MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Japan continues to be one of the most lucrative games market in the world, despite the falling presence of console gaming in the region.
2014 marked one of the toughest years in more than two decades for Japanese console gaming.
According to Famitsu, the Japanese console games industry generated 368.55bn (2.05bn) during the year.
This is more than 160 billion (0.89bn) down on 2013’s 408.97bn (2.27bn) total and the sector’s lowest amount for 24 years.
Handheld gaming continues to outweigh its home console brethren by a big margin. Nintendo’s 3DS platform was the best-selling gaming machine in Japan during 2014, with 3,153,045 combined unit sales.
In comparison to the decline of the traditional games market, the Japanese smartphone sector has rocketed to comprise around half of the entire Japanese games industry, mobile marketing outlet CyberZ reports.
The firm estimates that of the entire games industry’s 1.1 trillion (10bn) total in 2013, smartphone gaming contributed 546.8bn (3.04bn). This is a huge leap of 178 per cent on the previous year.
A closely-linked counterpart of mobile gaming – social gaming – also continues to flourish.
IT consultation firm Nomura Research Institute estimates that the country’s social gaming sector will grow to reach 393.5bn (2.19bn) yen by 2017.
Population: 126,434,964
Capital City: Tokyo
Currency: Yen
GDP (Per Capita): $37,540
KEY RETAILERS
Animate, Big Camera, Yodobashi-Akiba, Super Potato, Sofmap, Book-Off, Game Hollywood, Enterking, Futaba, GEO, Gamers, Ikyyusan, Jusco, Rakuten, Sofmap, Tosho, Tsutaya, TV Panic, Wanpaku
KEY DISTRIBUTORS
Ajioka, Happinet, Jesnet
TOP DEVELOPERS
From Software, Nintendo, Atlus, Konami, Capcom, Koei Tecmo, Nippon Ichi, Bandai Namco, Square Enix, HAL Laboratory, Kojima Productions, NC, Team Ninja, Taito, Spike Chunsoft, Game Freak, Grasshopper Manufacture, Idea Factory, Level-5, Platinum Games
PUBLISHERS IN THE REGION
Sony, Square Enix, Capcom, Konami, Atlus, Nippon Ichi, Bandai Namco, Koei Tecmo, Nintendo, Sega, Spike Chunsoft, Disney, Rockstar, EA, Microsoft
