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PSP2, Switch 2 and an Xbox handheld... a brighter portable future?

Official: 2011 was a rubbish year in Japanese gaming.

In 2010, the PSP sold 2.6 million units in Japan. During 2011, it could only manage 1.6 million. Sure its nearing the end of its life, but there is still huge amounts of new software being produced for the PSP. On the plus side, there are now over 18 million PSPs in Japanese hands, so around one in six of the population owns one (although almost one in four own a Nintendo DS).

The Vita managed 620,000 sales in its first three months and even if it holds steady at 10K a week will happily sell over a million in its first year. But, as with the 3DS, expect sales to start to rocket once the big hitters like Monster Hunter and Phantasy Star appear, and there's that almost inevitable price cut later in the year.

But while hardware sales are in flux, software sales really took a dive. In 2010, the two biggest games in Japan sold four million (Monster Hunter Portable 3) and five million (Pokemon Black/White). In 2011, only one game managed to squeak over the 1.5 million mark (Mario Kart 7).


Hardware: 170.24 billion yen (-0.3%)
Software: 272.28 billion yen (-9.8%)
Overall: 442.52 billion yen (-6.4%)


So, the final revenue figures (from Media Create) make for pretty sombre reading, down almost 10%. And with retailers going bust in Europe and America lagging on sales, it looks like 2012 will be just as hard globally. Will new ideas and characters bring a revival in a market obsessed with sequels, or is gaming going into one of its regular slumps?




Currently playing on my Vita/PS4/PS5