Enterbrain: Japanese gaming to peak this year

Earlier this month, Famitsu publisher and industry sales tracker Enterbrain unleashed its full stat dump for Japan's 2007 fiscal year, which ran from March 26, 2007 through March 30, 2008. In a fact that is surprising to no one who follows the gaming industry, Nintendo dominated both Japanese hardware and software charts.

With Nintendo leading the charge, Enterbrain reported that the Japanese gaming industry on the whole grew by 3.8 percent for the year. Although significant, the growth rate was a far cry from the US gaming industry's expansion, which rocketed moonward in 2007 to a 43 percent increase year over year.

It now appears that Japan's modest gains in 2007 are indicative of diminishing future growth in the sector. According to Japan Today, Enterbrain said that it expects the country's hardware and software sales to top out at ¥710.4 billion (about $7 billion) in 2008, and then decline to ¥671.1 billion (about $6.6 billion) by 2010. Enterbrain believes that hardware saturation will be the primary cause of the decline, and that demand for Nintendo's and Sony's wares will have been sated by the turn of the decade.

Console sales are expected to contract, but Enterbrain believes that online gaming will continue to expand, growing to ¥320.5 billion (about $3.1 billion) by 2010. Japan Today's report cited no reasons for the gains.