Table of Contents
Although the market continues to grow in size due to the demand for Corona disaster nest eggs and other factors, it has become a high-risk market for game companies due to larger budgets and schedules.
Consumer games are game-specific hardware and software, such as the Nintendo DS and PlayStation. In the past, consumer games were the most popular type of game, but in recent years they seem to be losing their presence due to the momentum of smartphone games and PC games.
However, the consumer game market has continued to expand over the past decade, especially since the Corona disaster. Although less spectacular than the rise of smartphone and PC games, it is a market that is steadily expanding.
In 2023, the domestic market is estimated to be 403.9 billion yen, up 7.8% from the previous year. Of this amount, dedicated hardware grew 27.5% year-on-year to 267.5 billion yen, with Nintendo-Switch and PlayStation 5 selling 40.06 million and 2.59 million units, respectively, more than twice as many as the previous year.
Looking at software, the Nintendo-Switch occupied the top 10 positions in the domestic sales ranking. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” was a big hit, selling 1.92 million copies, as were ‘Super Mario Bros. Wonder’ (1.54 million) and ‘Pikmin 4’ (1.11 million).
On the other hand, 2024 has not produced as many blockbusters as last year: as of July, “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth” (PlayStation 5) ranked first in sales with 340,000 units, followed by new titles such as “Momotaro Dentetsu World” and “Paper Mario RPG” ( (both NINTENDO Switch) followed as new titles. Compared to last year, sales of new titles are down, but this is partly due to the characteristics of consumer games.
This is because the scale of consumer game development is expanding every year, and the budgets and schedules are becoming more and more enormous.
In the past, many titles were developed in one to two years, but in recent years, three years or more is the norm, and it is not unusual for large-scale development of AAA titles to take seven or eight years. As a result, there are almost no companies that can consistently release major titles every year, and AAA titles are released every few years.
In addition, as mentioned earlier, development costs are rising every year. The development cost of “Grand Theft Auto V,” which recorded worldwide sales of more than 180 million units, was approximately 25 billion yen. Even if the budget is not as large as this, it has become commonplace to invest billions of yen in development costs.
As a result, consumer game development by game companies is often a cycle of “one game at a time” that is repeated every few years. As a result, it is easier to predict sales and reduce risk by releasing sequels or derivatives of popular IPs rather than creating completely new IPs.
And, software development with medium-sized budgets has become very rare. The consumer game software market has become polarized. The consumer game software market is polarized into two categories: AAA titles with large budgets developed by game companies and indie games developed by individual developers. One example of a hit indie game is “Watermelon Game,” which was downloaded 6 million times last year for the Nintendo DS. This game became a huge hit after it was made popular through a live game streaming service.
A successor to the Nintendo-Switch is scheduled to be announced this fiscal year.
The polarization is likely to continue, with several sequels to well-known IPs being released in a year, and the occasional smash hit from an indie game. This polarization is likely to continue for the time being, as it is widely recognized that smartphone games, which can be developed at relatively low cost, have a higher probability of success when developed on a medium-scale budget.
However, there are some factors that will further boost the consumer game market in the coming year. This is because Nintendo has announced that it will make an announcement regarding the successor to the Nintendo DS during the current fiscal year.
The Nintendos sold in 2017 are still selling well, but it will be interesting to see what changes the new hardware will bring to the market. With the user base expanding from the demand for nest eggs after the Corona disaster, we hope that it will be the catalyst that further boosts the consumer game market.
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