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Famitsu: Japan Gaming Market Had Biggest Year in 2014

Road

Member
http://enterbrain.co.jp/media/transfer/doc/pdf/release150612.pdf

Some of you might remember this thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=965933

Today, Famitsu released their overall market numbers for Japan in 2014:
.
  • Smartphones + tablets + sns = ¥715.4 billion yen
  • Traditional/dedicated/consoles/whateveryouwanttocallthosedeadthings = ¥403.9 billion yen
  • PC + feature phones = ¥73.2 billion yen

*sns = games for social network services used in Japanese mobile phones.

(The only thing missing are used sales.)

famitsu_yearly_market5okmv.png

famitsu_yearly_market0pjhz.png

famitsu_yearly_marketc4ju6.png

famitsu_yearly_market3ekjj.png
famitsu_yearly_marketr2jre.png
 

vinnygambini

Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
Nintendo mobile couldn't come at a better time; look at that chart comparatively to dedicated, wow.
 

Verger

Banned
famitsu_yearly_market5okmv.png

Yeah, that's a bit worrying. I mean, sure there's growth, but you can see the clear downward progression the last few years as Mobile starts eating away at traditional gaming. And it's only going to get worse too.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
To be fair, most of the really big name PS4 titles as far as Japanese market goes haven't hit yet. While I don't expect them to singlehandedly reverse the trend, they're definitely going to affect the graphs as people who have been holding out on PS4s for those titles finally bite.
 
I get the feeling like 10 years from now the only way we will be using a controller to game is if it is connected to our phone with the display projected on the TV. And the only way we will be gaming on Nintendo, Microsoft, or Sony hardware will be if they made our phone.
 

K.Sabot

Member
Mobile growth % might be capping out in the next couple years.

If consoles make a comeback it won't be before then most likely.
 

kuroshiki

Member
Yup if anyone can establish themselves and garner a consistent revenue stream from mobile it is Nintendo

They have to fight with already mobile giant like gung ho and white cat project, square enix, etc. mobile game is like MMO. PPL tend to play only like 1-2 games, not 10-15 games at same time. It is going to be uphill battle.

Not at all. mobile is still very young and the audience is finnicky.

Unlike their home ground, this time nintendo is in favor of google and apple. Also, because they no longer have their home ground advantage, they are in equal footing with every other developer.

To back up my claim..

http://venturebeat.com/2015/05/24/w...ing-market-isnt-great-for-foreign-developers/

But even for Japanese games, the app market is not printing money. Instead, most of the money is going to just two games.

“If you just look at the raw data, you’re on a very dangerous path,” Toto said. “Two apps dominate everything: Puzzle & Dragons and Monster Strike.”

These two games now run a duopoly on Japanese mobile-game spending. That’s not even a tiny bit of an exaggeration. Puzzle & Dragons accounted for approximately 51 percent of all mobile-game spending in Japan in 2013 on its own. These days, between Puzzle & Dragons and Monster Strike, the two games probably make up around 70 percent to 80 percent of the entire market’s spending, according to Toto.

It will be interesting for sure.

So, yes, Japanese gamers are racking up huge charges in their smartphone games, but most of that is going to the same two places.
 

jwhit28

Member
Separating mobile and dedicated devices seems so arbitrary. Digital sales have sucked all of the fun out of Media Create and NPD.
 
Eh, we'll see just how much damage the console market in Japan has sustained when Final Fantasy XV and the like launch. Only then will I be able to fully assess just how bad the situation is.
 
Nintendo mobile couldn't come at a better time; look at that chart comparatively to dedicated, wow.
It coulda shoulda come earlier...

The comparative market size is even more impressive when one considers that dedicated rev includes expensive hardware to inflate it and it's on the whole likely much lower margin.
 
These numbers seem to indicate an expansion of the market as a whole rather than a contraction or replacement of that traditional games market.


