Market Conditions in Japan
Just by reading this headline, you're probably thinking, "Oh, what a boring topic. Who do these people think I am, some stuffy marketing suit? Who cares about market conditions?" But there's actually something interesting about the game markets when you compare Japan to the rest of the world. Generally speaking, worldwide, the PlayStation 2 is crushing the competition, having sold millions and millions more consoles than the Xbox or GameCube. Sony's lead has become so enormous that it is kind of embarrassing for the other big publishers, although Nintendo's unique advantage of having effectively cornered the portables market is impressive too.
In the following chart, I've compiled hardware sales data from press releases, news reports, and financial reports from the big three console makers. Notice how the Xbox seems to be more popular in both North America and Europe, but what is going on over there in Japan? The GBA SP hasn't even been out for a year and it has sold almost as well!
Estimated Current Installed Base (Various Sources)
Console North America Japan Europe and others Total
PlayStation 2 19,000,000 14,170,000 19,400,000 59,990,000
GBA 14,540,000 9,240,000 7,920,000 31,700,000
GBA-SP 2,300,000 820,000 460,000 2,110,000
GameCube 4,600,000 2,470,000 1,950,000 9,550,000
Xbox 5,800,000 400,000 2,200,000 9,400,000
You may have wondered why I have not covered any Xbox games in this column yet (this installment will be the first!). The truth is, hardly anybody is buying the Xbox in Japan. One reason might be the relatively small software library, but that's more likely to be just another cog in the downward spiral of popularity. To add insult to injury, look at these hardware sales figures from the first week of September:
Units Sold, Sep. 1-7 2003, Japan only
GBA-SP 38,872 (41.1%)
PlayStation 2 29,248 (30.9%)
GameCube 16,841 (17.8%)
GBA 8,132 (8.6%)
PSOne 531 (0.6%)
Xbox 530 (0.5%)
WonderSwan Crystal 302 (0.3%)
WonderSwan Color 90 (0.1%)
Source: Media Create
At least for that week, more people in Japan decided that it was better to buy the PSone, with its 8-year-old technology, than a hulking new Xbox, with its 8 pounds of mass.