Japanese gaming market continues to decline

We got our first indication that the Japanese gaming industry wasn't doing too hot in July, when gaming hardware and software sales from the first half of 2009 had dropped 24 percent from the same period last year. The recently released sales figures from the first half of fiscal 2009 (which runs from March 31 through September 28) are equally downtrodden: According to the industry analysts at Enterbrain, the Japanese games market fell 10.5 percent during this six-month period. That figure represents a 15.1 percent drop in hardware sales and a 7.5 percent decline in software sales.

The various models of the Nintendo DS were the biggest sellers during this period, moving nearly 1.7 million units combined. Appropriately, the top two selling titles during the half-year were Dragon Quest IX, which sold nearly 4 million copies, and the recently released Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver editions, which sold a little over 2 million combined. Not faring quite as well are the PSP (813k units sold), Wii (594k units sold), PS3 (581k units sold) and Xbox 360, which moved a paltry 137k units in the first half of the fiscal year.

No use crying over spilled milk, we suppose. Things can only go up from here! Unless, of course, they continue to go down. That's also an option.

[Via Kotaku]