The figures for 2014 are around what they were for the 1991 figures. They only increased since then by about 30-40% at most.

I wonder why companies like capcom and konami aren't looking at mobile as an expansion to their business? Instead its like a replacement.

Also surprising to see that 2007 was such a good year. I thought that era of the 360/ps3 wasnt very good for Japan? Seems like it was the best its ever been!

Maybe with the success of ps4 worldwide in another few years things will pick up.
 

Hastati

Member
I think consoles are dead in Japan until we see something new (I can see VR taking off like toast in Japan once it works right. I mean "right"). I am curious to see how the mobile landscape evolves over the next decade or so, hopefully we will see companies raise the bar for quality. F2P saddens me, but the loss of strong narrative is more disheartening. I'd IAP regularly for a good story.
 

Infinite

Member
I think consoles are dead in Japan until we see something new (I can see VR taking off like toast in Japan once it works right. I mean "right"). I am curious to see how the mobile landscape evolves over the next decade or so, hopefully we will see companies raise the bar for quality. F2P saddens me, but the loss of strong narrative is more disheartening. I'd IAP regularly for a good story.
Don't see vr doing anything in Japan
 
That shrinking PC thing of last year is the odd one here.

I get the feeling like 10 years from now the only way we will be using a controller to game is if it is connected to our phone with the display projected on the TV. And the only way we will be gaming on Nintendo, Microsoft, or Sony hardware will be if they made our phone.

I've been shocked that this ain't happened yet, but the Mobile market as a whole is dominated by the wasteland of IAP and throw-away gameplay, allowing more "traditional" games and their language to stay in PC and dedicated devices. Even first-to-mobile Japan is just now crawling out from under this with hits that don't milk 'n bilk so much.

Also surprising to see that 2007 was such a good year. I thought that era of the 360/ps3 wasnt very good for Japan? Seems like it was the best its ever been!

You picked the wrong two consoles.
 

Square2015

Member
Surprised there wasn't much of a bump with '88 over '87, you'd think things would really explode with huge hits like DQIII and SMB3, but it doesn't look like we're seeing that.
 

BloodR0se

Member
It coulda shoulda come earlier...

The comparative market size is even more impressive when one considers that dedicated rev includes expensive hardware to inflate it and it's on the whole likely much lower margin.

Not at all. mobile is still very young and the audience is finnicky.

Not in Japan. Japan has had mobile games akin to what we have now since the early 2000's and the market is a lot more mature.

I personally can't stand mobile games but as console AAA has started to look further West, Japan has gone down a different path.
 
Why did 2007 have the highest in terms of consoles for? Is cuz of the 360?

Ds selling a lot, wii selling a lot, psp with monster hunter selling well, ps2 still selling, ps3 trying to recover from an awful launch all in the same year, 360 trying to make a dent. Sum them all and you get really high revenue for the dedicated gaming market.
 

kmax

Member
As a traditional gamer, the transition Japan has taken is sad for a number of reasons -- but it should be said that it's way more convenient for the Japanese, so it comes to no surprise that mobile's the undisputed king over there.
 

Nyoro SF

Member
To back up my claim..

http://venturebeat.com/2015/05/24/w...ing-market-isnt-great-for-foreign-developers/

It will be interesting for sure.

So, yes, Japanese gamers are racking up huge charges in their smartphone games, but most of that is going to the same two places.

So the mobile market is just like America: very few winners.
It's honestly akin to the console market in terms of risk of not penetrating the market, but the monetary risk is so much smaller that it doesn't matter.
 

Sandfox

Member
I'm curious to see what the market looks a few years down the line given how certain companies are putting even bigger efforts into mobile. I'm curious to see if Capcom can find some traction in addition to seeing what kind of games Nintendo comes up with.
 
yep. in 5 years all new jrpgs gonna be this auto-play button craps

no more Grand Knight Histories - only Dragon Blazes

i want to cry - i see my 8 y old nephew what and how he plays and it gonna happen

OR

niche jrpgs (and stuff) gonna come 5 x often to westy/pc because of that - hell it happen also :) (stean and jap)
 
The dedicated market was not that hot during 1999-2003 either. What were the reasons back then? I feel that the boom during DS / PSP & Wii era gave a wrong impression about how big the dedicated Japanese market actually is.
 

