Decline
In 2002, the Japanese video game industry made up about 50% of the global market; that share has since shrunk to around 10% by 2010. The shrinkage in market share has been attributed to a difference of taste between Japanese and Western audiences, and the country's economic recession. Despite declining home console game sales, the overall Japanese gaming industry, as of 2009, is still valued at $20 billion, the largest sector of which are arcade games at $6 billion, in comparison to home console game sales of $3.5 billion and mobile game sales of $2 billion. The Japanese arcade industry has also been steadily declining, however, from ¥702.9 billion ($8.7 billion) in 2007 to ¥504.3 billion ($6.2 billion) in 2010. The domestic arcade market's decline has also been attributed to the country's economic recession.
In recent years, Japanese companies have been criticized for long development times and slow release dates on home video game consoles, their lack of third-party game engines, and for being too insular to appeal to a global market. Yoichi Wada stated in the Financial Times on April 27 2009 the Japanese gaming industry of having become a "closed environment" and "almost xenophobic." He also stated: "The lag with the US is very clear. The US games industry was not good in the past but it has now attracted people from the computer and from Hollywood, which has led to strong growth."
Read more about this topic: Japanese Video Games
Famous quotes containing the word decline:
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