Japanese Video Game Industry Down In 2008

Despite the poor economy, the video game industry posted growth in 2008 in the US and UK. Japan was not as lucky. Their hardware and software sales both dropped vs. 2007 for some significant losses. Overall, the industry made 124.53 billion yen less than 2007 with a drop from 676.95 to 552.42 billion yen. On the hardware side, sales of all platforms went from 317.47 billion in 2007 to 231.52 billion yen in 2008. Software hit a drop of 359.58 billion to 320.91 billion yen. The PlayStation 3 hit 3 million units after selling 999,903 consoles in 2008. The Xbox 360 hit 1 million total. In fact, the Xbox 360 sold 398,633 units in 2008. That's almost double what it sold in 2007. The DS led the pack with 3,983,205 units and the PSP took #2 with 3,230,563. The Wii sold 2,257,575. Yikes. Despite those numbers, the industry was still down. Maybe next year, Japan. Source (link)