15 per cent, compared to a 20 per cent decline experienced during the same period in 2008. Nevertheless, year-to-date unit sales for Japan’s software market are down nine per cent.

The UK experienced the largest decline of the three markets, with software unit sales down 19 per cent, compared to a nine per cent fall in the US. Year-to-date unit sales in the UK and the US are down 13 per cent and eight per cent respectively.

The report also said that Dragon Quest IX was the bestselling game across the three markets during the third quarter. The top five selling titles during the period can be found here.

Alex Walker's picture
On November 5th Alex Walker said:

Individual titles are still performing well - ODST, FIFA, Football Manager, Forza. So why are other games suffering? Are people not willing to take a chance on a new name? Borderlands seems to be permanently sold out, so maybe thats not it.

Maybe then it's the new market that Nintendo have reached out to. Whilst the existing market continues to buy the traditional games, the new consumers perhaps have stopped spending so much on games. With Nintendo speaking out recently about worrying sales, it certainly is a possibility.

And if the answer really is just that money is tight, there isn't much the industry can do about it, except ride it out.

deadkat's picture
On November 5th deadkat said:



I think these sales figures reflect nothing more than the poor release schedule in the run up to Christmas - if 2009 had the same line-up of releases as 2007 I think we would see the industry in rude health (recession or no recession).

I know a lot has been made of the Modern Warfare 2 effect on titles being pushed back until 2010, but I also wonder if publishers are looking at the global downturn and pushing back titles in the hope that confidence will return to the economy and result in higher sales.

Ben_Lathwell's picture
On November 6th Ben_Lathwell said:

I agree, making comparisons of quarterly sales shows little but the release schedule. Yearly sales show the true picture

Mystakill's picture
On November 6th Mystakill said:

Yearly sales always get thrown off by the glut of new games releases at the end of each year. Many are now being pushed to late winter/early spring, which is becoming a mini-glut already. I'd prefer to see good titles released throughout the year, rather than bunching them up into a specific quarter to temporarily inflate sales figures.

It'd also give me more time to actually finish some of the AA titles I've been sitting on while trying to play everything :)