CESA reports Japanese game market seeing downfall

The latest release of the CESA (Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association) games white paper has revealed a number of statistics for 2002 that show a downfall of sales in Japan's video game industry. According to CESA, the Japanese video game market reported 249.2 billion yen ($2 billion) of game software sales within domestic Japan during the period of January to December of 2002, falling short of matching 2001's sales at 264.2 billion yen ($2.2 billion). The sales of home consoles sold within Japan showed a sharp decline from 221.1 billion yen ($1.8 billion) in 2001 to 139.7 billion yen ($900 million) in 2002.

Japanese video game companies have also been seeing a decline in sales overseas. Sales of game software overseas have declined from 253.2 billion yen ($2.1 billion) in 2001 to 225.5 billion yen ($1.8 billion) in 2002. Sales in consoles have dropped from 718.9 billion yen ($6 billion) in 2001 to 648 billion yen ($5 billion) in 2002. However, the total number of units of software sold overseas has increased by 8.2 percent compared to 2001 (from 112.85 million units to 122.16 million), and the number of consoles sold has also increased by 1.2 percent (from 42.2 million units to 42.71 million). CESA analyzes that this is due to the decline of production on previous-generation consoles and price cuts in current-generation consoles.

According to independent research conducted by CESA, there were an estimated 23.6 million active video game consumers in Japan during 2002, which accounts for 25.6 percent of the entire Japanese population. While the number may seem high, there is nearly a 2 percent decline. CESA had estimated 25.46 million active video game consumers in 2001, which accounts for 27.3 percent of the Japanese population.

CESA is an organization dedicated to promoting and researching for the computer entertainment industry. The organization also hosts the Tokyo Game Show.