BloodR0se

Member
The dedicated market was not that hot during 1999-2003 either. What were the reasons back then? I feel that the boom during DS / PSP & Wii era gave a wrong impression about how big the dedicated Japanese market actually is.

The one thing to keep in mind there is that these figures don't include used sales and the used market is huge in Japan. Beyond huge in fact. It is common for people to buy a new console there and then never buy a brand new game throughout that consoles lifetime.

Stores like Book-off contribute as much, if not more, to game sales in Japan as Walmart does in the US. Only the difference is that nothing Book-off sell is brand new.
 
I'm incredibly glad the rest of the world isn't like Japan.

I just hope there's enough of a dedicated Console/PC market left over there in the future for us to still get at least some more traditional non mobile games.

Would be a tragedy to see them go totally extinct, or decide to try and 'westernise' games that will only really sell abroad.
 
The one thing to keep in mind there is that these figures don't include used sales and the used market is huge in Japan. Beyond huge in fact. It is common for people to buy a new console there and then never buy a brand new game throughout that consoles lifetime.

Stores like Book-off contribute as much, if not more, to game sales in Japan as Walmart does in the US. Only the difference is that nothing Book-off sell is brand new.

Yeah, but this should hold in 2001 as well as in 2014.
 

Dagon

Member
These charts highlight what an anomaly the Wii was. It caused such a swell in hardware numbers but without as much of a jump for software.

Does anyone know what the lifetime attach rate was for the Wii, and how that compares to the PS3 and Xbox 360?
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Konami justified?
Well, yeah, it's obvious a huge business so it's hard to blame companies for shifting over.

It's just very disappointing for a lot of us to watch. I simply cannot engage with the types of games that are popular - basically I've fallen out of sync with what's popular just as Abe Simpson predicted.

Mobile games of the F2P feel like the type of thing that one might have found in the film "Idiocracy". They are downright appalling.
 
Yeah, I guess it's inevitable at this point. I want Japanese console gaming to gain momentum and escalate to greatness, but it seems like the console market is dying or soon to be dead in Japan within a matter of time. Between them trying to Westernize most of their games and going mobile, it's so depressing. I grew up on traditional Japanese games with you know, traditional controls so the mobile games just aren't clicking with me.
 
I don't mind that at all If we keep getting niche Japanese stuff like we currently do, and it actually makes me happy to hear that gaming is doing so well over there even if I have no interest on the Mobile gaming.
 

AniHawk

Member
These charts highlight what an anomaly the Wii was. It caused such a swell in hardware numbers but without as much of a jump for software.=

this is japan, where the wii sold 13 million units. the spike you're seeing is for the ds and the psp, which sold over 30m and 20m units respectively.

handhelds generally have a lower attach rate. although the ds had a higher attach rate than most consoles, at least on a worldwide scale.
 

SmokyDave

Member
That should cheer people up in the Media Create thread. They're always giving it the old 'doom and gloom'.

Mobile growth is fucking ferocious, and I can't see it stopping just yet.
 
Mobile gaming isn't going anywhere. Yes, it's a fickle market, but people nowadays own smartphones. And people will continue to own smart devices for a variety of reasons, gaming is often just a secondary reason. The fact that it's easily available (f2p, cheap) on the devices people are purchasing made it such a huge market. Dedicated gaming devices need to find some way to co-exist alongside these smart devices. Maybe the market will grow tired of the mobile experiences and crave a dedicated gaming device, or maybe a certain innovation will bring back the market. I don't know, it'll be interesting to see this evolve.
 
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