Enterbrain stated this week that video game sales figures had been compiled for the fiscal period of December 27, 2010 to December 25, 2011, showing that the video game market in Japan was down 8%. This number accounts for the combined percentage of hardware and software sold, totaling out to Ľ454.38 billion (around $5.8865 billion USD). Software sales alone came out to Ľ274.64 billion (around $3.5579 billion), which is down 13.7% from 2010. Enterbrain posted on Famitsu that the reason for such a sharp drop was "a lack of popular game releases such as 2010's Pokémon Black, Pokémon White, and Monster Hunter Portable 3rd".
Not all of last years numbers were negative, though. Hardware sales totaled out to Ľ179.74 billion (around $2.3285 billion USD), up 2.4%. Famitsu accredited the rise to the the combined releases of the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita. The 3DS was the best selling game hardware device in Japan. The Vita however, was beaten out not only by the Nintendo 3DS, but the Nintendo DS as well as the PSP.
Sources:
Japanese
http://www.famitsu.com/news/201201/05008021.html
English:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/inte...ercent-in-2011
