Japanese Computer Game Market Sinks 24 Percent in First Half

Japan’s computer game market saw a 24 percent drop in sales in the first half of the year, according to data released Wednesday.

The market was worth ¥218.9 billion (US$2.3 billion) during the period, said Enterbrain. The company bases its estimates on point-of-sales system data gathered from 3,500 retailers across Japan and its figures are regarded as generally accurate.

Sales of games hardware dropped by 28 percent to ¥92 billion while software sales fell 22 percent to ¥127 billion.

Nintendo’s DS outsold Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) with sales of 1.6 million units to 1.2 million units respectively. In the console space Nintendo’s Wii continued its dominance with sales of 639,788 units against the PlayStation 3’s 552,601 units and the Xbox 360’s 214,221 units.

The most popular software title of the six months was “Mario and Luigi RPG3!!!” for the DS, which shifted 647,844 units. In second place was “Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G” for the PSP with sales of 595,348 units.