Is Japan’s video game industry recession proof? With stock markets swinging as violently as a fantasy warrior’s sword, it’s a significant question.
According to data collected by Enterbrain, the publisher of Famitsu magazine, combined sales of video game hardware and software for the first half of 2008 fell to just 78.7 percent of the level for the first half of 2007, dropping from 3.03 billion yen to 2.39 billion yen.
Year-on-year, hardware sales dropped to 66.5 percent of previous levels, while software didn’t fare quite as badly, dropping to 89.7 percent.
The figures were presented by Hirokazu Hamamura, Enterbrain’s president and Famitsu’s executive editor, at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo on Tuesday. Hamamura shared the podium with another industry expert, Hiroshi Kamide, director of the research department of KBC Securities Japan.
“The software situation in Japan is not so bad,” Hamamura said, pointing to four games–Mario Kart Wii, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, Pocket Monster Platinum, and Dragon Quest V–that have sold more than 1 million copies each so far this year, compared to eight to hit that mark in all of last year.
With Wii Music and other highly anticipated titles still to come in 2008, “this half is going to be very good for software,” he said.