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MCV 15/10/10 31 TERRITORY REPORT: JAPAN TOTAL GAMES MARKET VALUE
0.5m 1.0m 1.5m 2.0m 2.5m 3.0m 3.5m
0
Hardware sales 2008:
¥2,505,000m Software sales 2008: ¥3,321,200m
Hardware sales 2009:
¥2,164,900m Software sales 2009: ¥3,261,600m SOFTWARE UNIT SALES SPLIT 2009 PUBLISHER MARKET SHARE 2009
23.9% Nintendo
37,867,762 Handheld (DS, PSP)
26,423,835
Console (Wii, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360)
7.2% Konami 7.3% Pokémon EAST MEETS WEST
JAPAN’S games market has always been distinctly different to Western markets.
Handhelds sell better than consoles.
First-person shooters have a significantly smaller presence that they do in the US and UK. Role-playing games are considerably more popular, often drawing similar-sized crowds to Call of Dutylaunches. And publishers often deal directly with retailers, creating a noticeable lack of third- party distributors. While such trends are expected to
continue – particularly the dominance of portable gaming – times are changing. The market’s decline over the past few years has seen Japanese publishers looking to the West to improve their fortunes, such as Square Enix’s acquisition of Britsoft firm Eidos last year. The market has also started adapting to cater for Western tastes, and the result is that publishers on the other side of the world are finding an increasing number of opportunities to reach a very different audience. “The market size itself is somewhat
struggling in growth for the past five years, especially in comparison to pan- Western markets,” says Capcom’s managing corporate office for global publishing Katsuhiko Ichii.
“Titles and genres that are
particularly popular outside Japan are beginning to settle in the market and demand for them is soaring. “Many brand new IPs have been launched for the current generation of consoles from Western developers but Japanese developers have not really achieved the same. Most popular IPs are from the previous generation or earlier. This is definitely something that must be reviewed in the near future.” Ubisoft is a prime example of how
well a Western publisher can establish a foothold in the East. The publisher’s Japanese office has been running for 16 years and has been growing its presence steadily. In the last five years, the current generation of hardware has proven to be particularly beneficial for the firm.
“
And that’s without mentioning the increasing number of potential revenue
streams it has discovered in Japan, such as free-to-play online gaming, microtransactions and mobile gaming. Publishers are even targeting pachinko and pachislo: slot machines that are often licensed and have been growing in popularity – so much so that Sega recently increased its fiscal year forecasts by £118 million based solely on this business. “In addition to the software market,
there are considerable opportunities for merchandising and other licensing
The market is struggling in growth for the past five years, especially in comparison to Europe. Katsuhiko Ichii, Capcom
Ubisoft has had consistent success with a number of its franchises with this strategy, including Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six, and HAWX.” Miller adds that Western publishers
can also establish themselves in Japan by creating or tailoring content specifically for that market. Ubisoft’s ongoing efforts to achieve this include its partnership with Q Entertainment to produce Child of Eden. In many ways, Japan is to
Western publishers as the US and UK is to the likes of Capcom, Konami and Square Enix. “While the market here is quite
avenues,” says Steve Miller, managing director of Ubisoft Japan. “There are also a great number of independent studios here in Japan that would love to work with a Western company on a major franchise, and so there are a number of ways a Western company can approach this market. “The least risky way is to localise existing content in Japanese, and
”
large, the local competition is tremendously fierce, and Japanese consumers typically reach for games from Nintendo, Namco Bandai, Square, Konami, Capcom and Koei before they reach for games from us,” says Miller. “It’s not a unique problem – many
Japanese publishers struggle to find the same kind of success outside of their own domestic markets, and so some Japanese publishers are now establishing development studios outside of Japan so that they can make products with more global appeal. Likewise, we have to look at ways to ensure our product speaks more directly to the local consumer.”
11.8% Namco Bandai Source:
Famitsu Marketing Data Service
36.4% Others
13.3% Square Enix HARDWARE UNIT SALES SPLIT 2009
4,289,885
Console (Wii, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360)
6,333,264 Handheld (DS, PSP)
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