Wow, the Japanese gaming market is doing poorly. As someone stated this time of year is traditionally slow for Japan. But still, the Japenese only accounted for 14.2%, 10%, and 10.9% of combined Japan/US consoles sales (averaging the most recent weekly earnings x5 since the September NPD numbers accounted for 5 weeks of sales, not 4) on the Wii, 360, and PS3 respectively. Even at 30% of the total gaming population of Japan and US combined, if you were to throw Japan 70% more people to make it even, it'd still at that point only account for 22%, 15.9%, and 17.3% of the total combined Japan/US console sales of Wii, 360, and PS3 respectively. Combining all 3 home console sales, Japan only accounts for 19.6% of the console sales when comparing sales when matching up population to console sales ratios. So for every 1 console sold in Japan, 5 are purchased in the US. Ouch. Maybe MS shouldn't be worrying too much about Japan. But I guess 20% is nothing to sneaze at. I'm sure publishers are already aware of this stat since they pay people to figure that out, and maybe that's why Japanese developers are looking at the systems that do well for 3rd parties in a country that sells 80% more hardware. Maybe that's why we are seeing games like FFXIII, Tekken, and those other JRPGs making their way to the 360. The PS3 only has about half the amount of installed base in the US as the 360 does...and going by pure facts presented by the numbers themselves, the US is a far stronger platform for Western and Japanese developers than Japan is (where the PS3 leads the 360). This is ONLY taking the averages from this most recent week, and its quite possible that this was just a bad week for Japan. To REALLY figure out the numbers you'd have to look at a broader time range than 1 week...but still, it gives you an idea of where it'd be.

DSi ships next week, no suprise at DS Lite drop off. I can't explain the PS3 though...

I wonder how long the 360 selling at a solid rate being a fluke will last?