Feb 10
Overtaking Japan: what not to say
MCV reported yesterday that the UK is “beating Japan” in terms of software sales. According to their report, unit sales for the first five weeks of 2009 were up 37% over 2008. UK GfK-ChartTrack director Dorian Bloch, when asked about this phenomenon, had this to say:
“I haven’t got a crystal ball, but it’s very much a possibility that the UK will overtake Japan in terms of annual software revenue. Japan is certainly in decline at the moment, mainly down to the fact that everyone seems to have already bought a DS or PSP, so hardware sales aren’t driving software sales – although DSi is flying off the shelves. The very sudden decline of PS2 is also a factor. The Japanese market is about twice the size of ours, so there is room for manoeuvre in terms of people who had a DS four years ago and want a new handheld.”
Way to invoke the wrath of an army of giant, transforming robots, Dorian. Besides, call me crazy, but I don’t think that 5 weeks of data really warrants such a brash statement, especially when the country you’re planning on overtaking only has a slowing market because it’s saturated with people that already have the product. Maybe I’d be more inclined to believe that the UK was ready to overtake Japan if they had even half as many widely recognized developers as Japan does.
But hey, I wish them the best of luck. I’ll just be over here in America watching the rest of the world fight for the number two spot.
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